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Explaining The Choices Of Ted Cruz

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People have been questioning the motive behind Ted Cruz's announcement of his running mate Carly Fiorina since he made it. Yet Ted Cruz has been looking for a way to stop front-runner Donald Trump’s victory dance towards the Republican party's presidential nomination and, that was the driving force behind naming Fiorina as his Vice President pick. Although, that in itself, raised, even more, questions. Cruz himself has only been in a political office since 2013 which makes him a relative newcomer in the world of politics. So when Carly Fiorina, someone who has absolutely no experience in a political office, was named his pick people had no choice but to pose some questions.

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After Cruz's embarrassing defeat to Trump on Tuesday, during the East-Coast primaries his campaign strategy went from offensive to defensive. Cruz lost all five states to Trump, and not by little numbers, Trump dominated Tuesday by giant margins. Even though Cruz won primaries in Texas, Alaska, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Maine, Iowa, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, and Kansas, he currently only has 562 of the necessary 1,237 delegates that are needed to win the nomination outright. Which means, it is no impossible for him to procure the remaining 675 delegates before July. So now it is damage control time for the Cruz campaign if they can stall or distract the public from giving Trump the remaining delegates that he needs to automatically win the nomination, it gives Cruz one last fighting chance to get to the election.

Although Cruz's strategy hasn't really changed towards Trump and his campaign after Tuesday, he now has rallied his focus on to stalling Trump. Cruz and Kasich have tried to stop Trump for weeks now. Even teaming up together. Kasich has recently agreed to stay out of the Indiana primary, which will allow Cruz to have a bigger chance at beating Trump out of delegates. In return, Cruz will stay out of New Mexico and Oregon so Kasich can be the focus to sweep up delegates away from Trump.

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The point is to push the election into a contested Republican National Convention. In this convention, it is party elites, not voters, who hold the sway on the outcome. Yet there is still the giant problem of getting the party elites to have faith in your campaign, this is where Carly Fiorina comes into play. Carly was Cruz's double edged sword. Not only was he anticipating that the announcement would confuse and distract Trump, getting him to drop his game, but would also put him ahead when it comes to the party elites for having a full campaign party.

This year's presidential primary has been all about “newcomers”. Trump is new to politics, as is Cruz, Carson, and even Sanders. Yet all of the newcomers have been swaying a lot of the voters this year even though they are fairly new to the political game. Fiorina even used this fact after she dropped out of the race herself and started supporting Cruz, saying that “Unlike the status-quo political class in D.C., Ted Cruz didn’t cower when he got to Washington.” 

This is another reason why Cruz's choice of Vice President is so interesting. While Fiorina was campaigning she positioned herself as the political outsider (like Trump she is a CEO and comes to the table with business knowledge instead of political savvy). Cruz is perhaps, after seeing the success that Trump is having, trying to connect with the supporters of business by having a running mate who herself is a businesswoman. Yet, on the flip side of the coin, Fiorina's politics don't necessarily match up with Cruz's. Cruz is a stubborn Constitutionalist with an  Evangelical ideology where Fiorina is more of a standard business conservative. He may be trying to win the favor of the party establishments that have detested him for his political views by having more of a business oriented running mate.

Fiorina and Cruz's biggest enemies would be Planned Parenthood. The two are both known for the strong stance against abortion, and after Fiorina came out with fabricated videos that “documented” that Planned Parenthood sold baby parts, her campaign quickly deteriorated. A Planned Parenthood executive said that “A Ted Cruz and Carly Fiorina ticket give women in this country nightmares.”

Ironically enough, Cruz's pick for VP has gotten Trumps attention. Even to the point that Trump called into ABC's Good Morning America to berate the Senators choice. Not only did Trump do that interview but he has made numerous phone interviews centered around the idea of Cruz picking a VP.

Perhaps Cruz's political tactic to distract Trump will work. As the primaries for Indiana and California are creeping around the corner Cruz has to do everything in his power to stop the powerhouse of a campaign team that is behind Trump.