Carly Fiorina Hits the Trail With an Eye on 2016 [View all]

[DonViejo]

A businesswoman with a mixed record might be the GOP’s only shot at a female presidential prospect.

BY EMILY SCHULTHEIS

September 24, 2014 MEREDITH, N.H.—She's been to New Hampshire three times and South Carolina once. She's heading to Iowa this weekend, and then North Carolina and Michigan after that. Clearly, Carly Fiorina is thinking about 2016.

But is anybody thinking about Carly Fiorina?

The former Hewlett-Packard CEO and 2010 Senate candidate is hitting the campaign trail in the lead-up to Election Day for her new super PAC, teaching activists and politicians how to talk to female voters—and building herself a grassroots base in a half-dozen electorally important states in the process.

While her efforts are focused on helping the GOP win control of the Senate in November, political strategists say Fiorina is doing all the right things to prep for a 2016 bid. And the message she's touting is a preview of the kind of role she could play, if she runs.

So will she run?

"People ask me that a lot, so if you get asked that a lot you have to think about it—you have to consider it," Fiorina told National Journal. "I'm flattered by the question and I have to consider it."

The possibility of a Fiorina candidacy—which at this point is, of course, still just a possibility—speaks to the dearth of Republican women considered to be presidential prospects.

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http://www.nationaljournal.com/politics/carly-fiorina-hits-the-trail-with-an-eye-on-2016-20140924