While it’s more than fair to wonder how Carly Fiorina will handle the challenges of the marathon of a presidential campaign, “Fiorina lost in her Senate race in 2010” is probably one of the weakest arguments against her. Knocking off an incumbent senator is difficult – between 1980 and 2012, the GOP never did more than two in a year – and the only GOP challenger to knock off an incumbent Democrat in a Senate or governor’s race in California since 1976 was Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Fiorina’s decision to run in California – as a pro-life, anti-gay-marriage, critical-of-public-sector-unions conservative is probably comparable to Hillary Clinton running for Senate as Democrat in Texas.
For what it’s worth, Carly Fiorina’s 42.2 percent in California’s 2010 Senate race was the best since Matt Fong’s 43 percent in 2000. Fiorina’s share of the vote was slightly better than usual for a GOP Senate candidate; Elizabeth Emken received 37.5 percent on Election Day 2012, Richard Mountjoy received 35 percent in 2006, Bill Jones received 37.8 percent in 2004, and Tom Campbell received 36.5 percent in 2000.