INDIANAPOLIS (AP) – Ted Cruz is calling his new running mate in the race for the GOP nomination an “extraordinary leader” who has “shattered glass ceilings” in business and politics.
Cruz introduced former technology executive Carly Fiorina, his pick for vice president, at a rally in Indianapolis Wednesday.
The announcement comes the day after Cruz lost five states to GOP front-runner Donald Trump.
The 61-year-old Fiorina previously served as the chief executive of Hewlett-Packard, but has never held elected office. She was the only woman in the GOP’s crowded presidential field before dropping out of the race earlier in the year.
Cruz says Fiorina excelled in the “hard-scrabble” male-dominated business world.
Fiorina says Cruz’s presidential bid “isn’t over,” despite what some people may say.
She charged at a Cruz rally that both GOP front-runner Donald Trump and leading Democrat Hillary Clinton “would be disastrous for this nation.”
She says of Trump: “He doesn’t represent me and does not represent my party.”
California Sen. Barbara Boxer says Fiorina is the perfect running mate for Cruz, calling them “mean and meaner.”
On a conference call Wednesday she told reporters Cruz wants to ship immigrants out and Fiorina “already shipped jobs out of America.”
The California Democrat faced Fiorina in a nasty Senate race in 2010.
She joked that having Fiorina back on the national stage reminds everyone she beat the former Hewlett Packard chief executive by 1 million votes in 2010 “and I love that.”
House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rep. Xavier Becerra says he welcomes the three Republican presidential hopefuls to this weekend’s state GOP convention.
He says the won’t need ID to enter the state, but they should bring California values of hard word, innovation and diversity.
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