It’s a Marathon — Fiorina Plans to Exceed Expectations and Hang On

Portsmouth, N.H. — “I need your help,” Carly Fiorina told a crowd gathered on the patio at Geno’s Chowder & Sandwich Shop here Tuesday morning. “I need your help to get my name out there. I need your help to advocate for me, to say to people, you know what, she’s the real deal. I think she can do it. Listen to her.”

That’s Fiorina’s challenge: persuading voters and the political class that she is serious about running for president. She faces obstacles: She is not well known, and she has significantly less money than some of her opponents. But she sees a path to the nomination by playing the long game and consistently exceeding the low expectations people have for her. Her aim is to be standing at the end.

“The biggest issue I have is not enough people know who I am,” Fiorina told National Review on Tuesday. “So that’s why we’ve got to be out there.”

Fiorina, the former CEO of Hewlett-Packard and a onetime Senate hopeful from California, is doing that. She has rolled out long lists of endorsements from party officials and elected officers — in New Hampshire, more than almost every other candidate. And she has taken on a packed schedule of public events and private meetings: In public, she is answering numerous questions from both voters and the press. Monday marked the start of an eight-day trip, with 13 public events. In private, she is working the phones. Her meetings with influential Republicans include a dinner last Monday at the home of Republican activist Renee Plummer.

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“She’s probably made better use of the New Hampshire primary than anybody in a decade,” said Charlie Arlinghaus, president of the Josiah Bartlett Center, a conservative think tank in New Hampshire.

And she has seen some movement in public perception as a result, said former New Hampshire GOP chairman Fergus Cullen, “going from somebody that a lot of folks weren’t really taking seriously. . . . She has built concrete support.”

Just two months ago, Katie Couric asked Fiorina whether she was really just running for vice president, echoing a sentiment oft-repeated in political chatter. From conversations with Republicans, that sentiment appears not to have been totally stamped out, but in an interview on Tuesday in a booth in Popovers, a restaurant here, Fiorina said she felt she’d moved past that.

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“I think in 60 days we’ve gone from a lot of people in the political class saying, ‘Of course she’s running for VP’ to now saying, ‘You know, this is a serious candidate. She’s a credible candidate. She can win this, she can do the job,’” Fiorina remarked. “So I think we’re making very slow, very steady progress, and I’m happy with the progress that we’re making. I’m not worried with people thinking, particularly after the first debate, that I’m running for veep.”

First, though, Fiorina has to snag a spot on the stage of that initial debate next month. She has worked her way into the top ten, or onto the cusp, in recent national polls. But on the cusp with her are seven other candidates who are now pulling out all the stops to get themselves on that stage.

She also has to raise the money. In an interview with Time last month, Fiorina said, “I think being able to build up the financial support necessary to run a presidential campaign is a big part of demonstrating you have the support to win.”

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But Fiorina’s fundraising in the first quarter of her candidacy was anemic. She announced a haul of just $1.4 million after 58 days of campaigning. That sum, according to the campaign, is what they were aiming for. “We are ahead of our targets,” Fiorina said.

Still, it’s a total that pales in comparison even with that of some Senate candidates. For instance, it’s the same sum raised by Representative Patrick Murphy (D., Fla.), who is running for the U.S. Senate.

The super PAC backing her, CARLY for America, raised $3.4. And the campaign is outsourcing some activities to the outside group. Fiorina told attendees to “sign up for CARLY for America.”

Fiorina sees her path to the nomination as a long haul. With so many candidates, she said, a candidate does “not necessarily” have to win any single primary but rather must be able to stick it out to the final round, when the field of 17 gets whittled down to a more manageable number.

“It’s gonna be a long process of elimination before it’s a process of selection,” she said. “And so we think the name of the game is not to stake everything on any one thing, but to continue to exceed expectations, continue to perform.”

#related#The expectations, for now, are not that high. In a field with nationally feted governors and senators, Fiorina is someone with little political background. She declares this with great relish, dismissing the “professional political class” as out of touch with the people it’s supposed to represent and unable to accomplish its basic functions. It’s a knock she applies to both parties.

For instance, repealing Obamacare, Fiorina said, would not happen “until after a presidential election.” Fiorina said that a plan to replace Obamacare was a necessary precursor to repealing it, and that the Republican presidential nominee would have to be the one to put the plan forward.

“I think it’s unrealistic to expect the Republican Congress to come up with a plan,” she said. “I don’t think they’re going to.”

One thing that noticeably differentiates Fiorina from the Republican pack is that she is the only woman seeking the GOP nomination. And though she’s not hammering voters over the head with that fact, her gender seems to be adding to their interest.

“We need more women in politics,” said Terry Vitiello, an employee at Laars Heating Systems in Rochester, N.H., who sought out Fiorina to talk to her while she took a tour of the facility Tuesday.

One woman who approached Fiorina for a photo outside the Life Is Good store, where Fiorina had just bought T-shirts for her granddaughters, said that she planned to vote for a woman for president, and said she was deciding between Fiorina and Hillary Clinton.

There’s a sense that whether or not they decide to vote for her, voters — especially women voters — really want her to do well.

“Wow, one of the smartest women in the world and she’s in my store!” squeals Kathie Colella, as Fiorina enters her Portsmouth flower store, Jardiniere, to send bouquets to Plummer and the owner of Geno’s, as thanks for hosting her. Before she fills the order, Colella pauses to page her husband, Vinny, telling Fiorina, “He will just be beside himself.”

“I think being a really smart woman and being in the world and successful gives all women a voice, and I just really like that,” Colella tells National Review after the visit.

Whether that actually translates into concrete support remains to be seen. “It’s so early,” Vinny Colella says when asked if their enthusiasm meant they planned to back her. “But certainly she demands a lot of interest.”