Cruz names Fiorina as VP running mate Hoping to kickstart his campaign after a string of demoralizing losses to Trump, the senator is tapping a former rival turned loyal campaign surrogate.

Ted Cruz announced Wednesday that Carly Fiorina will be his vice presidential nominee if he’s the Republican Party’s pick for president.

If nominated, "I will run on a ticket with my vice-presidential nominee, Carly Fiorina," the Texas senator said at an Indiana rally before the crowd began chanting "Carly."


The two appeared together in an hour-long event in Indianapolis, with Cruz alternating between lauding Fiorina and maintaining that he has a path forward in the race despite suffering a series of losses over the last two weeks. Fiorina, who followed Cruz, shared stories about her own background and about Cruz, and even sang to his two young daughters from the stage, as she also railed against Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.

Fiorina, a former Hewlett-Packard CEO, has been among Cruz’s most loyal and active surrogates since she ended her own 2016 GOP presidential bid after a poor finish in New Hampshire in February.

"This is a fight worth having," Fiorina said. "This is a fight worth winning. With your help, we will win this fight."

The announcement, which was teased early Wednesday morning, comes the day after Cruz suffered a drubbing at the hands of Trump in five northeastern primaries — losses that mathematically eliminated Cruz from getting the 1,237 delegates he’d need to clinch the GOP nomination.

"I'm not getting to 1,237 delegates, and Donald J. Trump is not getting to 1,237 delegates," Cruz said. "And the Hoosier state is going to have a powerful voice in making that clear."

Cruz’s hopes now rest in a contested convention this summer in Cleveland, where the Texas senator would hope to stop Trump on the first ballot and then win in subsequent rounds of voting thanks to support from the loyal delegates his campaign has assiduously courted.

Fiorina will work with Cruz, she said, "to restore the soul of our party, to defeat Donald Trump, to defeat Hillary Clinton and to take our country back."

The Cruz campaign deliberated over whether to pick Fiorina for the last two weeks, according to one person familiar with the move. It has polled the potential ticket, examining it for its prospective strengths and weaknesses.

The hope within the campaign is that Fiorina will help Cruz in California, which will award 172 delegates on June 7. Fiorina is scheduled to give the keynote address at this weekend’s California Republican Party convention, speaking hours after Cruz takes the stage.

She delivered a wide-ranging speech on Wednesday that highlighted Cruz's embrace of conservative principles and of the Constitution, but she also aimed to highlight a softer side of Cruz, describing time spent on the campaign bus with him and noting how much his daughters "adore their dad." She sang several bars of a song to his daughters

"I know two girls that I just adore," Fiorina sang. "I'm so happy I can see them more. 'Cause we travel on the bus all day...we get to play."

The move to bring Fiorina on board comes at a time of growing desperation within Cruz circles. Some in the campaign worry that the Texas senator will lose Indiana on Tuesday and lose other key states in May, paving the way for a Trump nomination.

Cruz is campaigning fervently this week in Indiana, where primary rules award the winner most of the state’s 57 delegates. With Trump’s victories Tuesday night, and with most of Pennsylvania’s 54 unbound delegates leaning in Trump’s direction, Cruz needs success in Indiana and California if he has any hope of stopping Trump.

The most recent Indiana polls show Trump polling around 40 percent, between 5 and 8 percentage points ahead of Cruz. Those polls were conducted before Ohio Gov. John Kasich — who’s polling around 20 percent in the state — announced that he would no longer actively campaign in Indiana, in exchange for Cruz agreeing to no longer actively campaign in Oregon and New Mexico.

Kyle Cheney and Patrick Reis contributed.

