Ted Cruz admitted Friday he selected Carly Fiorina as his presidential running mate out of a pool of about 40 potential partners.
“We started with an initial list of over 40 people we were looking at and we culled that down to 17. We began vetting those 17 based on their public records,” Cruz told Fox News host Sean Hannity in a live interview late Friday. “We cut that down to a list of five and I’ll tell you the final choice I found was very, very easy.”
Cruz said he selected Fiorina because of her experience in the private sector, which gave her a first-hand perspective of how to create jobs, as well as her strong decision-making abilities and character as a person.
Cruz set a record Wednesday when he announced his veep choice more than 100 days out from the Republican convention, set to take place in Cleveland, Ohio.
The Texas senator has repeatedly defended his early decision after front-runner Donald Trump attacked the move as a strategy to draw attention to his campaign even though he does not have a mathematical pathway to secure the 1,237 delegates required to win the nomination before the July showdown.
The interview took place in Indiana, where Republican voters will hit the polls next Tuesday and deal out 57 delegates.
