No matter where Carly Fiorina went on Mackinac Island on Saturday, she seemed more like a celebrity trying to mosey about town than a presidential candidate.
When the former Hewlett Packard chief executive arrived on the island, a gaggle of adoring supporters were in place to greet her. Later, on the porch of the Grand Hotel, which hosted the Mackinac Republican Leadership Conference, throngs of fans encircled her and attempted to take selfies. Inside, attendees formed a line an hour ahead of schedule.
It wasn’t enough to win her the conference straw poll, however, which Senator Rand Paul, lagging in most official polls, won from Fiorina by a 7% margin and with 22% of ballots cast. Paul gave a well-received speech after Fiorina.
This week, Fiorina, the only female in the 16-strong Republican field, was propelled up the polls following an almost-universally praised performance at the second presidential debate. The 61-year-old has promoted her credentials as a political outsider – someone, she says, who “understands how the economy actually works.”
By the time Fiorina entered the dining hall of the opulent hotel on Saturday evening, the excitement was evident: spokespeople for the Michigan Republican Party could be heard murmuring about quickly the room had filled to capacity. The Grand reported that 840 diners watched former Florida governor Jeb Bush speak on Friday night. On Saturday, Fiorina and Paul attracted 1,007.
At the beginning of her nearly half-hour speech, Fiorina said Republicans should “reintroduce ourselves to the American people”.
“We have to fight now for our values and our principles; for the future of our nation, and for the character of our nation,” she said. The audience applauded frequently.
To those present, Fiorina’s status as the only woman in the field, along with her takedown of Donald Trump in the debate, were noteworthy assets.
Tina Barton, a city clerk in suburban Detroit, told the Guardian: “A message that Carly Fiorina has tried to get across is that Republicans need to stop treating women like a special interest group.”
Barton thought Fiorina was “sounding the alarm” to the Republican Party that it “must bring female voices to leadership”.
“Failure to do so will find a repeat of the past presidential elections: women voting for a Democrat,” said Barton, who is currently running for county clerk. She had not committed to a candidate, though Fiorina was “in my top three”.
In Barton’s opinion, Fiorina has presented herself as a “smart, articulate, informed and classy candidate who has a vision and plan for our nation”.
Others noted her performance in the debate.
“She had a lot of courage to stand up there, to talk to Trump like that,” said Barbara Bailey, on the hotel’s porch for the Fiorina photo op.
The potential election of a first female president also attracted attention.
“It’s about time we got a female president,” said Mary Madden, stressing it should be anyone but Hillary Clinton.
As at the Heritage Action forum in South Carolina on Thursday, Fiorina stood out as the headliner of the event, particularly due to Trump’s absence. Dozens of attendees questioned about their pick in the race delivered a few candidates’ names, before seemingly drifting to Fiorina.
Such voters find themselves considering a candidate who has not served a day in a political office. Fiorina doesn’t mind attention to her inexperience. It’s the elected politicians in Washington that should be tossed aside, she said.
“The political class has failed us all, not because they’re bad people, but because they’ve been in this system for so long,” Fiorina said.
Her speech was light on specifics. But she did call again for the defunding of Planned Parenthood.
“I will continue to ask,” she said, “on every possible occasion – Hillary Clinton, President Obama, anyone who believes that the butchery of Planned Parenthood must be funded by taxpayers, [to] watch those tapes and explain to the American people.
Following Wednesday’s debate, Fiorina was accused of making misleading remarks on the content of undercover videos which appear to show Planned Parenthood officials discussing the sale of fetal material, charges the organisation denies. She said a fetus could be seen in one video with “its legs kicking while someone says we have to keep it alive to harvest its brain”.
Democrats said the videos did not contain such a scene, yet Fiorina doubled down, reportedly saying in South Carolina on Friday: “[T]hey are real and I will issue my charge again.”
Her high-profile performance preceded a well-received speech from Paul, who spoke an hour after Fiorina left the stage.
Paul subsequently won the straw poll, and other candidates who spoke on the island did well. After Paul and Fiorina, Ohio governor John Kasich was third with 13.7% and Texas senator Ted Cruz fourth with 13%. Former Florida governor Jeb Bush was fifth.
Then came Marco Rubio, Donald Trump and Ben Carson. Scott Walker, the Wisconsin governor whose poll numbers have tanked, cancelled his scheduled breakfast appearance. He received 2.5% of the vote, ahead of the former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee on 0.76%. No other candidate merited a placement.
Paul wanted term limits in DC. “We should fumigate the place,” he said.
Last month, Paul successfully persuaded the Kentucky GOP to switch its presidential selection process from a primary to a caucus – a move that will allow him to run for president and re-election to the Senate at the same time.
