The 2016 Republican field has their first female candidate: Carly Fiorina, the former CEO of Hewlett-Packard, announced her entry into the fray on Monday.
Fiorina was the CEO of HP from 1999 to 2005, presiding over the critical years following the burst of the dotcom bubble.
As HP’s CEO, Fiorina was often described as one of the most powerful women in the world. By the end of her tenure, HP was the 11th most profitable company in the world–and the industry leader in a number of tech products.
Despite her business success, Fiorina faced an uphill battle in politics–she lost a contentuous California Senate race against Sen. Barbara Boxer back in 2010.
Nevertheless, Fiorina is proud to tout her pedigree as someone who isn’t a career politician: she’s been running on her sterling business record, as someone who can enact real change in Washington precisely because she’d be coming to the White House from outside government.
She’s also been quick to attack Hillary Clinton, claiming that: “[Facing a female candidate, Hillary] won’t be able to talk about a war on women without being challenged. She won’t be able to play the gender card.”
Fiorina currently polls at just 2% nationwide, but there have been reports of her locally gaining steam in early states like Iowa and New Hampshire.
It remains to be seen whether Fiorina can gain traction among Republican voters in the next few months–but, with the eventual Republican nominee likely facing Hillary Clinton, it’ll be interesting to see how another woman like Fiorina will fare in the Republican primary.
