Republican presidential contender 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 Wednesday afternoon in Indianapolis. That's according to 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.
It was an unusual move for a candidate who is far from becoming his party's presumptive nominee, but Cruz is desperate to generate momentum for his struggling campaign. The fiery conservative 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 the selection of Fiorina, 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 Wednesday 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 give Cruz a big boost 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 a Wednesday interview 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.
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.
Poster Comment:
Good grief... just when you thought there'd never be a ticket worse than McCain/Palin...
Talk about scraping the bottom of the barrel!
#1: Fred Mertz To: Willie Green (#0)
I'd bet on her! Horse with the longest nose wins.
Fred Mertz posted on 2016-04-27 14:48:36 Reply Private Reply
#2: Vicomte13 To: Willie Green (#0)
Carly, you backed the wrong horse.
Vicomte13 posted on 2016-04-27 14:49:21 Reply Private Reply
#3: BorisY To: Willie Green (#0)
hillie
same
thing
butt
licking
horse's
ass
brain
locks
ps
love
boris
BorisY posted on 2016-04-27 15:05:05 Reply Private Reply
#4: rlk To: Willie Green (#0)
Two duds.
Fiorina was CEO of HP just long enough to run the company into the ground and get fired. She was all glitter and no substance.
rlk posted on 2016-04-27 15:10:51 Reply Private Reply
#5: Stoner To: Willie Green (#0)
Stoner posted on 2016-04-27 15:11:31 Reply Private Reply
#6: Hondo68 To: Willie Green (#0)
She's not popular in California!
Hondo68 posted on 2016-04-27 15:12:26 Reply Private Reply
#7: Gatlin To: hondo68 (#6)
Obviously, you have a strong love and obsession pertaining to the ass.
How long have you been troubled with your ass fetishism?
Does Carly’s of Ted’s ass turn you on more?
Gatlin posted on 2016-04-27 15:33:27 Reply Private Reply
#8: tpaine To: Gatlin, Hondo68, Y'ALL (#7)
At least he doesn't break out singing when Trump makes a speech..
tpaine posted on 2016-04-27 15:55:57 Reply Private Reply
#9: Gatlin To: tpaine (#8)
Cue the song ...
God bless America
Land that I love
Stand beside her
And guide her
Through the night
With the light
From above
From the mountains
To the prairies
To the oceans
White with foam
God bless America
My home sweet home
You teke care now, ya hear ...
Gatlin posted on 2016-04-27 16:02:22 Reply Private Reply
#10: Hondo68 To: Gatlin, Clintonistas, Ready for Bernie, Obama Republicans (#7)
Trump's a loser, so you're pushing Hillary whether you admit it or not.
What you'll get.... is Hillary, because Trump is hated almost twice as much!
Voted GHW Bush = got Slick Willie Clinton
Voted Bob Drole = got Slick Willie Clinton
Voted John McCain = got Barack Hussein Obama
Voted Willard Mitt Romney = got Barack Hussein Obama
You love the Clinton's and Obongo's!
Hondo68 posted on 2016-04-27 16:15:20 Reply Private Reply
#11: ConservingFreedom To: Gatlin (#7)
Carly doesn't look half bad from that angle - but she's no Sarah Palin.
ConservingFreedom posted on 2016-04-27 16:19:51 Reply Private Reply
#12: Gatlin To: hondo68 (#10)
Uh, what has Trump lost?
He is leading in the delegate count and well on his way to the nomination.
Gatlin posted on 2016-04-27 16:25:01 Reply Private Reply
#13: Gatlin To: ConservingFreedom (#11)
Gatlin posted on 2016-04-27 16:25:29 Reply Private Reply
#14: Gatlin To: hondo68 (#10)
It is simply amazing how you can take a normal event and write about it from a skewed point of view.
Then run aimlessly with it while you have no plan or purpose without ever looking back.
Gatlin posted on 2016-04-27 16:28:21 Reply Private Reply
#15: Vicomte13 To: hondo68 (#10)
Do YOU hate Trump so much you're going to vote for Hillary?
Vicomte13 posted on 2016-04-27 16:30:26 Reply Private Reply
#16: Vicomte13 To: hondo68 (#10)
The public love Kasich so much he's 1 for 45.
Feel all that burning love!
Vicomte13 posted on 2016-04-27 16:32:04 Reply Private Reply
#17: Hondo68 To: Gatlin, losing for Obama, and Bill, and Hillary, GOP globalist neocon losers, *The Two Parties ARE the Same* (#12)
So were those other losers that you voted for, so that Bill Clinton and Obama could easily win.
Loser, GHW Bush
Loser, Dole
Loser, McCain
Loser, Romney
Each of those votes encouraged the GOP to come up with a worse candidate the next time. And they did!
Literally from bad to worse, with your help and encouragement.
Hondo68 posted on 2016-04-27 16:39:51 Reply Private Reply
#18: Gatlin To: hondo68 (#17)
In EVERY POSSIBLE way I can ... Yes Siree bob!!!
Gatlin posted on 2016-04-27 16:47:35 Reply Private Reply
#19: Hondo68 To: Vicomte13 (#15)
I'm voting for someone who I believe will make a good president. You seem to be stuck in the con game of choosing between evils. Christie, Trump, Rubio, Kasich, Cruz, Fiorina, and so on. You're being offered crap, and choosing the one that seems less stinky.
I refuse to play that game. I have no problem with accepting the fact that the GOP is trying to feed us crap, and rejecting them all, as well as the Dem turds.
Voting for one of the turds is a wasted vote. Even if your candidate wins, you still end up with crap.
Since I seem to be in the minority, I'll waste my vote on someone that I really want to be president, not the turd I think might win.
Hondo68 posted on 2016-04-27 17:02:37 Reply Private Reply
#20: Vicomte13 To: hondo68 (#19)
I think Trump is great.
I believe he will build the Wall and start deporting. I believe he will tear up the trade treaty with China and force a much better deal. I believe he will make a deal with Russia. And I believe he will ensure that we have the universal health insurance promised by Obamacare, but at a better price.
Those four things I will not get from any of other candidates on any side. I certainly won't get those things from the Constitution Party!
So I am enthusiastically, affirmatively voting for Trump, specifically - and I will accept nobody else - precisely because I think Trump's main policies are fantastically good, and altogether revolutionary. The Republican Party has not, before Trump, stood for ANY of those things.
So no, he's not just some other Republican. He has engineered a hostile takeover of the Republican Party, and is forcing direct ideological changes in their platform on the strength of HIS electorate.
He is saving the Republican Party, not being co-opted by it.
Vote your conscience. I am certainly voting mine. I hate the Republican Party. But I like what the Republican Party will be when Trump seizes control of it and changes its platform to reflect HIS policies, with which I agree.
Vicomte13 posted on 2016-04-27 17:15:01 Reply Private Reply
#21: rlk To: Willie Green (#0)
Yup. That will get him the women's vote until they get a chance to vote for a woman as president in a few months!
rlk posted on 2016-04-27 17:57:01 Reply Private Reply
#22: Logsplitter To: Fred Mertz (#1)
Logsplitter posted on 2016-04-27 17:59:39 Reply Private Reply