Silicon Valley weighs in on Carly Fiorina's run for president

SAN JOSE, Calif. (KGO) -- A well-known and controversial name from Silicon Valley has declared her candidacy for president. Carly Fiorina is a former CEO at Hewlett Packard. She says her corporate experience qualifies her for the White House.

Fiorina is now living in Virginia and no longer has roots in Silicon Valley. Regardless, she is using her leadership at HP as a key credential, but some would argue that part of her career might not be a great selling point.

She announced the news on ABC's Good Morning America and that is all it took to kick off the campaign. The Carly For President website is up and she has her first campaign video posted. Monday afternoon, she did a live broadcast on the smartphone app Periscope, using the technology to reach young voters.

She tried to unseat Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., for the U.S. Senate seat in 2010.

She had short hair at the time due to chemotherapy for breast cancer. At age 60, she has not held public office, which is a qualification that she says is a misconception.

"Our nation was intended to be a citizen government, and some how we've come to this place in our nation's history where we think we need a professional political class," Fiorina said.

Fiorina points to her five-year tenure at HP as the kind of leadership skills she would take to the oval office -- a tenure that included the layoff of 30,000 employees. Someone registered CarlyFiorina.org and posted 30,000 frowns representing each person she laid off.

The merger she oversaw of Compaq stirred controversy. People said she was a strong-willed manager without people skills.

"She wasn't able to establish that rapport with people. I think we saw that in her Senate race as well, and I think that's the question I would have with Carly is, can she establish that she really understands the working wolf of the average citizen that she's got to appeal to?" author Chuck House said, who wrote "The HP Phenomenon".

Voters say it's too early to commit to Fiorina.

"I think that it's ambitious and if she doesn't win, she at least runs a good-ideas campaign and platform on something people can get behind, but she doesn't have my vote right now," San Jose resident Matthew Watanabe said.

Depending on the Democratic and Republican nomination process, there could be two women running for president.

Also throwing a hat into the ring Monday on the Republican side, is retired surgeon Ben Carson. He made the announcement in his hometown of Detroit. On Tuesday, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee is expected to announce another run for the White House.