Ted Cruz has unveiled former business executive Carly Fiorina as his running mate on Wednesday.
The Texas senator announced in a rally in downtown Indianapolis that he has tapped his former rival for the Republican nomination as his vice presidential pick in an attempt to beat frontrunner Donald Trump.
The move comes as an attempt to shift the national conversation the day after Trump’s overwhelming win in the Republican primary in five east coast states and only six days before Indiana’s crucial primary, which awards the statewide winner 30 delegates, the largest single pot available until June.
Fiorina has been an active surrogate for Cruz since endorsing him in early March. The former Hewlett Packard chief executive has barnstormed across the country on behalf of the Texas senator since then. Cruz has often praised Fiorina on the stump and saying that the former chief executive gives “Hillary Clinton nightmares. I can just picture Hillary thinking about Carly and tossing and turning and tossing and turning in her jail cell.”
Although it was widely reported that the Cruz campaign was vetting potential vice-presidential candidates, and a Fiorina aide confirmed that she was participating in the vetting process, the announcement of a running mate by a candidate who still has yet to clinch the nomination is historic.
The last candidate to do so was Ronald Reagan on the eve of the 1976 Republican national convention. Reagan tapped Pennsylvania senator Richard Schweiker in an unsuccessful attempt to oust the incumbent president, Gerald Ford.
Fiorina, who dropped out of the presidential race in February after poor results in Iowa and New Hampshire, would be the first vice-president in history to have not held public office.
Fiorina's selection could help boast Cruz's appeal among female voters in the remaining Republican primaries. Trump has consistently done better with men than women in exit polls and Fiorina could help reinforce this gender gap. – Guardian service