Republican candidate Carly Fiorina announced Wednesday that she is dropping out of the presidential race. She finished poorly in the New Hampshire primary, coming in seventh among the contenders. The former Hewlett-Packard CEO posted her decision on Facebook and other social media accounts.
“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,” she stated.
Fiorina’s standing in New Hampshire was not helped by the fact that she was unable to qualify for the ABC News debate in Manchester, USA Today reported.
She wrote a letter to the Republican National Committee protesting the criteria that led to her exclusion, to no avail. She noted that although she finished with only 2 percent of the vote, in seventh place in Iowa, she was still ahead of both Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey and Governor John Kasich of Ohio. Both of the men qualified to be included in the next debate. Fiorina ended up with only 4 percent of the vote in New Hampshire.
The Washington Times reported that Frank Sadler , Carly’s political campaign manager, let staffers know of the decision to drop out on Wednesday in a conference call. Charlie Gerow, Fiorina’s advisor, spoke for the staff.
“The team is obviously exceptionally proud of her for not even being known by 96 percent of the electorate entering the race. She is now clearly well-known, well-liked and well-respected today and will be a strong and powerful voice for Republican principles for a long time to come.”
Although Fiorina started out the underdog in this presidential race, she did quite well in the first debate, which was hosted by Fox News. It allowed her to participate in the second debate on September 16, 2015, on the main stage. That debate was hosted by CNN at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, California.
Fiorina had another strong performance in the debate, taking on front-runner Donald Trump regarding the derogatory comments about her looks that he had made recently in a magazine interview.
“I think women all over this country heard very clearly what Mr. Trump said.”
RELATED STORIES Carly Fiorina’s Latest Jab At Hillary Goes Personal, Did She Go Too Far?
Carly Fiorina Uses Preschool Children At Anti-Abortion Rally Without Parental Permission
Hillary Clinton Lambasted By Carly Fiorina During Undercard Debate
Carly Fiorina Declares Donald Trump Is ‘The Kim Kardashian Of Politics’
But Carly Fiorina’s time in the limelight did not last, as Donald Trump, Florida Senator Marco Rubio, and Texas Senator Ted Cruz slowly took over the lead, squeezing her out.
At the same time, Carly found herself under assault by Planned Parenthood after she discussed, during a debate, the undercover videos which showed Planned Parenthood’s handling of fetal tissue.
Breaking News: #CarlyFiorina is suspending her campaign for president, according to her Facebook page. pic.twitter.com/86OHoBeNRo
— Fox News (@FoxNews) February 10, 2016
An outspoken critic of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, Carly was quite willing to attack Clinton when necessary. During one debate last month, Fiorina said that although Clinton wants to go to the White House, the former secretary of state is really qualified to go to the “big house.”
CNN reported that Carly even held a press conference in South Carolina outside the same hotel that Hillary Clinton was having an event just a few minutes later.
This presidential race was Carly Fiorina’s second attempt at being elected to a political office. In 2010, she ran for California’s Senate seat, but lost to incumbent Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer by 10 percentage points.
[Photo by Darren McCollester/GettyImages]