Carly Fiorina “is waging a public war with both CNN, which is hosting the debate, and the Republican National Committee, which her campaign accused on Wednesday of ‘rigging the game’ to keep her out of the prime-time event,” the New York Times reports.

“Recognizing that Mrs. Fiorina may be excluded from the debate, costing her crucial exposure and dampening fund-raising efforts, her campaign has sought to turn the likely snub into a public relations victory in an effort to win her sympathy and attract support from anti-establishment Republicans.”

Andrew Ross Sorkin says “it is curious to those of us” who have reported on Carly Fiorina’s business career “that there has not been a greater focus in recent days on her ‘track records and accomplishments,’ as she suggested she should be measured by.”

“Even more striking, Mrs. Fiorina, the only former female chief executive among the candidates, continues to promote her business experience on the trail, yet she was fired by Hewlett-Packard after the company’s stock dropped by half in 2005. She has long blamed her failings at running the technology giant on the bursting of the dot-com bubble and the deepening recession in Silicon Valley after the Sept. 11 attacks.”

Wall Street Journal: “No Republican presidential contender benefited more from the televised debates than Mrs. Fiorina, a former Hewlett-Packard Co. chief executive who lost her only previous political campaign, for a Senate seat in California.”

“But while in 2012, some of the Republicans who surged in the White House race seemingly did so with little effort, this time the spotlight shines on a long shot who has spent months doing the spadework required of underfunded contenders looking to build buzz in Iowa and New Hampshire, one town-hall meeting at a time.”

Carly Fiorina “spent the day traveling, bouncing between television interviews, taking selfies, fielding calls from giddy supporters and trying to capi­tal­ize on her highly praised performance in a debate for lower-tier Republican presidential candidates Thursday night,” the Washington Post reports.

“The moment was months in the making for Fiorina, the former chief executive of Hewlett-Packard who launched a long-shot bid that has yet to gain traction in early polls. She has pitched herself as the GOP’s lone woman who can mercilessly criticize Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton — and joke about hormones in the White House — without being accused of sexism. She has tied some of her campaign stops to Clinton’s schedule and, at times, has seemed to play up her femininity, picking sundresses over suits, pink over black.”

Carly Fiorina’s presidential campaign “raised $1.4 million in the first fundraising quarter of her presidential campaign,” Politico reports.

“It’s a dismal number compared to those of rival operations. But Fiorina has one more chance to make a better showing: CARLY for America, the super PAC supporting her, is expected to release its numbers later this month. Under an unusual campaign structure, much of Fiorina’s political operation and rapid response team is housed under the umbrella of her super PAC, instead of her official campaign, so the super PAC’s total will be revealing.”

“I have been doing business in China for decades, and I will tell you that yeah, the Chinese can take a test, but what they can’t do is innovate. They are not terribly imaginative. They’re not entrepreneurial, they don’t innovate, that is why they are stealing our intellectual property.”

— Carly Fiorina, quoted by BuzzFeed.

Two new articles suggest Carly Fiorina (R) is impressing GOP voters in the early states.

New York Times: “Iowa voters are known to fall in love with firebrand candidates and underfunded outsiders, from Pat Buchanan in 1996 to Howard Dean in 2004. And this cycle, Republicans here are starting to swoon over Ms. Fiorina, who is so unknown in national polls that she may not even be included in the first presidential debate in August… Whether Ms. Fiorina, the only woman in the Republican race, can build from her status as a crowd-pleasing speaker and curiosity into a serious competitor is not clear. But something is happening on the ground here.”

Sacramento Bee: “Fiorina has gained an uncommon degree of attention in the early nominating states of Iowa and New Hampshire. She has endeared herself to conservatives who – while not considering Fiorina their first choice – relish her status as the Republican field’s only woman and most strident critic of the Democratic front-runner, Hillary Rodham Clinton.”

“Twelve of about 30 people who worked on Fiorina’s failed 2010 California Senate campaign, most speaking out for the first time, told Reuters they would not work for her again. Fiorina, once one of America’s most powerful businesswomen, is now campaigning for the Republican nomination in 2016. The reason: for more than four years, Fiorina – who has an estimated net worth of up to $120 million – didn’t pay them, a review of Federal Election Commission records shows.”

Wall Street Journal: “She says the three first-term senators lack sufficient experience to be commander-in-chief, but she doesn’t have that line on her résumé, having lost to Sen. Barbara Boxer (D., Calif.) in 2010, her first foray into politics as a candidate. And Ms. Fiorina is aiming to appeal to the same conservative activists she alienated in 2008 when she said Sarah Palin, then the GOP’s vice presidential nominee, wasn’t qualified to run a major corporation.”

“Ms. Fiorina was sacked from the job for which she is best known. The Hewlett-Packard board fired her after a 2005 boardroom-management slugfest. She now brands herself as a social conservative—though one who granted benefits to gay couples as a CEO and says she’d oppose a constitutional amendment to forbid gay marriage.”

And she apparently forgot to register the domain name carlyfiorina.org.

“Carly Fiorina’s political future depends on whether she can defend her record as CEO of Hewlett-Packard,” The Hill reports.

“The likely GOP presidential candidate is aiming to do just that in her new book Rising to the Challenge, set to be released May 5, a day after the expected launch of her 2016 campaign. Fiorina now claims the company’s decision to fire her in 2005, after a turbulent six-year tenure, was a result of a dysfunctional board of directors and not her leadership.”

Carly Fiorina (R) “plans to launch her presidential campaign on May 4, in an online announcement that dispenses with the pageantry that has become de rigueur in 2016 White House runs,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“The lack of fanfare stands in contrast to GOP candidates who already have declared. Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Marco Rubio of Florida held choreographed events to officially launch their 2016 efforts. Mrs. Fiorina won’t hold a public event the day she begins her campaign. It will also put Mrs. Fiorina at odds with two other GOP candidates announcing their 2016 plans that week.”

Carly Fiorina described the chance of her entering the GOP presidential race “at better than 90%, with her announcement coming in April or May,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

RealClearPolitics says a “less familiar potential 2016 presidential candidate is quietly garnering interest attention from the tightknit community of GOP power brokers.”

“Recent conversations with plugged-in Republicans across the state reveal a consensus that Carly Fiorina — the former Hewlett-Packard CEO — is positioning herself well as a potential dark horse White House contender capable of making a serious run.”

Carly Fiorina says she’s “very seriously considering running” for president in 2016, a move that could make her the highest-profile female in the Republican field, The Hill reports.

Said Fiorina: “I think we need different experience, different perspective and a different voice. There’s no doubt the world is missing American leadership and the world desperately needs American leadership.”