Carly Fiorina

Political party: Republican Occupation: Former business executive Age: 56, born in Austin, Texas City of residence: Los Altos Hills and Washington, D.C. Personal: Husband Frank Fiorina; two stepdaughters (one deceased), two step-granddaughters Education: Bachelor's degree in history, Stanford University; MBA, University of Maryland; M.S., Sloan School of Management, MIT Career highlights: Senior executive, AT&T and its 1996 spinoff Lucent Technologies 1980-1999; chief executive and president, Hewlett-Packard, 1999-2005; chairman, Hewlett-Packard, 2000-2005.

As Democrats launch their general election assault on Mitt Romney, their approach has sounded familiar to those who followed the meteoric rise and fall of Carly Fiorina and Meg Whitman, corporate chieftains who lost their Republican bids for senator and governor in California two years ago. Much as Fiorina and Whitman emphasized their business experience, Romney's presidential campaign has presented him to voters as the man to tackle the nation's...

Failed California GOP Senate candidate Carly Fiorina was named on Tuesday as the vice chair of the Republicans' effort to retake the Senate in 2012. Fiorina, the former Hewlett-Packard chief who lost to incumbent Sen. Barbara Boxer by 10 points last November, was named the vice chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. "I'm pleased to welcome my friend Carly Fiorina to the NRSC team, where her many business and civic achievements will make her an invaluable leader and fundraiser during this critical election cycle," said the committee chair, Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, in a statement.  "I look forward to working with Carly to elect strong Republican Senators who will finally put a stop to President Obama’s failed tax-and-spend agenda, and instead promote the economic growth and job creation Americans so badly need.

Former U.S. Senate candidate Carly Fiorina was named Tuesday as a leader of the national Republican effort to retake the Senate in 2012. Fiorina, who lost to incumbent Sen. Barbara Boxer by 10 percentage points in November, will serve as a vice chairwoman on the National Republican Senatorial Committee. In that role, she will raise money for GOP candidates nationwide and speak publicly on economic issues. She was chief executive of Hewlett-Packard until she was ousted in 2005. "All the things that drove me to run for elected office keep me involved," Fiorina said in an interview.

Carly Fiorina Political party: Republican Occupation: Former business executive Age: 55, born in Austin, Texas City of residence: Los Altos Hills and Washington, D.C. Personal: Husband Frank Fiorina; two stepdaughters (one deceased), two granddaughters Education: Bachelor's degree in history, Stanford University; MBA, University of Maryland; M.S., Sloan School of Management, MIT Career highlights: Senior executive, AT&T and its 1996 spinoff Lucent Technologies 1980-1999; chief executive officer and president, Hewlett-Packard, 1999-2005; chairman, Hewlett-Packard, 2000-2005.

Former U.S. Senate candidate Carly Fiorina was named Tuesday as a leader of the national Republican effort to retake the Senate in 2012. Fiorina, who lost to incumbent Sen. Barbara Boxer by 10 percentage points in November, will serve as a vice chairwoman on the National Republican Senatorial Committee. In that role, she will raise money for GOP candidates nationwide and speak publicly on economic issues. She was chief executive of Hewlett-Packard until she was ousted in 2005. "All the things that drove me to run for elected office keep me involved," Fiorina said in an interview.

After spending months trying to convince Republican audiences that she is conservative to her core, GOP Senate nominee Carly Fiorina abruptly shifted strategy Saturday, campaigning in heavily Democratic South Los Angeles at a Juneteenth celebration where she was both warmly received and shouted down as a "two-faced liar" and a "turncoat." She strolled through Leimert Plaza Park with a traditional African scarf draped around her neck and a campaign photographer and videographer in tow — the visit grounded in political necessity as she looks ahead to a general election battle against Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer.

Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer and her Republican opponent Carly Fiorina met in a contentious first debate Wednesday that seethed with disputes over their records and covered a broad range of issues from the economy to climate change to abortion rights. For much of the hourlong debate, Boxer kept her opponent on the defensive by steering her answers into scathing critiques of Fiorina's record as chief executive at Hewlett-Packard, where she fired more than 30,000 workers before she was dismissed in 2005.

Rights, and wrongs Re "Bearing arms, citing rights," and "Boy, 9, kills brother, 2," July 11 Let's call the members of the "open carry" movement, who promote the right to carry guns in public, what they are: selfish and egotistical. They love the attention they get walking the streets with a pistol on their hip, and they don't give a damn if it frightens people like me and my kids. I'm sure it makes you feel real big to parade around showing off your power to kill, but to those of us who don't live in your imaginary Deadwood, it's scary and disturbing.

The most cherished American credo is that anyone can grow up and run for high office. Carly Fiorina's candidacy for the U.S. Senate, which she formally announced Wednesday, will put this notion to the test. Specifically: Can someone who has spent the last few years running from her checkered record as a big-business CEO, shown so little interest in politics that she consistently failed to vote and has at best a tenuous grasp of such major issues as healthcare reform prevail in a statewide California election?

Failed California GOP Senate candidate Carly Fiorina was named on Tuesday as the vice chair of the Republicans' effort to retake the Senate in 2012. Fiorina, the former Hewlett-Packard chief who lost to incumbent Sen. Barbara Boxer by 10 points last November, was named the vice chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. "I'm pleased to welcome my friend Carly Fiorina to the NRSC team, where her many business and civic achievements will make her an invaluable leader and fundraiser during this critical election cycle," said the committee chair, Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, in a statement.  "I look forward to working with Carly to elect strong Republican Senators who will finally put a stop to President Obama’s failed tax-and-spend agenda, and instead promote the economic growth and job creation Americans so badly need.

Despite a flood of efforts by outside groups hoping to defeat Barbara Boxer, the three-term Democratic senator significantly outraised her challenger Carly Fiorina and ultimately outspent Fiorina and her allies on the airwaves. In final campaign reports filed with the Federal Election Commission a month after Boxer's victory, the senator reported raising just over $28 million and spending almost all of it over the course of the campaign. Fiorina raised $22.6 million and spent more than $22 million, including a $1-million personal loan to the campaign that was repaid.

If ever there was an election in which Sen. Barbara Boxer's foes appeared to have their chance to defeat her, it was this one. Voters showed an inclination toward sweeping out longtime incumbents, and Boxer's resume included 28 years in Washington. Voters were skeptical about the effectiveness of the Obama administration's programs to recharge the economy, and she was one of the fiercest defenders of the federal stimulus bill and the new healthcare law. Californians said they were looking for leaders with economic expertise and an ability to create jobs, and she was a senator best known for ideological crusades on social issues, running against an opponent who was the first woman to run a Fortune 20 company.

Republican Senate nominee Carly Fiorina ended her campaign much as she started it, arguing that her business background had prepared her to come to the rescue of more than 2 million unemployed Californians and that, after Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer's three decades of public service, it was time to give someone else a chance. In the midst of her last dash from Sacramento to San Diego, the former Hewlett-Packard chief executive wound her way through a buzzing Republican Party phone bank in downtown Pasadena, exchanging hugs and handshakes while scooping up a few live voter calls.

Over the last decade, Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer has used her political action committee to galvanize supporters behind some of her top priorities ? collecting petition signatures to ban drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge or pressing for an exit strategy in Iraq ? while steadily building a list of donors that has allowed the PAC to contribute more than $1.2 million to federal candidates. By the senator's own account, the driving force behind the successes of her PAC for a Change ?

Republican U.S. Senate nominee Carly Fiorina, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2009 and given a clean bill of health last fall, was admitted to a hospital Tuesday for treatment of an infection that her aides said was related to her reconstructive surgery this summer. The campaign disclosed few details about her diagnosis and did not say where she was treated, but said she would remain hospitalized overnight. Aides said she hopes to be back on the campaign trail within a few days.

Carly Fiorina, whose rocky tenure as chief executive of Hewlett Packard ended with her firing, is making serious preparations to run next year for the Republican nomination to challenge U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.). Fiorina's candidacy would be her first foray into elective politics and would turn California's Senate contest into one of the most closely watched in 2010. In a state that tilts strongly toward Democrats, Boxer would still be favored to win a fourth term, polls suggest.

Eleven years ago, Carly Fiorina, who proudly touts herself as a one-time secretary and law school dropout, was hired as chief executive of tech giant Hewlett-Packard Co. Her mission: to breathe life into the slumbering electronics giant, which was missing out on the technology boom going on around it. Fiorina was by then a seasoned AT&T and Lucent Technologies executive who had been named the most powerful woman in business by Fortune...

First Lady Michelle Obama lent her considerable star power to Sen. Barbara Boxer on Tuesday, telling hundreds of supporters in the Mid-Wilshire area that the three-term senator was a critical advocate for the middle class and the Democratic agenda in Washington, D.C. Obama described Boxer as passionately supportive of members of the U.S. military and their families, as well as small businesses. "As you all know, when it comes to being a champion for California's families, there is no one who fights harder, there is no one who cares more deeply than our friend Barbara Boxer," Obama told more than 1,000 people at the Wilshire Ebell Theater.

Republican Senate nominee Carly Fiorina will remain in the hospital overnight for observation, aides said Tuesday evening, adding that she hopes to be back on the campaign trail later in the week. Fiorina, a breast cancer survivor, was admitted to the hospital Tuesday morning for treatment of an infection related to her reconstructive surgery in July. After being diagnosed with cancer in February 2009, Fiorina underwent chemotherapy, a double mastectomy and radiation and was pronounced cancer-free that October.