Republicans are warming to Carly Fiorina as they realize that she may be a valuable asset in a fight against Hillary Clinton.
The wealthy former Hewlett Packard CEO remains a long shot for the party’s 2016 nomination, should she run. But Republican insiders have evolved from questioning Fiorina’s motivations and viability to seeing tremendous advantages in having her on the campaign trail. Who better to carry the Republican message to women voters — and to keep pressure on Clinton, the likely Democratic presidential nominee and first female standard-bearer ever for a major political party — than a woman like Fiorina?
“We need someone talking about women’s issues and talking to women voters in a way that they can relate to during the primary,” said a female GOP campaign strategist, who like most of the dozen Republican operatives interviewed by the Washington Examiner, requested anonymity in order to speak candidly.
The primary field is loaded with accomplished sitting and former governors and nationally known senators, and Republicans are unlikely to gamble on Fiorina. Her limited government and political experience is highlighted by exactly one electoral victory — a 2010 Republican Senate primary in California — immediately followed by a stinging general election blowout to Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer. A multimillionaire former CEO isn’t the type of candidate Republicans are most eager to nominate following Mitt Romney’s loss in 2012.
But the 60-year-old grandmother has distinguished herself with Establishment insiders and conservative activists alike in recent weeks, punctuated by a rousing January speech to likely caucus-goers in Iowa, the host of the first nominating contest of the 2016 primary. Fiorina delivered another stemwinder last week at the annual winter gathering of the Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland.
Fiorina received high marks for delivering pointed attacks on Clinton’s service as President Obama’s first secretary of state that might have been deemed excessive coming from a man. She has established credibility through eloquent discussion of her pro-life politics. Women’s issues, particularly abortion, have increasingly tripped up male GOP candidates, and Fiorina’s style offers a template for how conservatives might connect with this key voting bloc without abandoning their principles. She has done all this while also pushing back against attempts to make her gender a toprésuméitem, repeatedly denying the existence of a “war on women” and describing her own history as one of success through personal pluck rather than identity politicking.
As a breast cancer survivor, Fiorina also draws the attention of Republicans as a potential advocate for replacing Obamacare with free-market reforms. All of these deliverables, and her fluency on domestic and foreign policy, have transformed Fiorina from an also-ran into a unique political weapon that the Republicans hope to brandish long after the party has most likely nominated a man to lead the party in 2016.
“Some women may be inclined to digest [Clinton] attacks from her differently than if they were coming from a male surrogate,” said a Republican strategist who advised a presidential candidate who ran in 2012. “We don’t need to wait until we have a nominee to see the benefit either — having her on stage and getting her attacks into the blood stream over the next 12 months.”
In an interview with the Washington Examiner while making the rounds at CPAC, Fiorina downplayed her position as the only woman in the likely field of Republican presidential candidates. However, Fiorina didn’t go so far as to say her gender was inconsequential.
“I’ve never been a token in my life, and, if I run, I’m not running because I am a woman,” she said Friday. “The facts are, I am a woman, and as a woman, I think I bring the perspective of 53 percent of voters today who are also women and a voice that is too often missing.”
Fiorina, who now resides in Virginia, brushes off criticism that she’s thin on experience for a viable presidential candidate. Her tenure as Hewlett Packard’s CEO capped a rising career that began with a job as a real estate office secretary — a track record she says demonstrates both Oval Office-ready leadership and intimate understanding of the aspirations and struggles of the middle class.
Fiorina is not without critics, however. If she gains traction, her primary opponents could attack her leadership of Hewlett Packard, which has been criticized by some in the technology industry — and by 2010 Senate opponent Barbara Boxer, who kept Fiorina on the defensive with charges that she “laid off 30,000 workers” and “shipped jobs to China.” Opponents may also point out defects in the management of her Senate campaign. Fiorina allowed nearly $500,000 in bills to consultants and staff from that race to go unpaid until January of this year.
Still, Fiorina has managed to shine in the crowded shadow primary and establish herself as a serious potential candidate.
Fiorina has shown signs that she might break out of the narrow political confines often ascribed to long-shot candidates.In 2012, then-Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota and wealthy businessman Herman Cain both proved to be attractive niche candidates, but neither ended up of much use to Romney as surrogates in his race against Obama. Fiorina, however,could prove to be a real asset to the GOP in the general election —as the only woman, as a former business executive, orsimply as a candidate who brings a history of real-world achievements rather than political ambitions(a distinction she shares with retired Johns Hopkinsbrain surgeonBen Carson).
“I think she is much more compelling than the average politician who has had her space in previous primaries,” a GOP insider said. “She’s not like the usual businessman or -woman who usually occupies the space of fringe candidates.”
