Fiorina draws wild cheers, vote pledges at phone bank

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. With a bank of cameras inches from her face, she chatted with one voter named Joseph who inquired about her health (“I am fantastic”), her husband’s cultural roots and whether she was Italian (“I should have been, I wave my arms a lot, I speak Italian, I love pasta, but I’m not.”).

Mid-conversation, she announced to the room that Joseph had promised her 10 votes from his family members. “You have everyone in your family, go find 10 more,” the candidate told him before signing off.

Standing amid the card tables and stacks of voter lists in a burnt-orange jacket and brown leather pencil skirt, Fiorina predicted that Californians on Tuesday would cast their ballots “for jobs.”

“When 70-plus percent of the people believe our nation is headed in the wrong direction, you don’t vote for someone who’s been in Washington, D.C., for 28 years. You vote for someone who’s never been to Washington, D.C., before,” Fiorina said in her closing argument. “You vote for someone who has created jobs, you vote for someone who has cut spending … you vote for someone who finds common ground with people all the time, and will find common ground with anyone who is willing to work with me on putting Californians back to work and getting government spending under control.”

“Are we going to win tomorrow night?” she asked. The crowd went wild.

“Exactly,” Fiorina said. “Yeah, we are going to win tomorrow night.”