As she weighs whether to mount a bid for president, Carly Fiorina began this week to delve publicly into her faith and her nonprofit work, two facets of her biography that she has not yet discussed in depth in advance of the 2016 election, but which have informed her perspective on foreign policy, among other key issues.
The former Hewlett-Packard CEO will attend the the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington on Thursday on behalf of Opportunity International, a micro-finance nonprofit group for which Fiorina serves as a chairwoman of the global board. She will be joined by Vicki Escarra, the group’s CEO and a former chief marketing officer for Delta Air Lines.
On Wednesday, Fiorina and Escarra spoke at a pre-prayer breakfast luncheon hosted by Opportunity International at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, during which they touched on its mission and its roots in Christian principles.
For Fiorina, the setting was an opportunity to discuss her own religious evolution, a narrative that will likely be central to her story on the campaign trail should she run for president, and a key to her conservative appeal.
“I think our faith is deeply personal,” Fiorina said. “There was a period of time in my life when my faith got to be kind of abstract. I prayed, but I sort of felt that God was a super CEO: He couldn’t possibly know the detail of every life.”
But Fiorina said her faith changed after she was diagnosed with breast cancer in early 2009, and when her step-daughter Lori Ann died at age 35 during Fiorina’s Senate campaign in California.
“Jesus was with me in a very personal way,” Fiorina said. “And I think the power of our faith is that we know, we believe, we see every day that God cares about each one of us.”
Fiorina has since become active in the nonprofit world, with Opportunity International and as chairwoman of Good360, which matches up corporate donations with charitable organizations that need them.
Often, Fiorina cites her business background as having prepared her to tackle economic and foreign policy issues, but she will likely also point during a campaign to her nonprofit work — including with Opportunity International, which hopes to create 20 million jobs for people living in poverty in developing countries by 2020.
“My bet is we will well exceed that goal,” Fiorina said Wednesday.
Her nonprofit work could also provide more fodder for Fiorina to attack Hillary Clinton, who often speaks of her family’s work with the Clinton Foundation. Already, Fiorina has begun to aggressively attack Clinton’s record on foreign policy as secretary of state.
“Like Mrs. Clinton, I, too, have traveled hundreds of thousands of miles,” Fiorina said during a speech last month at the Iowa Freedom Summit, “but flying and traveling is an activity, it’s not an accomplishment, and unfortunately she didn’t accomplish anything as secretary of state.”
In a brief interview with the Washington Examiner on Wednesday, Fiorina said she is beginning to bone up on foreign policy by consulting experts, and pointed to her pre-existing network of international connections.
“I know many of the world leaders on the stage today,” Fiorina said. “I know the Saudis and the Qataris, and I mention them only because of some of the hideous headlines that we’ve seen in the past 24 hours. I’ve met Putin.”
Those interactions have helped inform Fiorina’s position that President Obama has missed key opportunities to lead on foreign policy, including in his response to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.
“There’s a big opportunity with what’s going on with [the Islamic State] to create a new alliance between people who have been enemies for a long time, to pull together Egypt, and Jordan, and Israel, and Saudi Arabia, and Qatar, and UAE, and maybe Turkey, to bring those folks together in a concerted effort to defeat this evil of Islamic extremism,” Fiorina said. “But it won’t happen without leadership. America has to lead this effort, and sadly we’re not.”
And although some Republican candidates for president, like Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, have proposed that the U.S. roll back its aid to foreign countries, Fiorina said she is not in that camp.
“I think it’s vitally important that America remain engaged in the world, and foreign aid is part of that,” Fiorina said. “On the other hand, I also think we should be clear about the fact that there are some conditions.”
Fiorina cited as a positive example President George W. Bush’s Millennium Challenge, which set standards for countries to meet if they wish to receive U.S. aid.
Above all, Fiorina stressed, “we cannot disengage” from the international stage.
“We cannot, because the world is a more dangerous, more tragic place when we don’t lead, and we see that every day,” she added. “And we have to be mindful of the fact that countries like China are spending vastly greater sums of money all over the world to spread their sphere of influence. Our choices need to be, in part, informed by the context that we’re operating in.”
As she weighs a presidential bid, Fiorina is remaining active with Opportunity International, traveling just last week to India for the group’s global board meeting.
Fiorina said she has not yet discussed with Escarra whether Fiorina will keep or change her role with Opportunity International should she run for president.
“We haven’t, because it’s premature. I’m not a candidate yet,” Fiorina said. “If and when that time comes, then we’ll have that conversation.”
