Hillary Clinton Announces Presidential Bid Via Aide

Hillary Clinton announced Sunday through an email from campaign chairman John Podesta that she plans to run for president in the 2016 election.

Podesta’s email was sent to Clinton’s campaign donors, upstaging Clinton’s planned announcement via social media. She then posted a video, in which she declares, “I’m running for president,” and she also confirmed the news on Twitter.

The former first lady, who lost to Barack Obama in her bid for the 2008 Democratic nomination, joins Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) as candidates who have officially announced their intent to run in the presidential race.

Clinton is seen as unlikely to face many viable challengers for the party’s nomination this time around, with Sen. Elizabeth Warren having said she is not planning to run.

Clinton faced controversy of late after it was revealed that she used a personal email account instead of a government one during her tenure as Obama’s secretary of state, a position she held from January 2009 until February 2013. Republican Trey Gowdy, chairman of the House Select Committee on Benghazi, said he was told by Clinton’s lawyer that she deleted all emails from the private server she used during her term.

Clinton, who served as New York senator from 2001 to 2009, has been hit with previous controversies throughout her political career, including the Whitewater scandal and questions surrounding security lapses in the 2012 Benghazi attacks. 

During her 2008 presidential campaign, Clinton led her opponents in opinion polls taken in early 2007. She suffered a poor debate performance in October 2007, after which the race tightened significantly, and she was hurt by having voted in 2002 in favor of sending troops to Iraq. Lagging in online fundraising, she dropped out of the race on June 7, 2008, to endorse Obama, who defeated John McCain in November for the first of his two terms.

Clinton counts numerous Hollywood notables among her supporters, including Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Rob Reiner and Alan Horn. 

Clinton’s tweet and video can be seen below.

I’m running for president. Everyday Americans need a champion, and I want to be that champion. –H https://t.co/w8Hoe1pbtC

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) April 12, 2015

Email: Ryan.Gajewski@THR.com
Twitter: @_RyanGajewski