No, Mrs. Fiorina hasn’t won elected office before, but she is not an anti-establishment figure. She’s a businesswoman whose views fit within the mainstream of the party.
She is similar in many ways to the party’s last nominee, Mitt Romney, even down to the fact that both lost Senate races in heavily blue states. The important exception is that he also won one election before running for president (for Massachusetts governor). Every recent national survey has shown her faring best among affluent and well-educated Republicans. There was even a Fox poll that showed her earning no support among respondents making less than $50,000.
.. If she winds up fading in the polls — and indeed, she has already lost ground since the last debate — it’s quite possible that many of her supporters will drift toward an establishment candidate like Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio or even John Kasich.