Sept. 17--With her crisp delivery of policy prescriptions and retorts to front-runner Donald Trump, Carly Fiorina clearly thought she won the night at Wednesday's GOP presidential debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley. She even declined to meet with reporters afterward in what an aide described to The Times as a "mic drop" moment, her team confident that Fiorina's performance alone would give her the night's most favorable headlines.
After doing well in last month's second-tier debate and her star turn Wednesday against the party's heavyweight candidates, the crucial questions going forward are whether Fiorina, the former Hewlett-Packard chief, can translate her debate-stage success into tangible support from the GOP voters who will pick the party's nominee for the White House and whether her underfunded operation has the organizational capacity to reap the benefits of newfound momentum.
But with heightened relevance comes heightened scrutiny.
Fiorina got an early-morning taste of that Thursday on NBC's "Today" when she was asked why Republicans should rally behind a candidate whose last two major endeavors -- her tenure at HP and a 2010 run for a Senate seat in California -- ended, respecively, in her firing and a crushing defeat.
"When you lead, you challenge the status quo, which is what the American people want now," Fiorina said, offering her rote response to questions about her dismissal. "And you make enemies when you challenge the status quo, and I made some."
She was abruptly cut off by host Savannah Guthrie, who asked whether those blots on her record were a weakness.
"I don't think it's a weakness at all," Fiorina curtly replied. "All of us are going to have to defend our track record."
Her underdog status is a shift from her Senate run. Then, she was initially viewed as a threat because of her financial resources but was an unknown force on the stump. Fiorina eventually proved in her first run for office to be a skilled campaigner, which propelled her to the GOP primary win.
Now, she is quickly moving up in the polls because of her charisma as a candidate, but remains unknown by many voters.
A look at her rise to recognition in the Republican primary field:
UPDATE
11:02 a.m.: This article has been updated with quotes from Carly Fiorina.
This article was originally published at 8:31 a.m.
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