“I have said from the beginning the most important attribute for any running mate is that he or she should be prepared to step in and fulfill the role as president”, Cruz said Wednesday in Indianapolis at a campaign stop.
Advertisement
That’s according to a Republican with direct knowledge of the plan, speaking on condition of anonymity because the source was not authorized speak before the official announcement.
On Sunday, the Cruz and Kasich campaigns both issued statements announcing a strategic alliance aimed at stopping Donald Trump from reaching the 1,237 delegates needed to clinch the Republican nomination.
During her remarks Wednesday, Fiorina described how she had grown close to the Cruz family since endorsing his presidential bid, including singing a few bars from an original song describing her affection for Cruz’s daughters.
The 61-year-old Fiorina previously served as the chief executive of Hewlett-Packard, but has never held elected office.
Check back for updates on this breaking story.
During her time on the campaign trail, Fiorina repeatedly attacked former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the front-runner for the Democratic nomination, even saying during the January 24 debate in North Charleston, S.C. that “unlike another woman in this race, I actually love spending time with my husband”.
“He talks about being pro-jobs, and then he picks a vice presidential candidate in a desperate act who is the queen of outsourcing when she was in the corporate world”, he said. But California Republicans selected Fiorina in a competitive primary, and it is those same voters to whom Cruz is shaping his appeal.
Cruz is looking for an IN victory on Tuesday to block Trump from scoring a majority of delegates before the convention this summer.
The Texas senator, badly in need of a boost for a campaign that must win Tuesday’s in primary or face near-certain doom, took a page from the playbook of his political idol, Ronald Reagan. “So anyone who says she is going to get him votes – she left”. She also ran for Senate in California in 2010 against Democrat Barbara Boxer.
In her campaign to unseat Boxer, Fiorina lost by more than 10 percentage points.
Trump weighed in on the possibility Wednesday morning on Fox News Channel’s Fox & Friends.
“Naming Carly’s dumb, because Carly didn’t do well”. I have said from the moment that Donald Trump announced his candidacy, he doesn’t represent me and he doesn’t represent my party.
But Trump went on to win the Delaware, Connecticut, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island, primaries Tuesday night, earning him at least 105 of the 118 delegates at stake.
Cruz says Fiorina excelled in the “hard-scrabble” male-dominated business world.
He kept criticizing Fiorina, noting her controversial tenure as head of Hewlett-Packard. But during her tenure at HP, she led a divisive merger with Compaq and criticism of her leadership of the company was a key focus of Boxer’s effective campaign against Fiorina.
But donors’ continued shunning of Cruz and Kasich is one reason they haven’t had more success.
Among all Americans, 45 per cent didn’t know enough about Fiorina to rate her, while 22 per cent rated her favourably and 32 per centunfavourably.
Advertisement
The RealClearPolitics average of recent polls shows Trump with a 38.8 percent to 33.5 percent lead over Cruz in Indiana. Among Republican voters, 52 per cent have a favourable and 41 per cent have an unfavourable opinion of Cruz, while 53 per cent have a favourable and 46 per cent have an unfavourable opinion of Trump.
