Carly Fiorina is ending her bid for the Republican presidential nomination. <br /> <br />The former Hewlett-Packard executive announced the decision on Facebook Wednesday after finishing seventh in New Hampshire's primary. <br /> <br />"While I suspend my candidacy today, I will continue to travel this country and fight for those Americans who refuse to settle for the way things are and a status quo that no longer works for them," Fiorina said in a post. <br /> <br />The writing was on the wall after she didn't qualify for last week's ABC News debate, and a last-minute campaign on her behalf to allow her in was unsuccessful. <br /> <br />Fiorina's best moments of the campaign came in the first two presidential debates. <br /> <br />She shined in the "undercard" for the first debate, hosted by Fox News, earning enough of a bump in the polls to make the cut for the main stage in the second debate, hosted by CNN. <br /> <br />And then she handed in a strong enough performance in that debate to rise into the top-polling tier of GOP candidates. <br /> <br />Those poll bounces didn't stick, though -- fading slowly as Donald Trump dominated media attention, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz courted evangelicals and hard-line conservatives and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio worked to consolidate establishment Republicans. <br /> <br />Fiorina also found herself facing a barrage of criticism from Planned Parenthood and its allies after her characterization during one debate of the undercover videos assailing the organization's handling of fetal tissue proved inaccurate. <br /> <br />Her campaign was built on the argument that -- as a woman with a lengthy private-sector resume -- she was the Republican best suited to take on Hillary Clinton in a general election. <br /> <br />Fiorina's willingness to attack Clinton -- she once invited media to a press conference outside the same hotel in South Carolina where Clinton was holding an event just minutes later -- could keep her in the running for the vice presidential nomination. <br /> <br />Fiorina's disappointing performance in Iowa -- she received 2% support there -- was punctuated by her decision to skip her caucus-night party there, citing a snowstorm ahead, and head straight for the airport for her flight to New Hampshire. <br /> <br />The 2016 race was Fiorina's second bid for political office. She previously for California's Senate seat in 2010, but lost by 10 percentage points to incumbent Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer.
