Carly Fiorina, the former Hewlett Packard CEO now running for the Republican Party’s presidential nomination, released a letter addressed to the Republican National Committee (RNC) in which she blasts the debate networks for basing their qualification criteria on which candidates “make for the best TV.”
In her letter, addressed to RNC Chairman Reince Priebus, Fiorina notes that in 2012, the debate stages featured eight candidates until the Iowa Caucus, after which “all declared candidates still in the race” were allowed to participate—that included the ABC News New Hampshire debate.
“As of today, I will be the only candidate kept off the debate stage,” she wrote. “To review, we beat Governors Christie and Kasich in Iowa this week when voters actually had their say.”
She went on to note her campaign has the same number of delegates as Jeb Bush and John Kasich—one delegate—while Chris Christie doesn’t have any. She also noted that current polls show her ahead of Ben Carson in New Hampshire, and fourth-quarter fundraising reports show she has twice as much cash on hand as either Christie or Kasich.
“We are already on the ballot in 32 states, and there is a ground game with paid staff in 12 states,” she wrote. “Yet, all of these candidates will be invited to the ABC debate. I will not. There are only 8 candidates left. It’s time for the RNC to demand that media executives step aside and let voters hear from all of us.”
