I stand here today on an island in the middle of the mighty Mississippi clear eyed about the fight ahead to say these words, "I am a candidate for president..."
Things in the last few weeks have started to feel real. We have the largest and most diverse Democratic field in recent history,
if not, ever. Where do they go first? Where do they decide to make their announcement? What's the backdrop?
Are they in a big crowd? Are they in an intimate space? Are they chatting with a talk show host? It's all very carefully calculated.
I stand before you today to announce my candidacy for president of the United States
Senator Kamala Harris is out of the gate making a very clear play from the beginning who she sees her
Constituencies as she announced on dr. Martin Luther King jr. Day. I have been warning America
I am running for president in the United States. You had a kickoff rally in Oakland. She's basing her campaign in Baltimore
she's very clearly making the argument that the electorate that can put her in the White House as female and
African-american in our country if you work hard and play by the rules
you ought to be able to take care of yourself and the people you Elizabeth Warren announced with a video and
Then went straight to Iowa
she's preaching a sort of prairie populism in the same parts of the
Midwest where Bernie Sanders did well and where Donald Trump did well and I think the most interesting event that she did was a
Women's roundtable with Iowa female candidates. It was a
Transformative this event was a way of thing
It wasn't these women's year in 2016, but it was in 2018. And that's where the momentum is
In America, we have a common pain
But what we're lacking is a sense of common purpose cory booker made the decision to announce on twitter
He then immediately went and did the nation's largest african-american radio show later in the day
He went to the view again another candidate who's making a play that
The future is female the futures african-american
He is committed to running this race almost like an Obama
You hear a lot of Obama's optimism in his messaging but there's also a sense of grievance as well
Amica bashar decided to get into this race in a snowstorm in, Minnesota
Really tried to sell her credibility as a Midwestern
ER that said you only get one shot at introducing yourself and
She spent most of her media to her explaining why she has a reputation as a tough boss
And insisting on a better future
Now I belong to a generation that is stepping forward right now
People who judge would make history. It's one he'd be the youngest person ever elected president
He's 37 years old and he'd be the first openly gay individual elected president
He's got some very capable staffers around him who say they're playing the long game
Not the headline game and are building a grassroots organization for him in case lightning were to strike his candidacy
Kirsten Gillibrand took what is becoming a common approach to?
Presidential announcements. I'm filing an exploratory committee, press to the United States
She followed that up with a trip to upstate, New York
Talking about her roots coming from a relatively rural part of the state, although that's somewhat debatable
Particularly, I think wants to be sort of be feminist candidate if there can be one
When we raise our right hand and volunteer to serve
Tulsi Gabbard might win the award for worst out of the gate experience in this campaign
she spent months trying to lay the groundwork for a presidential run then she suddenly announced to everyone surprised that she was running and
with CNN I
Have decided to run and we'll be making a formal announcements within the next week. Whoa
It took hours before they were able to get an official announcement up on her social media accounts
It's not outside the realm of the possible that she tries to do launch 2.0
You see I learned from my mother so many years ago in this community
That when we want change, we don't wait for change
We work for it Huyen Castro announced his candidacy with a speech in San Antonio Texas where he is
former mayor and a well known political figure if you think about the political dynamics of the Trump era how much of our national conversation
Has focused on immigration has focused on diversity. You would think there is a mile wide opening for particularly a candidate of Hispanic origin
Bernie Sanders of 2016 is still fresh in a lot of people's memory for good and for bad
Social racial and environmental and raising will not be a problem for him
He captured a lot of people's imaginations
But he also made a lot of people very angry at this point
Some of the most important candidates in the Democratic field are not in the Democratic field
But they're sort of hanging over it a lot of people telling you you should be present
The United States is a powerful message and it's tough to pass up
He marks to change attitudes Joe Biden's run for president twice before
Not very successfully at all, but that's before he served as vice president and became a beloved national figure
He's a very old school politician loves to shake hands and hug babies
Even though he leads in a lot of the early polling you don't see him scaring a lot of other Democrats out of the field
Big in Ohio in the midterms, but Democrat senator sherrod Brown is thinking about running in 2000
I was making a big bet that he can bridge the divide between the progressives and the Democratic Party and the rank-and-file working class voters
He launched a pre campaign dignity of work tour
You'll love your country you fight for the people who make it works a way to get him part of the King legacy
Without trying to have too sharp of an ala Bell
Federal Work burst onto the National Democratic scene with his candidacy
Against Senator Ted Cruz from 2018 a race that he did not win
He's sort of publicly agonizing over this decision
Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz has sort of come out of nowhere in recent weeks as a potential contender
I am seriously thinking of running for president is a former Democrat
But he wants to run as a centrist independent and it's fair to say he's set off a panic
He's getting a lot of criticism for being a billionaire at a time when I think Democrats are much more focused on economic inequality
no sooner than Howard Schultz announced that he was starting down this path Bloomberg put out a very self-aware statement saying a
Billionaire with no shot of winning the presidency as a third party candidate is only going to make Donald Trump a two-term president
The former mayor of New York City has more money than he could possibly spend in a presidential race, which makes him an instant contender
The sheer number of candidates and the uncertainty I think caused by the very unusual
Presidency of Donald Trump are going to make this a race like nothing we've ever seen before
These are not fringe or kooky canidates
These are legitimate candidates who represent certain
constituencies in the Democratic Party just about every Democrat in the country has got to be on your long list of candidates and
Then there's always the possibility that somebody comes out of left field
Last we heard Oprah wasn't going to run but you never know so buckle up. It's gonna be a wild guy
You