Updated May 3, 2015 8:12 p.m. ET
The race for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination will gain three new candidates this week who face long odds of success but who could help shape the primary-season debate and the calculations of front-runners trying to build winning coalitions.
Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson are expected to enter the race on Monday. Mr. Carson told a TV station Sunday that he will make a formal announcement in Detroit. Both are hoping to build support among voters disenchanted with Washington and the GOP’s leadership.
A day later, Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor, is set to formally start his campaign, aiming to build on his 2008 showing, in which he won the Iowa caucuses and contests in seven other states, and to draw on his celebrity in the years since as a television talk show host.
The three will join Sens. Ted Cruz, Rand Paul and Marco Rubio as declared candidates. The field may grow to as many as 20 Republicans, including former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who are expected to declare their candidacies by midsummer.
Trying to write a fresh chapter to their careers, the three new contenders aren’t expected to compete financially with the party’s top candidates. But polling shows that Mr. Huckabee retains a reservoir of support from his prior White House bid, particularly in Iowa, home to the first 2016 caucuses.
Both he and Mr. Carson, who drew national attention after calling for a flat income tax and private health savings accounts while President Barack Obama, an opponent of such moves, sat feet away at a 2013 prayer breakfast, have proven that they know how to build an audience among conservatives.
Mrs. Fiorina, meanwhile, has drawn favorable reviews during her early appearances on the campaign trail. In the last three weeks, she has held 38 events in the first three presidential nominating states—Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina—impressing activists by giving out her cellphone number and inviting them to call.
“Fiorina has been here the most,” said Brenna Bird, a member of the Iowa GOP’s state central committee from Dexter. “More people know who she is every time. She does events where people can ask her questions. Those are the ideal types of events here.”
With Washington as unpopular as ever, all three contenders insist there is a credible path to victory for a political outsider. But to succeed, Mr. Huckabee must become a more-organized campaigner and fundraiser than in 2008, analysts say.
Mr. Carson and Mrs. Fiorina will need to transform their medical and business careers into political assets—a tall order in a party that in recent decades has nominated only one person, George W. Bush in 2000, waging a first attempt to win the White House.
Not since Wendell Willkie in 1940 has someone won a major party nomination without holding elected office or serving as a senior military commander, as did former President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952.
Polls show Mrs. Fiorina’s support at less than the typical survey’s margin of error: Five Iowans out of 1,000 in a Loras College poll late last month said she was their first choice for president. But surveys also show GOP voters in overwhelming numbers haven’t ruled her out, suggesting she has room to build support.
“I can win it and I can do it,” Mrs. Fiorina said in a recent interview.
Mr. Carson said there is a call for someone who will speak forcefully for conservative ideas and “stand up for the beliefs that the majority of Americans have.”
Mr. Huckabee on Friday released a campaign video, which emphasizes his victories in “Bill Clinton’s Arkansas.”
Each of the three is targeting the social conservative voters who make up a majority of Iowa’s Republican caucusgoers. If any of the three catches fire, he or she could take support that might otherwise go to Messrs. Cruz or Walker, who are targeting the same voters.
A Baptist minister, Mr. Huckabee rode broad support from evangelicals to win Iowa in 2008. He has the ability to “speak Jesus,” as he told the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference last week.
Mr. Carson and Mrs. Fiorina are tailoring their approach to “values voters.” Moreover, Mrs. Fiorina represents something of a wild card in a GOP field that so far has no other women candidates or contenders with extensive corporate experience, attributes that could draw voters away from several other contenders.
The three also have the potential to affect the election-season debate.
On the campaign trail, Mrs. Fiorina has been talking about the need to help welfare recipients escape a “web of dependence’’ through private, business-driven work and entrepreneurial opportunities.
Mr. Carson calls for a return to “common-sense’’ policies and a flat tax. Mr. Huckabee would once again be a social-issues warrior, campaigning against pop culture icons such as Beyoncé and suggesting that Christians shouldn’t join the military until Mr. Obama is out of office.
Prior campaigns have shown that, even without substantial funding, a candidate with the right message can resonate. In 2012, a succession of underfunded contenders took turns leading the public opinion surveys before the party settled on Mitt Romney as its nominee.
“The lessons that folks at the top learned is, if you offer a compelling and distilled message, voters will respond,” said Kevin Madden, a press aide on Mr. Romney’s two presidential campaigns.
Mrs. Fiorina already has proven to be the party’s most assertive attack dog against presumed Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. As the only woman in the likely GOP field, she is able to craft a direct and pointed message about Mrs. Clinton that so far no male Republican candidate has made.
Freed from the burdens of expectations that front-runners face, long shots often take more chances in their campaigns.
In 2012 Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 economic plan won him followers for its simplicity, even though he struggled to answer basic foreign-policy questions.
Mr. Huckabee in 2008 held a news conference to show a negative advertisement he said he was refusing to air on television, which allowed him to draw attention without having to pay to broadcast the ad.
Mr. Huckabee had little competition for evangelical voters in 2008; this year, that lane within the GOP field is crowded. He’s going back to his days as governor to distinguish himself.
In an interview, Mr. Huckabee said he’s had “the experience of having effectively and efficiently governed what was the bluest state in America. I did a host of things that even with a Republican legislature, would have been an accomplishment.”
Operatives who have run past long-shot campaigns, however, are skeptical that these three will become substantial players in the GOP contest.
“It’s delusionary,” said Ed Rollins, who worked on long-shot campaigns for Mr. Huckabee in 2008 and Rep. Michele Bachmann (R., Minn.) in 2012. “It’s a very strong field this time. Some of these people could have given Romney a run for his money had they run four years ago. There’s no real shot for them now.”
Part of the hurdle for Mr. Carson and Mrs. Fiorina is running for president while learning how to be a candidate. Even politicians with deep experience in statewide races often don’t appreciate the intensity and scrutiny that comes with a presidential campaign.
Mr. Cain, a pizza-company entrepreneur who briefly shot to the top of the 2012 polls before exiting the race amid sexual-misconduct allegations he denied, said first-time candidates shouldn’t wait for trouble to have a team in place to respond.
“Have that crisis management team identified,” Mr. Cain said in an interview. “When you are attacked, you have to be able to respond logically without having the rest of your team distracted from running the campaign. That’s the only thing I would have done differently.”
Write to Reid J. Epstein at Reid.Epstein@wsj.com and Elizabeth Williamson at elizabeth.williamson@wsj.com
The race for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination will gain three new candidates this week who face long odds of success but who could help shape the primary-season debate and the calculations of front-runners trying to build winning coalitions.
Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson are expected to enter the race on Monday. Mr. Carson told a TV station Sunday that he will make a formal announcement in Detroit. Both are hoping to build support among voters disenchanted with Washington and the GOP’s leadership.
A day later, Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor, is set to formally start his campaign, aiming to build on his 2008 showing, in which he won the Iowa caucuses and contests in seven other states, and to draw on his celebrity in the years since as a television talk show host.
The three will join Sens. Ted Cruz, Rand Paul and Marco Rubio as declared candidates. The field may grow to as many as 20 Republicans, including former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who are expected to declare their candidacies by midsummer.
Trying to write a fresh chapter to their careers, the three new contenders aren’t expected to compete financially with the party’s top candidates. But polling shows that Mr. Huckabee retains a reservoir of support from his prior White House bid, particularly in Iowa, home to the first 2016 caucuses.
Both he and Mr. Carson, who drew national attention after calling for a flat income tax and private health savings accounts while President Barack Obama, an opponent of such moves, sat feet away at a 2013 prayer breakfast, have proven that they know how to build an audience among conservatives.
Mrs. Fiorina, meanwhile, has drawn favorable reviews during her early appearances on the campaign trail. In the last three weeks, she has held 38 events in the first three presidential nominating states—Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina—impressing activists by giving out her cellphone number and inviting them to call.
“Fiorina has been here the most,” said Brenna Bird, a member of the Iowa GOP’s state central committee from Dexter. “More people know who she is every time. She does events where people can ask her questions. Those are the ideal types of events here.”
With Washington as unpopular as ever, all three contenders insist there is a credible path to victory for a political outsider. But to succeed, Mr. Huckabee must become a more-organized campaigner and fundraiser than in 2008, analysts say.
Mr. Carson and Mrs. Fiorina will need to transform their medical and business careers into political assets—a tall order in a party that in recent decades has nominated only one person, George W. Bush in 2000, waging a first attempt to win the White House.
Not since Wendell Willkie in 1940 has someone won a major party nomination without holding elected office or serving as a senior military commander, as did former President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952.
Polls show Mrs. Fiorina’s support at less than the typical survey’s margin of error: Five Iowans out of 1,000 in a Loras College poll late last month said she was their first choice for president. But surveys also show GOP voters in overwhelming numbers haven’t ruled her out, suggesting she has room to build support.
“I can win it and I can do it,” Mrs. Fiorina said in a recent interview.
Mr. Carson said there is a call for someone who will speak forcefully for conservative ideas and “stand up for the beliefs that the majority of Americans have.”
Mr. Huckabee on Friday released a campaign video, which emphasizes his victories in “Bill Clinton’s Arkansas.”
Each of the three is targeting the social conservative voters who make up a majority of Iowa’s Republican caucusgoers. If any of the three catches fire, he or she could take support that might otherwise go to Messrs. Cruz or Walker, who are targeting the same voters.
A Baptist minister, Mr. Huckabee rode broad support from evangelicals to win Iowa in 2008. He has the ability to “speak Jesus,” as he told the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference last week.
Mr. Carson and Mrs. Fiorina are tailoring their approach to “values voters.” Moreover, Mrs. Fiorina represents something of a wild card in a GOP field that so far has no other women candidates or contenders with extensive corporate experience, attributes that could draw voters away from several other contenders.
The three also have the potential to affect the election-season debate.
On the campaign trail, Mrs. Fiorina has been talking about the need to help welfare recipients escape a “web of dependence’’ through private, business-driven work and entrepreneurial opportunities.
Mr. Carson calls for a return to “common-sense’’ policies and a flat tax. Mr. Huckabee would once again be a social-issues warrior, campaigning against pop culture icons such as Beyoncé and suggesting that Christians shouldn’t join the military until Mr. Obama is out of office.
Prior campaigns have shown that, even without substantial funding, a candidate with the right message can resonate. In 2012, a succession of underfunded contenders took turns leading the public opinion surveys before the party settled on Mitt Romney as its nominee.
“The lessons that folks at the top learned is, if you offer a compelling and distilled message, voters will respond,” said Kevin Madden, a press aide on Mr. Romney’s two presidential campaigns.
Mrs. Fiorina already has proven to be the party’s most assertive attack dog against presumed Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. As the only woman in the likely GOP field, she is able to craft a direct and pointed message about Mrs. Clinton that so far no male Republican candidate has made.
Freed from the burdens of expectations that front-runners face, long shots often take more chances in their campaigns.
In 2012 Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 economic plan won him followers for its simplicity, even though he struggled to answer basic foreign-policy questions.
Mr. Huckabee in 2008 held a news conference to show a negative advertisement he said he was refusing to air on television, which allowed him to draw attention without having to pay to broadcast the ad.
Mr. Huckabee had little competition for evangelical voters in 2008; this year, that lane within the GOP field is crowded. He’s going back to his days as governor to distinguish himself.
In an interview, Mr. Huckabee said he’s had “the experience of having effectively and efficiently governed what was the bluest state in America. I did a host of things that even with a Republican legislature, would have been an accomplishment.”
Operatives who have run past long-shot campaigns, however, are skeptical that these three will become substantial players in the GOP contest.
“It’s delusionary,” said Ed Rollins, who worked on long-shot campaigns for Mr. Huckabee in 2008 and Rep. Michele Bachmann (R., Minn.) in 2012. “It’s a very strong field this time. Some of these people could have given Romney a run for his money had they run four years ago. There’s no real shot for them now.”
Part of the hurdle for Mr. Carson and Mrs. Fiorina is running for president while learning how to be a candidate. Even politicians with deep experience in statewide races often don’t appreciate the intensity and scrutiny that comes with a presidential campaign.
Mr. Cain, a pizza-company entrepreneur who briefly shot to the top of the 2012 polls before exiting the race amid sexual-misconduct allegations he denied, said first-time candidates shouldn’t wait for trouble to have a team in place to respond.
“Have that crisis management team identified,” Mr. Cain said in an interview. “When you are attacked, you have to be able to respond logically without having the rest of your team distracted from running the campaign. That’s the only thing I would have done differently.”
Write to Reid J. Epstein at Reid.Epstein@wsj.com and Elizabeth Williamson at elizabeth.williamson@wsj.com
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