Pressure Intensifies on ABC to Include Carly Fiorina in Debate

“Carly Fiorina has campaigned hard in New Hampshire to earn support from voters”, Ayotte said in a statement to ABC, which is hosting the debate.

Despite this the RNC and ABC are looking to exclude Carly in the debate.

Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina is fighting to get on the debate stage on Saturday, the last one before the New Hampshire primary next Tuesday.

ABC’s criteria “includes the top three finishers in the Iowa caucuses, as well as any candidate polling within the top six in averages of recent New Hampshire or national polls”, according to The Hill.

Rick Santorum (R-PA) announced on Wednesday that they were suspending their campaigns, only Fiorina and former Gov. Jim Gilmore (R-VA) would be left on the sidelines of Saturday’s debate. That excised then-Texas Rep. Ron Paul in favor of former Tennessee senator Fred Thompson, whose stumbling candidacy was not making a play for New Hampshire.

Saturday’s debate is the first without an undercard event for low-polling candidates. She also posted an open letter on Medium.

Fiorina was able to successfully argue her way into a main stage debate back in September.

I trust you will act appropriately.

In an interview on MSNBC Thursday, Fiorina said, “I’m a more viable candidate than a lot of the guys on that stage so they need to put me on it”.

“Fiorina is now undercutting her message, namely that Clinton’s gender is no reason to elect her president”, Rubin wrote, noting that Fiorina had criticized ABC for choosing to exclude “the only woman” in the race.

The pitch was pretty simple. Logistically, the difference between an eight-candidate debate and a seven-candidate debate was minimal.

The RNC has yet to respond, and Fiorina’s camp says the network will announce which candidates are invited in an announcement on Thursday night. The polls in Iowa were wrong – what a shock! “Don’t worry, I will not go silently”.