Carly Fiorina’s popularity has jumped from just three percent in the polls in early September to 15 percent after the recent Republican debate on CNN. She now has the second highest percentage of support, only behind Donald Trump who has 23 percent support according to CNN. This comes as a surprise considering that before the GOP pre-debate in August, Fiorina had little name recognition or success in the polls.

Impressing Listeners

As the previous CEO of an influential technology company, Hewlett-Packard, Fiorina used her skills as a practiced marketer to impress listeners of the August debate even though she ranked in the bottom tier of candidates at the time. Since then, she again made her presence known in the news when she fought for a spot in the prime time top tier section of the second Republican debate on CNN at the Reagan Presidential Library and made it.

In this debate, Fiorina had a standout performance in many areas, but she received the most praise for her response to the question of what woman the United States should put on the $10 bill. While other candidates suggested placing their mothers or daughters on the bill, Fiorina proclaimed women should not be considered a special interest group to be pandered to, but rather that women compose half of the potential of America and the nation will be best when women can live the lives they choose.

Criticism

Despite her success in the debates, she still receives criticism regarding her performance as CEO of HP. Although she often references her quintessentially American journey of working her way up from working as a secretary to being the first woman to lead a Fortune 20 company, critics compare her experience as the CEO of HP to a captain leading a ship to wreck.

More recently, supporters of Planned Parenthood threw condoms at Fiorina, protesting her statement claiming she saw a video of Planned Parenthood keeping a fetus alive in order to harvest its brain as later on. Fact checkers from ABC News stated that no such video exists.

Still, in spite of these criticisms, Carly Fiorina has molded herself into a formidable candidate who stands out on the crowded stage of GOP presidential candidates. Whether you agree with her policies or not, Fiorina clearly represents the power clear and bold communication plays in modern American politics.

Intelligence not Controversy

With Donald Trump continuing to remain at the top of the polls with his consistently controversial statements regarding women and race and everything in between, it appeared that clear and thoughtful communication loses in the Republican party. The debates no longer appeared to revolve around ideas or good policy, but about who could insult whom the best.

However, in the most recent debate at the Reagan Library, as Fiorina again let her voice be clearly heard among a sea of candidates, expressing ideas intelligently rather than for the sake of controversy. Carly Fiorina may or may not be the only candidate with good ideas or even the best candidate, but her recent success stemming from her clear communication represents a much broader hope for politics.