From the beginning of her campaign for president, Carly Fiorina has had to deal with lowered expectations, encapsulated in a frequent question: Aren’t you just running for vice president? “People ask that because I’m a woman and I’m not a politician,” she told me earlier this year. “I’m running to be president.”

Fiorina put questions about her claim to run for the top job to rest early and often in Wednesday’s debate with a dynamite, substantive performance. Along the way, she was able to effectively shut up GOP frontrunner Donald Trump and come away the clear winner in the field of 11.