Hillary Clinton to announce her presidential candidacy this weekend
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will announce her candidacy for the presidency online Sunday. Then, within a few days, Clinton will travel to an early voting state. The Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter, first reported that Clinton would announce this weekend, and the Guardian was first to report that it would take place Sunday.
Clinton's new epilogue to her 2014 book, "Hard Choices," released Friday with the paperback version and published on the Huffington Post, seems to hint at her pending announcement and some of the themes of her candidacy, in the part where she reflects on the birth of her granddaughter, Charlotte.
"Rather than make me want to slow down, it has spurred me to speed up," she wrote. Children "drive us to work for a better future," one which Clinton sees as globally interconnected. She continued, "If the United States continues to lead the world in the years ahead, as I believe it can and must, it will be because we have learned how to define the terms of our interdependence to promote more cooperation and shared prosperity and less conflict and inequality."
Clinton has been quietly hiring staff for months, including top Obama and Clinton aide John Podesta and former Obama Communications Director Jennifer Palmieri, and she reportedly just signed a lease for campaign headquarters in Brooklyn last week. This will be Clinton's second run for the presidency.
Her candidacy has practically been a foregone conclusion for months - still, she will be the first Democrat to declare she's running. The former secretary of state has been a clear frontrunner in the race that's in its very early stages and still taking shape, although there are a few other Democrats considering a run, including former Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley, former Virginia Senator Jim Webb, and possibly Vice President Joe Biden.
On Thursday, former Rhode Island Governor and Senator Lincoln Chafee announced he was opening an exploratory committee to consider running as a Democrat, as well. In an interview with CNN, he criticized Clinton saying, "Considering the premise for invading Iraq was based on falsehoods and considering the ramifications we live with now from that mistake, I would argue that anybody who voted for the Iraq War should not be president and certainly should not be leading the Democratic Party."
Clinton, unlike most of the other candidates and potential candidates, does not have any other fundraising mechanisms in place currently, although there are super PACs that have been supporting her candidacy for over a year. She has a substantial network of donors, however, and will have almost an entire quarter to raise money before the first fundraising reports are due this summer.