Carly Fiorina, the former CEO of Hewlett Packard and 2010 Republican candidate for Senate in California, is moving closer to a formal run for president. According to someone close to her, Fiorina will make an announcement about her candidacy in late April or early May, shortly before the release of her untitled book.
Less known than the senators and governors also expected to run, Fiorina has been working to raise her profile with potential Republican primary voters. Since she first floated the idea of a presidential run on NBC’s Meet the Press in November, she has been calling various political figures and activists in Iowa and New Hampshire. Fox News host Bret Baier will be recording an interview with Fiorina at her home in Northern Virginia next week.
In January, the former executive traveled to Des Moines and delivered a well-received speech to the Iowa Freedom Summit. She will travel next week to New Hampshire, participating in a breakfast event at St. Anselm College, and Fiorina will speak at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington at the end of February.
Fiorina currently chairs Unlocking Potential, a political action committee to help conservative candidates by focusing on turning out women. “Women are a vastly under-utilized resource and represent half of our nation,” reads the mission statement on Unlocking Potential’s website. “We cannot permit liberal orthodoxy to marginalize women or suppress their enthusiasm for our candidates.” The PAC operated get-out-the-vote efforts in several key states of the 2014 midterm elections, including Iowa and Colorado.
Unlocking Potential won’t be the official PAC to support the possible Fiorina presidential run, the source said, explaining that a new PAC will likely be formed for that purpose. Expected to join a Fiorina campaign would be consultants Frank Sadler and Stephen DeMaura. Sadler would likely serve as the campaign manager.
Update: An earlier version of this post incorrectly said Fox News’s Bret Baier had already recorded an interview with Fiorina. The interview is scheduled for next week.
