Cruz pick stirs up GOP race
Early choice of Fiorina as running mate seen as ‘shifting the narrative’
INDIANAPOLIS — In a bid to regain momentum after a string of primary losses, Ted Cruz jolted supporters in make-or-break Indiana on Wednesday by naming former GOP rival Carly Fiorina as his presidential running mate.
The early announcement — long before he would have any hope of claiming the nomination at the Republican national convention — represents a final gambit to unify conservatives to slow frontrunner Donald Trump.
“After a great deal of time and thought, after a great deal of consideration and prayer, I have come to the conclusion that if I am nominated to be president of the United States, that I will run on a ticket with my vice presidential nominee, Carly Fiorina,” Cruz said.
The former CEO of Hewlett-Packard endorsed Cruz in March, after ending her own campaign, and has stumped actively for him around the country.
“This is a fight for the soul of our party and the future of our nation,” Fiorina told a cheering audience on stage in Indianapolis. “This is a fight worth having.”
It was the second dramatic upheaval from the Cruz campaign this week, following a stumbling public rollout on Monday of an alliance with rival John Kasich.
“This is just an attempt to resurrect a downward
“It reminds me very much of the already failed Kasich ‘collusion,’ a desperate attempt to save a failing campaign …” Donald Trump, GOP front-runner
spiral,” said Los Angeles-based GOP strategist John Thomas.
Experts said the move, which came far earlier than is typical in the race for party’s presidential nomination, reflects a sense of urgency in the Cruz campaign ahead of the next state primary in Indiana. If Cruz fails to claim the state, front-runner Donald Trump will have an all but certain path to the Republican nomination.
“I don’t really think it moves the needle in Indiana,” said Pete Seat, a GOP strategist who ran Kasich’s ground operation in Indiana until Monday, when the campaign struck a deal with Cruz and left the state. “At this moment, it’s more about shifting the narrative from Trump’s routs last night and moving it back to Cruz.” Trump: ‘A waste of time’
Media reports on Wednesday morning had been focused on Trump’s tremendous leap toward the nomination during a five-state sweep in the Northeast, until Cruz teased a “major announcement” later in the day, which swiftly was assumed to be his vice presidential pick.
Trump, anticipating Cruz’s move, tweeted a video clip of Fiorina in a CNN interview before she dropped out of the race:
“Ted Cruz is like any other politician,” Fiorina says in the clip. “He says whatever he needs to say to get elected.”
He later put out a statement calling Cruz’s announcement “a waste of time.”
“It reminds me very much of the already failed Kasich ‘collusion,’ a desperate attempt to save a failing campaign by an all talk, no action politician,” Trump said. “The people of Indiana are very smart, and they will see through this just like they saw through the already failed Kasich alliance. Cruz has no path to victory — he is only trying to stay relevant.”
Candidates usually do not announce a running mate until they have cinched the nomination, said Aaron Carter, a fellow at Southern Methodist University’s Center for Presidential History.
“Typically, there are so many liabilities that it’s just not done,” he said. “Picking a running mate is the first major act of governance that a candidate demonstrates.”
The last time a full ticket was announced before the presidential nominee actually was chosen was in 1976, which also was the last time there was a contested GOP convention. A contested convention, with multiple votes to determine the party’s nominee, remains a possibility this year.
With that in mind, the Cruz campaign has been working for weeks to court delegates to vote for him should the nominee not be chosen on the first ballot at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland in July.
Cruz acknowledged that it is a break from tradition to name a running mate before securing the nomination, but he said he wanted voters to have a “clear choice.”
Fiorina brings complementary expertise to the Cruz ticket, pairing her background as a business executive with his background in constitutional law. In his introduction speech Wednesday, Cruz praised Fiorina’s ascent from a secretary “up the corporate ladder” to become the first female CEO of a Fortune 20 company.
He also made reference to her roots in the Lone Star State.
“Born in Texas, “Cruz said, “the very first thing I liked about her.” National name recognition
JoAnn Fleming, Cruz’s tea party chair, said Fiorina’s business acumen brings a boost to the Texas senator’s economic ambitions of creating jobs, building the military and repatriating offshore capital.
Fiorina also has no history in government, a crucial credential in a race in which the leading candidates are striving to prove who is more anti-establishment.
“Cruz’s choice of Fiorina goes in line with his entire history of being an outsider,” said Luke Macias, a Texas-based GOP strategist.
Fiorina also comes to the Cruz campaign with national name recognition and already having been vetted by the national press corps. So the conversation can move quickly beyond her background and on to the campaign issues, University of Houston political scientist Brandon Rottinghaus said.
Fiorina will help the Cruz campaign play up Trump’s resounding disapproval among women voters. Gallup reported earlier this month that 70 percent of U.S. women view Trump unfavorably.
The billionaire repeatedly has derided women for their looks, and many of his comments have been condemned as misogynistic. He lobbed one such comment at Fiorina in a September article in Rolling Stone saying, “Look at that face! Would anyone vote for that?”
Days later, Fiorina widely was declared winner of a CNN undercard presidential debate, in part because she stood up to Trump’s comments at a time when few other Republican candidates were willing to do so.
“I think the Cruz campaign probably thinks they can use Fiorina to goad Donald Trump into saying things that are sexist or biased because he already has a history of saying those things to her,” said Jennifer Lawless, a professor of government and women in politics at American University.
She said any women who support Trump in spite of his long history of questionable comments are unlikely to switch their votes because of Fiorina.
Putting a woman on the ticket also seems like strategic posturing to face likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in the general election.
Cruz supporter Karen Semple, who drove to the announcement rally from Champaign, Ill., embraced the choice.
“She certainly can go toe to toe with Hillary,” she said. “Then Hillary can’t play the ‘poor me’ card — you’re attacking a female.’ ” Too little, too late?
Cruz faces a possible last stand in Indiana next week, where a full sweep of the winner-take-all primary could get Trump within striking distance of the threshold to win the GOP nomination. Cruz currently lags between five and eight points behind Trump in Hoosier State polls.
“I think this pick in particular is as much about Indiana as it is about California,” Seat said.
California could decide the GOP nomination with the nation’s largest delegate cache in the last state primary on June 7.
Fiorina led Hewlett-Packard in California from 1999 to 2005 and ran an unsuccessful U.S. Senate campaign there in 2010. She could boast solid name recognition there and could drive more women voters out to the polls for Cruz.
Thomas doubted that Fiorina would make the difference Cruz needs in California.
“Does Carly have more reach than Ted Cruz in California? Yes, absolutely. But I think it’s too little too late,” he said. “I think people are voting for president; they’re not voting for vice president at this stage.”