Ted Cruz Names Carly Fiorina as Running Mate

Republican Presidential Candidate Ted Cruz has named Carly Fiorina as his running mate Wednesday at a rally in Indianapolis.

Cruz started off the rally speaking about the importance of picking a Vice President and vetting them on their experience, knowledge, judgement and character.

"This is an individual that I trust and you can trust to lead this country no matter what might happen," Cruz said.

Apparently, Cruz winning the Republican nomination falls under the umbrella of "no matter what might happen."

After announcing his decision to name Carly Fiorina to his ticket to cheers, Cruz went to on detail her qualifications as Vice President. Cruz spoke about Fiorina's climb from a secretary at a small firm to the chief executive of Hewlett-Packard.

"Over and over again Carly has shattered glass ceilings, but in addition to being a woman of extreme intelligence she is a woman of deep principle," Cruz said.

Fiorina, an also-ran for the party's presidential nomination, formally endorsed Cruz on March 9, about one month after she dropped out of the race. She had raised $11.9 million for her race with another $14.1 million from a Super PAC — and won a single delegate.

"This is a fight for the soul of our party and the future of our nation," Fiorina said after taking the stage.

Before getting into politics, Fiorina was the CEO of Hewlett-Packard. The company's board forced her to resign after seeing its stock price drop 50 percent during her time as CEO.

Cruz also used the announcement as an opportunity to take a shot at Trump and his staff. Donald Trump, currently in a commanding lead, has not yet named a running mate.

The announcement comes just one day after Cruz lost primary elections in Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island. Business mogul and Cruz arch-nemesis Donald Trump won all five elections.

Cruz's announcement of a running mate may defy conventional logic, but Cruz said the entire election thus far has defied convention. He is currently nearly 400 pledged delegates behind Trump and coming off his worst night in the election.

"So why make this announce now?" Cruz said. "Well for one thing if we are to win the nomination and more importantly the general election, we must unite."

The announcement may also help distract from Cruz's disastrous performance in the primaries Tuesday. Cruz picked up three pledged delegates, all from Rhode Island, according to the Associated Press.

For Cruz, the Indiana Republican Primary represents one of the last opportunities to stop frontrunner Donald Trump from clinching the 1,237 delegates needed to lock up the nomination. The election will take place May 3, and 57 delegates are up for grabs. Trump is currently 6.3 points ahead of Cruz according to a RealClearPolitics polling average.

[Photo credit: Gage Skidmore via Creative Commons]