Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina endorsed Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas for president on Wednesday, saying Mr. Cruz is the only GOP candidate who can take down Republican front-runner Donald Trump.

“We need a real conservative who will provide real conservative solutions in people’s lives,” Mrs. Fiorina, a former 2016 GOP presidential candidate, said at a rally in Miami. “That is the only way we beat Donald Trump and that is the only way we are going to beat Hillary Clinton, and Ted is the man to do it.”

The announcement came on Sen. Marco Rubio’s home turf as candidates prepare for Tuesday’s winner-take-all primary in Florida. Recent polls have shown Mr. Trump with a sizable advantage there.

Mrs. Fiorina said Mr. Trump and Mrs. Clinton, the Democratic presidential front-runner, are “two sides of the same coin.”

“They’re not going to reform the system — they are the system,” she said. “Hillary Clinton has made millions of dollars selling access and influence from the inside, and Donald Trump has made billions of dollars buying people like Hillary Clinton. They are the system — they will not reform it.”

She said speaking from personal experience, people have to challenge the status quo in order to lead.

“And when you challenge the status quo, guess what?” she said. You do more than ruffle feathers — you make enemies. It is part of it. It is the price of leadership.

“Ted Cruz should be known, is proud to be known, by the enemies he has made in the D.C. cartel,” she said.

Mr. Cruz said he was “so humbled” and “so privileged” to be standing there with Mrs. Fiorina.

“We just heard a whole bunch of Democratic activists and Hillary supporters going, ‘holy cow, what was that?’” he said.

Mrs. Fiorina announced last month she was suspending her 2016 presidential campaign after failing to crack into the top tier in either Iowa or New Hampshire. She had emerged as one of the leading critics of Mrs. Clinton on the GOP side.

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