Stephanie Wang

stephanie.wang@indystar.com

Angie Pettigrew wouldn't vote for a female candidate simply for being a woman. Wouldn't that be rather sexist? she wondered.

Still, "as a woman," said the 46-year-old Fort Wayne voter, "there's a part of you that says, 'Yeah! Go!'"

When Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz, looking for a surge in Indiana, recently declared that former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina would be his vice presidential pick, commentary fixated on her rounding out the ticket as a woman.

Ted Cruz announces Carly Fiorina as his running mate

Her addition to the campaign contrasted sharply with GOP front-runner Donald Trump, Cruz's stiffest competition, who has been accused of belittling women with his remarks. Trump particularly enraged critics this week by saying Democrat Hillary Clinton earns support by playing the "woman card," tallying votes simply for being a woman — though many of his staunch supporters don't view what he says as sexist or problematic.

Some speculated that the Fiorina move would help Cruz, the Texas senator, in a possible general election matchup against Clinton, if both were to win their parties' nominations.

"I am very proud to be a woman," Fiorina told CNN. "But I would never ask people to vote for me because I'm a woman. Ted Cruz didn't pick me because I'm a woman, Ted Cruz picked me because I'm a capable individual. Donald Trump's comments on women are frequently things I find either irrelevant or offensive."

Gov. Mike Pence endorses Ted Cruz, also praises Donald Trump

Still, along with heaping praise upon her conservative values and business successes, Cruz has heavily touted Fiorina's femininity across Indiana in the few days since she has joined the campaign.

She's tough, he told supporters, fighting her way up from being a secretary when the working world wasn't friendly to women, to becoming the first female CEO of a Fortune 20 company.

"This is a woman," he said at a South Bend rally, "who spent her life shattering glass ceilings."

"Carly terrifies Hillary Clinton," he said proudly at a rally in Fort Wayne, following with a list of other people whom she also supposedly scares.

Fiorina also doted on Cruz's two young daughters, singing to them at the announcement and bringing them into photos with supporters at an Italian restaurant in Elkhart while Cruz and wife Heidi schmoozed nearby.

At a news conference Friday in Indianapolis, it was Fiorina who went in for the kill on Trump's controversial endorsement from former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson, who was convicted in Indianapolis in 1992 of raping a beauty pageant contestant.

"Trump touted Mike Tyson and said, 'All the tough guys are endorsing me,'" Fiorina told reporters. "Sorry. I don't consider a convicted rapist a tough guy."

She added: "And I think it says a lot about Donald Trump's campaign and his character that he is standing up and cheering for an endorsement by Mike Tyson."

Recent polls in Indiana reflect a national trend: Trump doesn't do well with women.

Trump beats Cruz overall in the state by a spread of 41 percent to 33 percent, according to a Fox News poll. But Trump's lead winnows to a mere 3 percentage points when it comes to women: 36 percent to Cruz's 33 percent. He holds a more significant advantage among male voters, 44 percent of whom favor Trump to 33 percent for Cruz.

In a WTHR/Howey Politics poll, women ages 18 to 54 rated Cruz the most favorable of the three Republican presidential candidates. Trump pulled in a lowly 1 percent favorability rating in that demographic. Trump, however, scores higher with older women.

"If you can't value women as humans and not objects, then I can't support that," said Cruz supporter Charlene Pierce, 50, of Grabill.

Fox News personality Megyn Kelly famously asked Trump on the debate stage to explain his comments describing women he didn't like as "fat pigs,dogs,slobs and disgusting animals."

Trump also ripped Fiorina for her looks when she was running for president, telling Rolling Stone, "Look at that face! Would anyone vote for that?"

Fiorina later knocked him down for the insult during a Republican debate: “I think women all over this country heard very clearly what Mr. Trump said.”

"I think she's got a beautiful face and I think she's a beautiful woman," Trump responded.

Trump's unvarnished comments don't dissuade loyal backers.

Dorothy Miller, 50, of Indianapolis, went to a local Trump rally with a group of women proclaiming themselves "Hot Chicks for Donald Trump." She dismissed the idea that Trump is sexist.

"I just don't see it that way," she said. "I think that from all the information that I’ve heard, he employs a lot of females, and he’s very fair with them. ... I think he’s going to be equal to everyone. And I just don’t see him being gender-biased or even racially biased. I mean, I know there’s been comments about certain aspects, but I think it’s all for the better of our country not to separate people."

But for Mary Hartley, 64, of North Webster, weighing Trump's degrading remarks against Cruz's addition of Fiorina could tip her vote.

She attended a Fort Wayne rally for Cruz on Thursday to try to make up her mind.

What Trump has said about women is "tacky," Hartley said. She thinks he's a bully, but he has also talked about supporting Christians like her and the military, which resonates strongly with her.

But Hartley also likes Fiorina: "I just love her fearlessness," she said. "I love her tenacity. I think she's intelligent."

And, she added: "I love the way she stood up to Trump."

Clinton also managed to leverage Trump's "woman card" remark against him.

"If fighting for women's health care and paid family leave and equal pay is playing the 'woman card,'" she said, "then deal me in."

Chelsea Clinton echoed her mother Friday in Indianapolis, telling reporters, "I didn't think I needed a woman's card." If she did, she said, "then I guess you can count me guilty as well."

But what happens when it's two women, like Clinton and Fiorina, against each other?

"In order to even begin to hold our ground against Hillary, we need a strong woman," said Scotty Robertson, 28, who volunteers for Cruz's campaign as LaPorte County chair. "For a man to go up against a woman, you get that sexist label."

For women to ascend in politics, gender is a fickle contradiction. They have to appeal to women, they have to answer to being a woman, and yet they need to be more than a woman.

Women don't vote for a female candidate just because she's a female candidate, said Kristina Sheeler, an Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis professor who studies political communication. Instead, she said female candidates face an uphill battle demonstrating their proven experience to voters.

"I wouldn't say that we've made it, necessarily," Sheeler said. "Hillary Clinton is the outlier here. She's the anomaly. I think that's proven in what difficulty other female candidates do have in getting traction. Let's face it: When Fiorina was running, she never got any traction beyond that really strong second debate performance. She peaked, and then was never able to do anything with it."

IndyStar reporter Jill Disis contributed to this report. Call IndyStar reporter Stephanie Wang at (317) 444-6184. Follow her on Twitter: @stephaniewang.