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0000017a-15d9-d736-a57f-17ff8ddb0000Pediatric Neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson announced his bid for the 2016 Republican presidential primary in an interview with Florida TV station on May 3rd, 2015, and made his official announcement at an event in Detroit on May 4th.A Detroit native, Carson attended Yale and then the University of Michigan Medical School. In 1984, when he was 33 years old, Carson was appointed Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins University. Carson has written several books, including the autobiography Gifted Hands, which was made into a movie in 2009. Although he is a well-known conservative political speaker, this will be Dr. Carson's first run for political office.Further reading/viewing:Watch video of Carson's Detroit announcement via C-Span.

In N.H., Carson Says He Will "Tone Down Rhetoric"

Like many of this years GOP presidential candidates, Dr. Ben Carson spoke at New Hampshire’s traditional Politics and Eggs series, which has been a must stop for White House hopefuls for almost two decades.

But unlike most of the fourteen candidates, the former neurosurgeon has zero political experience. That lack of political baggage is actually an advantage, he told his audience. 

Credit Paige Sutherland/NHPR
Dr. Ben Carson told reporters he has made " the mental adjustment" to tone down rhetoric.

Speaking like a candidate, however,  is something he is trying to work on. Moving forward he said he plans to address issues such as gay marriage and immigration with less polarizing language.

In March, Carson was widely criticizedfor comments on homosexuality saying it was a choice by citing prisons as his evidence.

“I learned that several months ago to tone my rhetoric down, so people can actually hear what I am saying, because some people who just focus on the word and they can’t hear a word that you are saying,” he said Tuesday.

Carson also told the crowd he never saw himself running for president, but said with the state of the country today – he felt that he had to. “Everything that was supposed to get better is not only worse, it is much worse. And that is one of the reasons that I did feel that I needed to get into this, I wasn’t particularly excited about it,” he said.

Carson plans to stop in Barrington Tuesday evening as well as Concord, Laconia and Ashland on Wednesday. 

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