Fiorina, Carson launch presidential bids
WASHINGTON — Former technology executive Carly Fiorina and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson were set to launch their presidential bids today, each with the potential to help the Republican Party win a more diverse group of supporters in 2016.
Fiorina is likely to be the only prominent woman to seek the GOP nomination, with Carson the only likely African-American. They are both also political outsiders in a field likely to be dominated by governors, former governors and senators.
The two are not considered political allies and the timing of their announcements, planned weeks ago, is coincidental. Carson also got ahead of himself on Sunday, confirming his plans to run in an interview that aired on an Ohio television station.
Carson, 63, was scheduled to make his formal announcement in a speech from his native Detroit shortly after having breakfast at a local museum of African-American history. Fiorina, 60, was to enter the race this morning in a video posted online.
Both candidates begin the race as underdogs in a campaign expected to feature several seasoned politicians, among them former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, along with Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. Yet while they have claimed much of the early attention and favor from donors, the GOP race is a wide-open contest that could ultimately feature as many as two dozen candidates.
The Republican field is already more diverse than it was four years ago. Fiorina and Carson will compete against Republican counterparts Rubio and Cruz, each vying to become the first Hispanic president. And most of the candidates are in their 40s and 50s.Still, the Republican National Committee has acknowledged a pressing need to broaden the party's appeal beyond its traditional base of older, white men. President Barack Obama won re-election in 2012 with the strong support of women and ethnic minorities, who are becoming a larger portion of the American electorate.Raised in Detroit by a single mother, Carson practiced medicine and served as the head of pediatric neurosurgery for close to three decades at Baltimore's Johns Hopkins Children's Center. He gained national renown in conservative politics after condemning Obama's health care law at the 2013 national prayer breakfast.Fiorina, meanwhile, has a resume more likely to draw support among the Republican establishment. The former chief executive of Hewlett-Packard, she became a prominent figure in Republican politics in 2010, when she ran for the Senate in California and lost to incumbent Sen. Barbara Boxer by 10 points.In the past several months, she has emerged as a fierce critic of Hillary Rodham Clinton, the front-runner for the Democratic nomination.
