May 04--The field of Republican presidential candidates increased and diversified Monday as Carly Fiorina and Ben Carson announced what will be long-shot bids for the White House.
Fiorina, a former chief executive of Hewlett-Packard, became the lone woman to enter the GOP primaries, announcing her candidacy in a video on her website. Carson, a pioneering African American neurosurgeon, returned to his native Detroit for an hour-long ceremony -- which at times felt much like a church service -- touting his lack of political experience as a benefit to his candidacy.
At the moment, neither Fiorina or Carson have the sort of widespread support among party officials and large fundraising bases enjoyed by top-tier hopefuls. Carson has done well in some early polls, but those numbers more likely reflect the admiration he receives among many conservatives than any serious chance of winning the nomination.
In her announcement, Fiorina said she's running for president because "our founders never intended us to have a professional political class. They believed that citizens and leaders needed to step forward.
"We know the only way to re-imagine our government is to re-imagine who is leading it," she said, in a jab at Hillary Rodham Clinton, the Democratic front-runner and only other woman in the race.
For several months, Fiorina has darted through early primary states, using the planned release of a memoir to tout her leadership experience in the private sector as she explored a presidential run.
Fiorina told reporters Monday that the core of her campaign will be about creating and sustaining "small business, new business and family-owned business." But her private-sector background -- in particular her time at Hewlett-Packard -- has come under scrutiny for large-scale layoffs.
While in living rooms and at small town hall meetings, Fiorina has taken on the role of a scathing critic of Clinton, who makes a brief cameo at the start of Fiorina's announcement video.
"She is of the professional political class. She creates a disconnect," Fiorina said in a call with reporters Monday morning. "People of all political persuasions believe there is a huge gulf between their lives and those in Washington."
Like much of the GOP field, Fiorina has also assailed Clinton on foreign policy, criticizing her actions related to the 2012 attack on an American diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, and U.S. relations with Russia. Fiorina has also highlighted her time meeting with world leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin in China at an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation event.
Rick Wilson, a Republican strategist who is not backing any candidate so far, said that from Day 1, Fiorina has homed in on Clinton and not President Obama -- a smart strategy as the primary takes shape.
"She has this fluency about her where she makes clear, 'I'm not some legacy candidate, I've had to work hard to get here,'" Wilson said. "She's one solid debate performance away from really propelling forward in the field."
Indeed, after her speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference in February, some Republicans have speculated that Fiorina could be a viable vice-presidential pick on a GOP ticket.
In 2010, Fiorina waged an unsuccessful challenge to Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer of California. Although many political analysts in both parties felt Boxer was vulnerable, Fiorina lost by 10 percentage points after spending more than $5 million of her personal fortune on her campaign. Boxer consistently hammered Fiorina for laying off 30,000 people while at Hewlett-Packard.
Fiorina noted her long-shot status Monday, saying she "won't raise the most money for sure, but we will raise sufficient money," and that in the coming months she will work for to earn voters' support.
While Fiorina has run for public office, Carson is a political neophyte, who up until 2013 had largely remained out of politics.
At a national prayer breakfast that year, Carson, who is now retired from his position as director of pediatric neurosurgery at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, gained plaudits from conservatives for castigating Obama's healthcare law while the president sat nearby.
Some of his comments since then, however, such as calling Obamacare the "worst thing that has happened in this nation since slavery," have drawn criticism from more moderate Republicans.
"I'm not politically correct, and I'm probably never going to be politically correct, because I'm not a politician," Carson said onstage in Detroit on Monday. "I want to do what's right."
He described himself as supporting "family values and belief in God" and defended himself against critics who say he would cut into social welfare programs for the poorest Americans. He did not mention Obama or Clinton in his remarks.
Carson said last week's riots in Baltimore, the city where he spent much of his professional career, were a result of "people losing hope."
"They don't feel life is going to be good to them no matter what," said Carson.
Two years ago, after the prayer breakfast, a National Draft Ben Carson for President Committee was launched. To date it has raised more than $13 million, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive politics, which tracks campaign finances. The committee has created a grass-roots buzz around Carson's candidacy that could help him with tea party conservatives in early contests in Iowa and South Carolina.
After his speech Monday, Carson planned to go to Dallas to visit his mother, who is critically ill, then travel to South Carolina later in the week to talk with voters.
Fiorina, whose memoir "Rising to the Challenge: My Leadership Journey" is to be released Tuesday, plans to travel to New York, where she is scheduled to speak at a TechCrunch event, before later in the week heading to Iowa and New Hampshire for meet-and-greets.
UPDATES
9:42 a.m.: This article has been updated with comments from Carson.
8:06 a.m.: This article has been updated with comments from Fiorina.
4:20 a.m.: This article has been updated with Fiorina's release of her announcement video.
This article was originally published at 4 a.m.
