Fiorina and her aides have plotted an aggressive season of travel this fall to states with and without close Republicans races as she looks to help down-ballot Republicans, but people familiar with the plans said she is also looking to curry favor with the influential 168 members of the Republican National Committee. In phone calls and emails, Fiorina has reached out to party chairs across the country as well as RNC committee-men and -women who will elect a successor to incumbent RNC chairman Reince Priebus in January.
“The past few months Carly has been helping out with major races around the country, I know she is planning to reach out to your party chairman in the next week or so, just to touch base and see if there is any way she could be helpful to Republicans in the [Insert State or Territory] this Fall,” a Fiorina advisor wrote to multiple state party executive directors in recent weeks.

What elevated Fiorina’s travel from popular surrogate and fundraiser to that of RNC chair candidate, according to multiple RNC members, was her outreach to the U.S. territories, a particularly powerful voting bloc within the RNC but fall way down on the party’s priority list for the fall.