There will be no 2020 presidential campaign for Meg Whitman, in case you were wondering.
On Monday, the Hewlett-Packard Enterprise CEO ruled out a bid during an onstage interview at a tech conference in Atlanta. Whitman was asked pointedly if she would consider a presidential run if drafted. Her response? “No. I would not. I would definitely not think about it. Someone tweet that — I am not thinking about running for president,” according to tech news site CRN, which hosted the event.
Related: Whitman’s Five Year Plan For HP. Mission Accomplished?
Whitman, number seven on Coins2Day‘s 2017 Most Powerful Women list, is no political novice. Seven years ago, Whitman ran as a Republican candidate for governor of California, losing to Jerry Brown, despite spending $140 million of her own money. In the 2016 presidential race, she initially backed N.J. Governor Chris Christie, but ended up supporting Democrat Hillary Clinton in the general election against Donald Trump.
Speaking at the conference, Whitman said politics has become a tough sell for anyone.
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“We should be glad that anyone wants to run for public office,” Whitman said at the event. “This is one brutal game. It was in 2010 when I ran, and I think it is worse today. Honestly, it is a full-on combat sport. Think about it: why are there so many more litigators than there are politicians? Because they are used to that full-on combat sport.”
Related: Bye Bye, HP
Whitman is a seasoned veteran in Silicon Valley, even before taking on the top job at HP in 2011. Over the following few years, Whitman launched an aggressive turnaround plan for the struggling company, which involved tens of thousands of layoffs. She ended up engineering the split of that iconic company into HP Enterprise (HPE) and HP Inc. (HPQ)., which became final in 2015. Before HP, Whitman was CEO of online retail site eBay (EBAY) from 1998 to 2008.
Over the last few months, Whitman garnered headlines over another job she reportedly did not want: the new CEO at Uber. (That did not happen.)
Given her words this week, it’s safe to say Whitman is out of politics for good, right? Maybe not. Whitman did leave some wiggle room when she noted that she might want to go into public service as her next step. “We’ll see what happens,” she said.