Ted Cruz has billed a “major announcement” at his rally later this afternoon in Indiana and sources have now confirmed that the announcement is to name former Hewlett-Packard CEO, and former GOP contender, Carly Fiorina, as his vice presidential nominee. The move comes as a stratgey to recapture some positive press following staggering losses for Cruz in the 5 primary contests held yesterday.
Report from Reuters:
U.S. Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz on Wednesday was expected to announce that former business executive Carly Fiorina will be his vice presidential running mate if he wins his party’s nomination, ABC affiliate WMUR reported, citing unnamed sources.
The report by WMUR, an ABC station in Manchester, New Hampshire, followed a statement from Cruz that he would make a major announcement at a 4 p.m. EDT rally. He gave no further details.
Fiorina, 61, endorsed Cruz, a 45-year-old U.S. senator from Texas, for the nomination in March, one month after dropping out of the Republican race herself.
The announcement of a running mate at this point in the campaign would be unusually early. Traditionally, the winners of the Republican and Democratic nominating contests announce their running mates for November’s general election at their parties’ summer national conventions.
Picking a running mate could be seen as part of a bid by Cruz to recover from Tuesday’s crushing loss to Trump, who swept party nominating contests in five U.S. Northeastern states.
More confirmation from WMUR:
Sources confirm to myself & @jdistaso that @tedcruz intends to name @CarlyFiorina as VP pick if #GOP picks him. #nhpolitics #fitn
— Josh McElveen (WMUR) (@JoshMcElveen) April 27, 2016
As noted in the, it is very unusually early for this kind of talk, which speaks to the desperation of the Cruz campaign heading into the final weeks of the primary. Fiorina was somewhat effective against Trump, at least in some of the early debates, but this move also takes away much of the leverage Cruz would have at a brokered convention in terms of offering the VP slot in exchange for delegates (sorry Kasich and Rubio).
If Cruz doesn’t pull out a victory in Indiana, this announcement won’t mean much as a loss there would give Trump an almost clear ride to hitting the needed 1,237 delegates to clinch the nomination. Unfortunately for Fiorina, she could be one of the shortest-lived vice presidential candidates if things don’t turn around next week for Cruz.
Above all, this announcement is designed to take the spotlight back from Donald Trump, which it will surely do, at least for a short period of time.
This post will be updated with video of the announcement sometime after 4pm ET when Cruz takes the stage in Indiana.
Update
Video of Cruz making the announcement:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxJec-xJUt8
