A senior Republican National Committee spokeswoman has been hired by Unlocking Potential, the political action committee of Carly Fiorina, further fueling speculation that the former Hewlett-Packard CEO is considering a run for the White House,
CNN reports.
"Carly Fiorina is a sharp, thoughtful and committed conservative leader who believes in the limitless potential of all Americans, and I'm looking forward to getting started," Sarah Isgur Flores, the RNC's deputy communications director, said in a statement emailed to the cable network.
The hiring of Flores, who served as an adviser on Mitt Romney's 2012 presidential campaign and as Texas Sen. Ted Cruz's campaign political director, is the latest move by Fiorina in preparation for a possible presidential campaign.
Fiorina was active on the campaign trail during the midterm elections, raising money through her PAC, which was launched in June, and traveling across the country in support of numerous Republican candidates.
More recently, she has given approval to members of her close-knit group to begin searching for candidates for senior-level positions, including political director and communications director, reported the
National Journal.
According to several sources, the effort to build a potential campaign is being led by Amy Noone Frederick, who shares a seat on the board of directors of the American Conservative Union Foundation with Fiorina.
Recent additions to her staff include political consultants Frank Sadler and Stephen DeMaura, who leads the pro-business group Americans for Job Security, according to
The Washington Post.
Like GOP front-runner Jeb Bush, Fiorina is releasing a book, "
Times of Challenge, Moments of Grace," later this year.
According to the book's publisher, Penguin Books, it will be "an important blueprint for conservatives as we approach the critical elections of 2016."
Despite a lack of political campaign experience — she ran unsuccessfully against Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer of California in 2010 — some GOP strategists say she has potential as a candidate.
“She’s very articulate, she’s very thoughtful, and has a very positive message. She’s got just as much of a record of accomplishment and a story and ideas as anybody else who’s running," Republican campaign strategist Dave Carney told The Post.
Carney said Fiorina's free-market conservative beliefs could serve as an "antidote to the Elizabeth Warren arguments from the left," a reference to the Massachusetts senator, the current favorite of Democratic progressives.
Others, like
San Francisco columnist Debra Saunders, are more circumspect.
Saunders notes that Fiorina has yet to erase $486,418 in campaign debt from her 2010 Senate race and that, while failing to pay several consultants on that campaign, she "paid back to herself $1 million of the $6.8 million she had loaned her campaign on the day before the election."
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