Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina dropped out of the race for the Republican nomination on Wednesday, over a disappointing finish in the New Hampshire primaries and her ineligibility to participate in upcoming presidential debates.
“This campaign was always about citizenship,” Fiorina wrote in a Facebook post on her official campaign account. “I’ve said throughout this campaign that I will not sit down and be quiet. I’m not going to start now. 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.”
Issued by the sole female candidate in the Republican field, Fiorina’s statement singled out women who looked up to her as someone who could go toe-to-toe with the male-dominated political establishment, urging them not to be bound to ideology because of their gender.
“Do not let others define you,” Fiorina wrote, addressing women and girls. “Do not listen to anyone who says you have to vote a certain way or for a certain candidate because you’re a woman. That is not feminism. Feminism doesn’t shut down conversations or threaten women. It is not about ideology. It is not a weapon to wield against your political opponent. A feminist is a woman who lives the life she chooses and uses all her God-given gifts.”
Fiorina, 61, was one of a trio of Republican presidential candidates who had never before held elected office. Her 2010 run for one of California’s seats in the US Senate collapsed, despite Fiorina’s willingness to spend millions of dollars of her personal fortune to fund her campaign.
The candidate had hoped to market her candidacy on her success as a business leader who had cracked the glass ceiling of the C-suite, but she was dogged by her record as CEO of HP. The computer giant’s $25bn acquisition of Compaq was roundly considered a bust, and Fiorina was ousted by the company’s board in 2005 with a $21m golden parachute.
A surprisingly adept undercard debate performance briefly launched Fiorina into the upper tier of candidates, but questions about the veracity of claims she made regarding Planned Parenthood in subsequent debates overshadowed her poised performances, and her poll numbers never recovered. Fiorina finished the Iowa caucuses with 2% of the vote, placing her above only Ben Carson, another political arriviste, in Tuesday’s New Hampshire primaries.
Questions about Fiorina’s knowledge of foreign policy were an additional hurdle. Although she said in an interview with the Guardian that she knew “more world leaders on the stage” than any of her competitors for the 2016 nomination, her foreign policy worldview revolved more around criticism of the Obama administration than any overarching philosophy. After terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, California, put national security at the forefront of voters’ minds, Fiorina was relegated to a lower tier.
“As I have said to the many wonderful Americans I have met throughout this campaign, a leader is a servant whose highest calling is to unlock potential in others,” Fiorina said in the conclusion of her statement. “I will continue to serve in order to restore citizen government to this great nation so that together we may fulfill our potential.”
