Cruz taps Fiorina to serve as running mate
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Republican presidential candidate, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas spoke to Carly Fiorina in Orlando, Fla., on March 11. Cruz has tapped former technology executive Fiorina to serve as his running mate.
INDIANAPOLIS » In need of momentum after a five-state shutout, Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz has tapped former technology executive Carly Fiorina to serve as his running mate.
The Texas senator plans to unveil his pick for vice president this afternoon in Indianapolis, an unusual move for an underdog candidate that reflects the increasing urgency for the fiery conservative to reverse his downward trajectory.
Cruz’s plans were confirmed by a Republican with direct knowledge of Fiorina’s selection, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized speak before the official announcement.
“Carly is bright, knowledgeable, brings great financial expertise and she’s a woman,” said Gary Aminoff, the Los Angeles County co-chair of the Cruz campaign. Aminoff said he had also been told Fiorina was Cruz’s choice.
The 61-year-old Fiorina, a former chief executive of Hewlett-Packard, has been a prominent Cruz ally since shortly after abandoning her own presidential bid earlier in the year. She was the only woman in the Republican Party’s crowded 2016 field.
“Of all the people who didn’t make it far in the race, she was one of the best about laying out her plan, talking about who she is and her accomplishments,” said Doug De Groote, a fundraiser for Cruz based near Los Angeles.
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Fiorina’s selection marked another extraordinary development in the 2016 Republican campaign, particularly for a candidate who is far from becoming his party’s presumptive nominee. Cruz was soundly defeated by GOP front-runner Donald Trump in all five primaries contests on Tuesday, and he’s been mathematically eliminated from winning the nomination before his party’s national convention in July.
Some Cruz allies praised Fiorina’s selection, but privately questioned if it would change the trajectory of the race. Trump has won 77 percent of the delegates he needs to claim the nomination, and a win next week in Indiana will keep him on a firm path to do so.
Cruz was to appear this afternoon with Fiorina in Indiana’s capital city, having staked his candidacy on a win in the state’s primary contest next Tuesday. Fiorina’s California ties could also prove valuable in that state’s high-stakes primary on June 7.
“Carly has incredible appeal to so many people, especially in California,” De Groote said. “She can really help him here.”
Her first major foray into politics was in 2010, when she ran for Senate in California and lost to incumbent Sen. Barbara Boxer by 10 percentage points. She has never held elected office.
Trump criticized a Fiorina pick as “ridiculous” and “dumb” even before it was announced.
“First of all, he shouldn’t be naming anybody because he doesn’t even have a chance,” the New York billionaire said in an interview today on Fox News.
“Naming Carly’s dumb, because Carly didn’t do well. She had one good debate — not against me by the way, because I had an unblemished record of victories during debates — but she had one victory on the smaller stage and that was it,” Trump said.
He added, “She’s a nice woman. I think that it’s not going to help him at all.”
Throughout her presidential bid, Fiorina emphasized her meteoric rise in the business world. A Stanford University graduate, she started her career as a secretary, earned an MBA and worked her way up at AT&T to become a senior executive at the telecom leader.
She was also dogged by questions about her record at Hewlett-Packard, where she was hired as CEO in 1999. She was fired six years later, after leading a major merger with Compaq and laying off 30,000 workers.
Democrats quickly attacked the Cruz-Fiorina alliance.
“The best way to describe that ticket is mean and meaner,” said Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., who beat Fiorina for Senate in 2010. “He wants to throw people out of the country and she threw thousands of jobs out of the country. Perfect match.”
In an Associated Press-GfK poll conducted in December 2015, Republican voters were more likely to say they had a favorable than an unfavorable view of Fiorina by a 47 percent to 20 percent margin, with 32 percent unable to give a rating.
Among all Americans, 45 percent didn’t know enough about Fiorina to rate her, while 22 percent rated her favorably and 32 percent unfavorably.
By contrast, both Cruz and Trump have high negative ratings even within their own party, according to an April AP-GfK poll. Among Republican voters, 52 percent have a favorable and 41 percent have an unfavorable opinion of Cruz, while 53 percent have a favorable and 46 percent have an unfavorable opinion of Trump.
Among all Americans, 59 percent had an unfavorable opinion of Cruz and 69 percent said that of Trump.
Cruz supporter Jim McAdams, who was wearing a homemade “Ted Cruz 16” shirt to the announcement event in Indianapolis, predicted the Fiorina pick would generate badly needed momentum. But the 74-year-old retired mechanical engineer conceded that Cruz is a longshot at this point.
“The only way he’s going to get in office is divine intervention,” McAdams said. “We pray for his campaign every day.”
AP writer Erica Werner in Washington contributed to this report.
27 responses to “Cruz taps Fiorina to serve as running mate”
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Cruz taps Fiorina! Nice.
It’s a last gasp shenanigans by Cruz, who got whomped by Trump last night. Beaten badly by both Trump and Kasich in the five states. After Ted’s so called alliance with Kasich didn’t work out as hoped, this announcement of teaming with Fiorina is his last desperate and so obvious act. Like it or not, Trump will represent the GOP against Hillary. Should be a real entertaining time leading to November.
Good decision by Cruz. He’s hoping to leverage more support by women to his candidacy.
You analysis is spot on. I don’t know if it will help.
Really? That’s what you call analysis? That point was about as analytical as saying the sky is blue.
Forgot to take those meds again?
It’s worse than that.
They’re both ignoring Carly’s lies about Planned Parenthood.
They’re also ignoring the 100,000 people who lost their jobs between Lucent and HP over her bad decisions.
They’re both ignoring her support for banning abortion.
It’s like Ted Cruz wants to lose!
Wiliki, Trump has changed presidential political campaigning for both political parties. Now, is Trump going to provide us the list of his top three choices to the United States Supreme Court? Ted Cruz’s political decision to name a Vice Presidential pick during the campaign could be a game changer in the 8th inning.
The game is already over. TRUMP 2016
“Ted Cruz’s political decision to name a Vice Presidential pick during the campaign could be a game changer in the 8th inning.”
Only if you’re completely ignorant of business history. The more people understand about Carly-The-Job-Destroyer-Fiorina, the less they are to support her.
Spot on kuroiwaj, another great observation as usual, people have to realize that Trump just went through his strongest area, now he moves on to less hospitable states. We will have to see what effect Carly brings to the ticket, but I see only positives.
Cruz gets trumped by the Donald again. Bobby Knight Indiana basketball.
” We will have to see what effect Carly brings to the ticket, but I see only positives.”
Is anyone surprised that Maipono only seems positives from a woman who wrecked two large tech firms, destroying over a hundred thousands jobs?
Cruz should throw in the towel already.
In a last ditch frantic attempt to gain more votes by bringing in Fiorina for ‘women’ votes.
Can you say p-a-n-d-e-r-i-n-g?
yes, and it’s pronounced hiliar clinton.
Trump will top that with the announcement that he will tap Vince McMahon from the WWF to be his running mate.
Cruz has beaten you to the punch by trying to imitate actor Gene Hackman in a movie where Hackman inspires a basketball team not to give up. Referencing of course, Indiana, the next voting and basketball crazy state. A laughable error was committed by Cruz when he referred to the basketball hoop as the “ring”. To add to this, the legendary Indiana coach Bobby Knight came out with an endorsement of Trump. Can’t win for losing.
Fiorina was a logical choice for Cruz as she will well spoken, smart and always impressed me during the debates. Cruz however does not have much of a chance.
Unfortunately for him, his close personal ties to the Bush crime family and to Godman Sachs, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the New World Order crowd via his wife have
come to light and this has begun to be widely known. He has been the Trojan Horse in the race so whether you were to get Cruz or Hillary as President, it would be the same power
elite running things. Too bad, as Cruz is a very bright guy but when you sell out, you just become a soul less ghoul and a puppet of the real powers that run things.
In my view, Trump is our country’s last hope to take back our country and he does now seem to be unstoppable unless what happened to Bobby Kennedy happens to him.
I hope not but he well knows that his life is in jeopardy but that is not going to stop him. A very brave man indeed.
Ross Perot was very similar to Trump but Perot did not have the courage to continue in the Presidential Race after he was warned to get out or suffer the consequences.
Cruz has made a terrible mistake. It reflects negatively on his intelligence and will hurt his Presidential bid. Fiorina is a former technology head who was fired because she wasn’t performing. In her campaign, she has shown herself to be an arrogant loud mouth who has a very narrow policy agenda. She was solidly rejected by the people early on.
Desperation. Picking a running mate that nobody wanted in the first place. If she was so good or popular, she would still be in the primaries.
Desperation, right on. Like picking someone from Alaska in desperation.
Hey, your’re not supposed to pick on senior citizens.
Dumb decision. He would have been better off if he had picked Monica Lewinsky because he would have gained the support of Bill Clinton and his followers.
the anti-christ has chosen his virgin mary.
Someone should tell Ted it’s April 27th, not April 1st.
He’d be better off picking Triumph The Dog Puppet. Maybe he’d even fool some trump supporters into thinking Trump joined up with him?
Between Clinton and Trump – neither! Desperate time desperate measures Cruz/Fiorina seem a better choice than those two ! Any last minute miracle of a third party candidate out there?