Candy Carson

Born Lacena Rustin on August 19, 1953 in Royal Oak Township, Michigan. She graduated from Ferndale High School. Carson met her future husband, also a Detroit native, in the 1970s when both were students at Yale University in Connecticut.

Following her graduation from Yale, Carson attended Johns Hopkins Carey Business School where she earned her MBA.[3][4][5]

A former concert violinist,[6] Carson performed the National Anthem during her husband’s campaign kick-off.[7] She has been a conductor for the University of Maryland Medical Center Chamber Players.[8][9]

In the Baltimore area, Carson worked in real estate, trust administration and insurance.[8]

Carson alongside her husband Ben during his 2016 presidential campaign

In 1994, Carson and her husband started the Carson Scholars Fund, designed to provide scholarships to students in grades 4–11 for "academic excellence and humanitarian qualities".[10] The foundation was started after the Carsons read that U.S. students ranked second to last in terms of math and science testing among 22 countries, feeling that their efforts could assist in encouraging academic efforts as they noted schools award athletes with trophies whereas honor students received only "a pin or certificate." Recipients of the Carson Scholars Fund receive a $1,000 scholarship towards their college education and has awarded upward of 6,700 scholarships.[10][11]

Carson is the facilitator of the scholarship fund.[3][7][12][13]

Carson and her husband married in 1975. Together, they have three sons: Murray, Benjamin Jr., and Rhoeyce, as well as several grandchildren.[7] Until 2013, the couple lived in West Friendship, Maryland and then relocated to Florida.[5] Both she and her husband are long-time members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.[14][15] In line with her religious beliefs, Carson is a vegetarian.[16][17][18][19]

In 1981 Carson became pregnant with twins before miscarrying in the fifth month of her pregnancy.[20] After this experience, when she became pregnant again in the following year, Carson was placed on bed rest by her doctor after the fourth month.[20] She left her job and took this time to focus on self-care for the remainder of her pregnancy.[20]

Carson was portrayed by Aunjanue Ellis in the TNT made-for-TV movie Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story (first airdate February 7, 2009), starring Cuba Gooding, Jr. She starred as herself in the 1991 biographical documentary about her husband, Gifted Hands.[21][22]

She was portrayed by Leslie Jones on the Saturday March 10, 2018 episode of Saturday Night Live.

Carson received criticism for reportedly pressuring her husband's staff to spend up to $31,000 on a dining set in his Housing and Urban Development office in late 2017.[23] This was discovered after Helen Foster, a career HUD official, filed a complaint alleging that she was demoted from her position because she refused to spend more than the legal $5,000 limit for office redecoration.[24]

Alongside her husband, Carson has co-authored four books, including One Nation: What We Can All Do to Save America's Future, which made The New York Times Best Seller list, including five weeks at #1.[1] Her memoir A Doctor in the House: My Life with Ben Carson was released at the beginning of 2016.

• America the Beautiful: Rediscovering What Made This Nation Great. Thomas Nelson. 2013. ISBN 978-0310330912. (with Ben Carson)
• One Nation: What We Can All Do to Save America's Future. Sentinel. 2014. ISBN 978-1595231123. (with Ben Carson)
• One Vote: Make Your Voice Heard. Tyndale House. 2014. ISBN 978-1496406323. (with Ben Carson)
• Ben Carson, MD; Carson, Candy (2015). A More Perfect Union: What We the People Can Do to Reclaim Our Constitutional Liberties. ISBN 978-0698195004. (with Ben Carson)[25]
• A Doctor in the House: My Life with Ben Carson. January 5, 2016.[26]