Former Hewlett-Packard chief executive Carly Fiorina is actively pursuing a possible 2016 presidential run,
The Washington Post reported.
Fiorina is the only woman and the only possible candidate in the Republican field who has never held elective office — though she did try for a U.S. Senate seat in California.
Her Unlocking Potential PAC has pulled together $1.7 million from a few donors.
Political consultant Frank Sadler, who worked for Koch Industries, is advising her. She has been meeting with contributors, searching for campaign workers, and visiting presidential battleground states.
She said on NBC's "Meet the Press" that "When people keep asking you over and over again," about running for president "you have to pause and reflect. So I'll pause and reflect at the right time," the Post reported.
Among her upcoming appearances are speeches to the Iowa Freedom Summit in January and the Conservative Political Action Conference in February.
GOP political strategist David Carney says Fiorina, 60, is the kind of free-market advocate who could counter the arguments of left-leaning Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, according to the Post.
Fiorina also has her critics within the party, who say she is overrated and not at all presidential material.
Some Republican operatives are bitter over the $500,000 she still owes to staffers from her unsuccessful 2010 Senate bid. Others point to her forced resignation from Hewlett-Packard when the company merged with Compaq. Even those who say she has potential acknowledge that she does not have an obvious constituency within the Republican base, the Post reported.
Al Cardenas, a former chairman of the American Conservative Union, said "There will always be professionals out there looking to land the golden nugget of politics, which is a presidential campaign, and they'll be whispering sweet nothings in your ear, but you've got to come up with that $20 million or $30 million."
He added, "By virtue of the fact that she's a credible national figure and the only woman candidate out of 19, she should get her due attention at the outset," according to the Post.
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