Carly Fiorina announced Wednesday that she is dropping out of the 2016 race for the White House, after the businesswoman-turned-Republican presidential hopeful finished seventh in both the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary Tuesday night.
“I’ve said throughout this campaign that I will not sit down and be quiet. I’m not going to start now,” Fiorina wrote Wednesday on her personal Facebook page. “While I suspend my candidacy today, I will continue to travel this country and fight for those Americans who refuse to settle for the way things are and a status quo that no longer works for them,” she said.
“Our Republican Party must fight alongside these Americans as well. We must end crony capitalism by fighting the policies that allow it to flourish. We must fix our festering problems by holding our bloated, inept government bureaucracy accountable,” she said. “Republicans must stand for conservative principles that lift people up and recognize all Americans have the right to fulfill their God-given potential.”
Today, I am suspending my campaign. My full statement is here: https://t.co/8QElLZoc1W
— Carly Fiorina (@CarlyFiorina) February 10, 2016
Fiorina emerged as a serious contender for the White House at the first GOP primary debate in August, where she had been relegated to the undercard event and quickly proved worthy of being on the main stage. Her sharp critique of Planned Parenthood, crisp rhetoric and knowledge of foreign policy led to her rapid rise following the second debate in mid-September.
But after reaching third place nationally, her swell of support began to dwindle.
The former chief executive of Hewlett-Packard no longer saw gains after strong performances in later debates, and ended up back on the undercard stage for the sixth and seventh GOP debates just before the Iowa caucuses.
Despite telling donors during a conference call last week that she planned to “go all the way to Cleveland” (the backdrop for the 2016 Republican National Convention), a lack of money and enthusiasm finally drove the only female Republican hopeful to abandon her presidential aspirations.
“To young girls and women across the country, I say: do not let others define you. Do not listen to anyone who says you have to vote a certain way or for a certain candidate because you’re a woman,” Fiorina wrote Wednesday. “That is not feminism. A feminist is a woman who lives the life she chooses and uses all her God-given gifts.”
“Always remember that a leader is not born, but made. Choose leadership,” she added.
Fellow Republican hopeful Chris Christie is also expected to exit the 2016 race Wednesday, following his last-minute decision to cancel a flight to South Carolina Tuesday evening to instead return to New Jersey.
