Jim Gilmore is working to make consecutive appearances on the debate stage for the first time this election season, and sees Carly Fiorina as his ticket to getting there.
“Carly Fiorina has written the Republican National Committee and is doing paid robo-calls designed to force ABC to include her in the upcoming debate,” Gilmore wrote in a letter to ABC News, which is hosting the next Republican debate in New Hampshire on Saturday.
“Despite Ms. Fiorina’s claims to the contrary there are nine candidates remaining in the Republican field, including me. I am not going to use her tactics to try to intimidate one of America’s great networks, but I do believe all of the candidates should be included in the Saturday event, especially if Ms. Fiorina is invited to participate,” Gilmore added.
Fiorina has recently appeared on TV news programs, urging ABC to include her on the debate stage. She has received the backing of a number of significant Republicans, including former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney.
Both Gilmore and the former Hewlett-Packard CEO are the only two Republican candidates of the remaining nine that do not qualify for the next debate. Neither one met the criteria outlined by the network, which states that in order for a candidate to receive an invitation they had to place among the top three in the popular vote in the Iowa caucuses or place among the top six in recent New Hampshire and national polls.
According to Gilmore, if the debate criteria is changed to include Fiorina, he should also be included, because he has more relevant experience to become commander in chief.
“By any standard, as the only veteran in the presidential field, as a former prosecutor, a former attorney general, a former governor and a former chairman of a national terrorism commission, I am more qualified for the presidency than Ms. Fiorina,” Gilmore wrote.
“Additionally, Ms. Fiorina and I both were in the undercard debate in Iowa last week and almost all of the observers claimed I was the winner of that debate. My campaign is moving upward in New Hampshire while her campaign has been on a downward trend for the last several months,” wrote Gilmore, who decided to bypass Iowa in order to focus his campaign on the Granite State’s first-in-the-nation primary next week.
Fiorina received 3,474 votes in Iowa, which gave her seventh place and one delegate. It also tied her with other candidates who did make the debate stage: former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, who this week suspended his campaign. Gilmore received only 12 votes in Monday’s Iowa caucus, came in last behind “Other,” and received no delegates.
Still, because eight other Republican candidates have dropped from the presidential race, Gilmore said, “by all that is fair,” he should be included on the debate stage.
“Not because I have complained, but because by any measure I am more qualified to be on that stage than Ms. Fiorina,” Gilmore added.
“I respectfully ask that you include ALL Republican candidates in the ABC debate to give NH voters a choice. But especially if you modify your requirements so that Ms. Fiorina is included in the upcoming debate, you should modify them so all the Republican candidates are included, including me,” Gilmore wrote.
