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Ted Cruz '92 selects Carly Fiorina as presidential running mate

Texas Senator Ted Cruz ’92 announced former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina as his running mate in the upcoming presidential election at a rally in Indianapolis earlier today.

The announcement follows businessman Donald Trump’s sweeping victory in five state presidential primaries Tuesday night. These states include Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island.

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“Just like Ted Cruz, Carly Fiorina is a fighter. She fought her way to the top: from a secretary, to the first female CEO of a Fortune 50 company, to a 2016 Republican vice presidential candidate,” reads a statement on Cruz’s campaign website homepage.

Fiorina had endorsed Cruz earlier this year.

“As I said many times before, we need to take our country back in 2016. I wholeheartedly believe Ted Cruz is the man to lead that fight. And I am prepared to give everything I have to ensure we defeat Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton,” Fiorina stated in a Facebook post.

“This is a fight for the soul of our party and the future of our nation,” said Fiorina at the Indianapolis rally.

Last week, Cruz and Ohio Governor John Kasich announced an alliance to cede states to each other in an effort to deny Trump the party’s nomination.

Currently, Trump has already won 987 delegates, while Cruz and Kasichhave respectively 562 and 153 delegates.

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Walker Davis, a co-founder of the Princeton Against Cruz movement, noted that it is very atypical for presidential candidates to select a potential vice president before winning the nomination.

“Ted Cruz is realizing that his campaign is nearing an end and he’s picking people out of desperation,” Davis said.

However, Paul Draper '18, president of Princeton College Republicans and the New Jersey state director of Millennials for Ted Cruz, said that though it is a bit unconventional to pick a running mate before the nomination is official, this election season has been unconventional.

“Selecting Mrs. Fiorina as the running mate was a good choice not only because she is a highly-skilled and highly-credentialed leader, but also because it sets Senator Cruz's campaign apart from the others,” Draper said, “I believe Senator Cruz chose Mrs. Fiorina because of her ability to clearly articulate conservative values.”

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Fiorina will inject new energy into the Cruz campaign, he added. He also explained that young voters should look for candidates’ positions on issues such as job creations and student loan policies, which Cruz has sympathy for.

Draper further stated that while Fiorina has real business experience, Secretary Clinton “has built a career on professional politics and a history of diplomatic failures.”

However, Davis noted that Cruz is already mathematically eliminated from the race and that the decision is absurd.

"His campaign is so dead in the water, that the best partner he could find came in 7th in New Hampshire, failed in her Senate run, and destroyed HP with a disaster merger," he said, "to put it simply, Ted's a mess."

Though selecting Fiorina as the Vice-Presidential nominee was a bold choice, that's exactly what voters need from our President and Vice-President, Draper said.

"We need bold leadership," he said.