ABOUT BEN CARSON
Born: Sept. 18, 1951, Detroit
Education: Yale University, University of Michigan Medical School
Career: Youngest-ever director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Medical Center; retired in 2014. Wruter if six books, including No. 1 bestseller "One Nation." Gained political prominence with a speech at the 2013 National Prayer Breakfast that criticized political correctness and the health care law
Family: Wife, Lacena, three sons
ABOUT CARLY FIORINA
Born: Sept. 6, 1954, Austin, Texas
Education: Stanford University, University of Maryland, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Career: Senior vice president, AT&T; president, various divisions, Lucent. In 1999, she became the first woman to lead a Fortune 500 company as president of Hewlett Packard. Resigned, 2005. Serves on various boards of directors. Ran unsuccessfully for Senate from California in 2010
Family: Husband, Frank
GOP CANDIDATES SO FAR
• Sen. Ted Cruz
• Sen. Marco Rubio
• Sen. Rand Paul
• Mark Everson, former IRS commissioner
• Carly Fiorina
• Ben Carson
• Mike Huckabee, former Arkansas governor (scheduled to announce today)
Washington outsiders Ben Carson and Carly Fiorina jumped into the Republican presidential race Monday, aiming to mobilize voters disgusted with government and seeking a fresh, nontraditional leader.
Carson, 63, an African-American and retired neurosurgeon, and Fiorina, 60, a former business executive, join Latinos Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio in the race and help give the Republican campaign a jolt of racial, gender and political diversity. By comparison, the Democrats have a woman candidate in Hillary Clinton, but no Latinos or minorities are expected to join the race.
Carson and Fiorina stand out as well for their resumes — neither has held public office. The Republican race could ultimately see as many as 20 prominent candidates join the race or the nomination.
Carson and Fiorina’s bids for the White House face long odds. Carson has been prone to making controversial statements that have limited his appeal to a wider audience, while Fiorina lost by 10 percentage points in her 2010 bid for a U.S. Senate seat from California.
Carson entered the race with a spirited rally in Detroit, his hometown. “I’m Ben Carson and I’m a candidate for president,” he told hundreds at the city’s Music Hall Center for the Performing Arts, not far from a public high school named for him.
“We’re going to change the government into something that looks like a well-run business rather than a behemoth of inefficiency,” he said.
Carson’s political fame soared two years ago, when he spoke at a National Prayer Breakfast in Washington. As Obama sat over Carson’s shoulder, he tore into the president’s health care law. He blasted the tax system and charged that “the PC police are out at all times.”
Fiorina, in her announcement, aimed her anti-Washington fire squarely at Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton. The former Hewlett-Packard CEO cast herself as a business leader and not a politician, saying she has executive experience making “a tough call in a tough time.”
She said she understands how the economy works.
“Our founders never intended us to have a professional political class,” Fiorina said in a 60-second announcement video, which opens with a clip of Clinton announcing her run for the presidency. “We know the only way to re-imagine our government is to re-imagine who is leading it.”
Fiorina has earned kudos from Republican voters for sharp critiques on Clinton, whom she said is “not trustworthy.”
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