article date 9/25/16

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact...cker-biography/

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Editor’s Note: Every candidate running for president likes to highlight certain aspects of his or her biography. This is an occasional series taking a deeper look at 2016 candidates’ claims about their personal, professional or political record. We welcome suggestions for future fact checks, which we ultimately will compile as a collection. See our complete Scott Walker biography collection here.

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“I started as a secretary, typing and filing for a nine-person real estate firm. It’s only in this country that you can go from being a secretary to chief executive of the largest tech company in the world, and run for president of the United States. It’s only possible here.”

— Business executive Carly Fiorina (R), interview on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” Sept. 21, 2015

“My story, from secretary to CEO, is only possible in this nation, and proves that everyone of us has potential.”

— Fiorina, second GOP debate, Sept. 16, 2015

“A self-made woman, she started her business career as a secretary and went on to become the first, and to date, the only woman to lead a Fortune 20 company.”

— Fiorina’s biography on her 2010 campaign Web site for U.S. Senate seat in California

This column has been updated.

GOP presidential candidate Carly Fiorina tells this only-in-America life story in nearly every speech. She uses this description — of how she began her business career as a secretary and went on to be the first female chief executive of a major technology company — to portray how she overcame the odds to challenge the status quo.

In fact, Fiorina’s PAC, CARLY for America, owns the domain for FromSecretaryToCEO.com, a Web site dedicated to her life story. It evokes a rags-to-

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