After the 3 hour GOP debate on Wednesday, former Hewlett-Packard CEO, Carly Fiorina, has rocketed to second place in CNN’s GOP Poll released on Sunday morning. Fiorina 15% support has risen by 3% since the last poll in early September. Although she is still behind Trump by 9 percentage points, her increase in approval ratings is significant because Trump’s ratings dropped 8 percentage points and 3^rd place candidate, Dr. Ben Carson, has experienced a 5 percentage point decrease since the last poll. Interestingly, the top three Republican candidates are considered political outsiders, something you probably already know because all three candidates love to bring this up whenever possible. With polls still shifting, it is difficult to see who the front-runner is in the race for nominee.

The former CEO’s increase in approval is mainly due to her poised and focused demeanor throughout the GOP debate. Fiorina’s strong criticism of Planned Parenthood involved a pledge to defund the government program and making questionable allegations that the organization sells body parts of aborted fetuses. Fiorina’s harsh accusation is not well substantiated because the videos that she is referring to have been edited and have not been connected directly to Planned Parenthood. Although these accusations have been considered controversial, her strong views against Planned Parenthood seem to have helped her in the latest polls.

During the debate, however, it was not her opposition towards Planned Parenthood that received the applause from the crowd, but her response to Donald Trump’s recent comment about Fiorina’s appearance. Trump stated in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine, “Look at that face! Would anyone vote for that? Could you imagine that? The face of our next president?” When asked about this statement during the debate, Fiorina calmly stated, “I think women all over the country heard very clearly what Mr. Trump said.” Her indifferent reaction received one of the largest applauses from the crowd on Wednesday night and the positive polls show that most viewers felt the same. This comeback left Trump speechless (for once) and he tried to recover by saying that she is a beautiful woman. Because many approve of Trump’s fearlessness to speak his mind and others think it is distasteful, his turgid speech style has proven to have positive and negative effects on his campaign’s success level. According to CNN, 52% of Republican viewers believed that Fiorina was the winner while 31% think that Trump lost.