Carly Fiorina — garnering just 1 percent in recent Iowa polling — ditched her alma mater Friday on Twitter, throwing her support behind the University of Iowa against Stanford University in the Rose Bowl.
“Love my alma mater, but rooting for a Hawkeye’s win today,” Fiorina wrote in a tweet just hours before kickoff.
After Fiorina fired off the tweet, an onslaught of replies directed at the Republican candidate accused her of pandering to Iowa voters one month before they get the first stab at picking the GOP nominee.
Fiorina graduated from Stanford in 1976 with a bachelor’s degree in medieval history and philosophy. She would later return to California as the CEO of Hewlett-Packard.
In June 2001, Fiorina gave the commencement address to Stanford’s new graduates.
"Before you leave, acknowledge the incredible wealth of resources you have in the Stanford community,” Fiorina said. "No matter how far you may wander from Palo Alto, you can rely on this lasting, rich and diverse web of ideas, knowledge, and friends you've constructed,” she added.
Fiorina ran for one of California's U.S. Senate seats in 2010 after she was fired from HP, but lost to incumbent Barbara Boxer by 10 percentage points. She moved to Virginia a year later.
In August, Fiorina told NBC News she had no regrets about leaving the state.
"No, not at all, it wasn’t home,” Fiorina said.
