GOP 2016 Diversity on Display in Campaign Rollouts

 

By Byron York
WashingtonExaminer.com

There's no better example of GOP diversity in the 2016 field than the announcements of Carson and Fiorina. (AP Photos)

There could be no greater examples of the diversity of the 2016 Republican presidential field than the dueling announcements of Ben Carson and Carly Fiorina Monday morning.

Carson, the only black candidate in the race, and Fiorina, the only woman, are also the only two candidates who have never held public office before. Each is working to turn what some would call a gap in their resumes into a strength by attacking what they call the "political class" — that is, office-seekers other than themselves.

"Our Founders never intended us to have a professional political class," Fiorina said in a video announcing her candidacy. "They believed that citizens and leaders needed to step forward."

"We have begun to allow [government] to expand based on what the political class wants because they would like to increase their power and dominion over the people," said Carson. "I am not a politician. I don't want to be a politician. Because politicians do what is politically expedient and I want to do what is right."

It's the classic outsider argument. Beyond that, though, the two candidates chose strikingly different strategies to introduce their campaigns to the American people. Carson sold biography and a commonsense approach to government. Fiorina sold business, business, business.

In a long and sometimes rambling address, Carson told the story of growing up poor in Detroit and Boston after his parents divorced. He and his brother lived with his mother as she struggled to make the barest of livings and stay off welfare.

"She only had a third grade education and consequently we had fallen into a situation of dire poverty," Carson told a Detroit audience. "We moved in with her older sister and brother-in-law in Boston. A typical tenement, large multi-family dwelling, large boarded-up windows, sirens, gangs, murders. Both of our older cousins, who we adored, were killed. I remember when our favorite drug dealer was killed. He used to drive a blue Cadillac. You know they used to bring us candy so we liked to see the drug dealers."

It's safe to say that Ben Carson is the only presidential candidate of either party who can tell a story like that. The impact, of course, comes from the audience's knowledge that Carson rose from that deprivation to become a renowned surgeon at Johns Hopkins.

Fiorina, who grew up in comfortable surroundings and later became the first woman to run a Fortune 50 company, skipped the biography in her rollout. In a brief announcement video, Fiorina chose not even to introduce herself but rather to extend an invitation to voters who have had it with the political class.

"If you're tired of the sound bites, the vitriol, the pettiness, the egos, the corruption," Fiorina said in the video, "if you believe that it's time to declare the end of identity politics; if you believe that it's time to declare the end of lowered expectations; if you believe that it's time for citizens to stand up to the political class and say enough, then join us."

After the announcement, Fiorina arranged a conference call with reporters. Fiorina was not only not afraid to take questions, she actually dispensed with any opening niceties in order to get right down to it.

"I think what you really want to do is ask questions," Fiorina said, "so I won't belabor this or make opening comments." From there, reporters asked about taxes, the economy, health care, campaign strategy, fundraising, gay marriage — everything. Fiorina handled them all with a good deal of assurance. It was, not to press the point too far, quite businesslike.

The RealClearPolitics average of poll measures 14 candidates in the Republican race. Fiorina is 14th, with 1.0 percent of the vote. Carson is eighth, with 4.8 percent. Neither seems set to scare the leaders anytime soon.

But both bring something to the race; if nothing else, the Carson and Fiorina rollouts Monday showed the sprawling range of the Republican campaign. And while each GOP candidate is different from each other, perhaps the greatest contrast of all is between Republican diversity and the virtually single-candidate race on the other side.

Byron York, The Washington Examiner's chief political correspondent, can be contacted atbyork@washingtonexaminer.com. His column appears on Tuesday and Friday on washingtonexaminer.com.