Former secretary of state and first lady begins campaign for 2016 White House with launch of new website, ending years of speculation about whether she would make a second attempt at the highest office in the United States

Hillary Clinton announced on Sunday that she was running for president of the United States, promising to be a champion of middle-class Americans if she made it to the White House as the country’s first female commander in chief.



“Everyday Americans need a champion, and I’m going to be that champion,” the former secretary of state and first lady said in a video posted to her website, as she warned “the deck is still stacked in favour of those at the top” despite an economic recovery.

Speaking to camera at the end of a three-minute clip featuring personal stories from Americans of different ages, ethnicities and sexualities, Clinton pledged to ensure people could “get ahead and stay ahead” rather than “just get by”.

In an email minutes earlier, John Podesta, Clinton’s campaign chairman, told people involved in her 2008 presidential campaign she was “hitting the road to Iowa to start talking directly with voters” before an official launch event next month.

She followed up the launch with a tweet:

Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) I'm running for president. Everyday Americans need a champion, and I want to be that champion. –H https://t.co/w8Hoe1pbtC





The announcement brought an end to years of speculation over whether Clinton would make a second bid to become the first female US president and secure a place in history by interrupting a line of 44 male commanders in chief.

It marked the official commencement of her final attempt to crack what she called the “the hardest, highest glass ceiling” after being defeated by Barack Obama in their bitterly fought contest for the Democratic nomination in 2008.



Clinton, 67, is seeking a fourth chapter in what is already an unprecedented career in American politics. She previously served as secretary of state and US senator for New York, as well as first lady when her husband, Bill, served two terms at the White House in the 1990s.

It is a record that makes Clinton one of the most enduring – and polarising – figures in American politics.

Clinton’s campaign aides concede that that her familiarity to voters and decades of experience on the frontline of politics are both an asset in her bid for the White House and a potential weakness, allowing her to be portrayed as a candidate from the past.

Jeb Bush, the former governor of Florida, who is brother and son to recent White House occupants George W and George HW Bush, is currently among the frontrunners in the crowded field of aspiring Republican candidates. His nomination could turn the 2016 presidential election into a battle between two of the most familiar – and controversial – family names in modern US history.





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Moving immediately to counter suggestions that she expects a so-called coronation from her party this time, Clinton stressed in her video that she was returning to the campaign trail to “earn your vote”.

Clinton immediately began appealing for campaign volunteers in the important primary states of Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire and South Carolina, as well as in New York, where her campaign is to be headquartered in the Brooklyn Heights neighbourhood.

A campaign strategy document written by Clinton’s 35-year-old campaign manager, Robby Mook, and leaked to the press on the eve of her announcement instructed her staff to “take nothing for granted”.



“We are humble,” the memo said. “We are never afraid to lose, we always out-compete and fight for every vote we can win. We know this campaign will be won on the ground, in states.”

Clinton’s first trip as an official candidate will be to Iowa, the first-in-the-nation caucus state where she was pushed into third place by Obama and Senator John Edwards seven years ago, a humiliating setback from which she was unable to recover. One source familiar with Clinton’s campaign plans told the Guardian she could arrive in Iowa as early as Sunday afternoon.

Democrats in Iowa have reservations about Clinton, and are hostile to the idea that their role is simply to anoint the candidate-in-waiting whom they rejected eight years ago. But the lack of any credible Democratic challengers to Clinton, who will draw on a supremely well-organised and well-funded campaign structure, make an upset extremely unlikely.

Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts senator beloved by liberals in the party – and perhaps the only Democrat with the kind of enthused support that could defeat the Clinton juggernaut – has said she will not enter the race.

Ready For Warren, a campaign group which has urged the senator to run, said after Clinton’s announcement on Sunday that the party needed “vigorous debate” on subjects such as entitlements, banking reform and workers’ rights.

“Without Warren herself in the race, we may not get that chance,” the group said, pledging to step up its efforts to convince her.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Hillary Clinton. Photograph: Michael Reynolds/EPA

Four men, none of whom have large followings in the party, have said they are exploring possible runs for the Democratic nomination: Martin O’Malley and Lincoln Chafee, the former governors of Maryland and Rhode Island; Jim Webb, the former senator from Virginia; and Bernie Sanders, the independent senator from Vermont and self-described socialist.

If any of them run, they would probably campaign to the left of Clinton, a centrist figure whose hawkish foreign policy is resented by some in the party.

A spokeswoman for O’Malley said in a statement that he had heard from Democrats “looking for someone who offers strong progressive values”, and would ensure a debate on policy if he entered the race.

Chafee on Sunday dismissed Clinton’s record at the State Department and sharply criticised her support as a senator for the Iraq war. “If you show lack of judgment, lack of doing your homework, then what can we expect in the future?” he said on CNN.



But Clinton enters the race with a formidable advantage and a wealth of support built up by the Ready for Hillary campaign network. She will immediately begin a fundraising push, drawing support from both small-money donors and Wall Street plutocrats, amassing what is likely to be the largest campaign war chest in presidential history. Her total haul is expected to exceed the billion-dollar campaigns in 2012 of Obama and his Republican opponent, Mitt Romney.

Clinton consistently polls higher than her potential Republican presidential rivals, sometimes reaching a 50% support threshold that fuels hopes among Democrats that she may prove impossible for the GOP to beat.



However, her support among voters has declined sharply since her departure from the State Department. While 67% of Americans then viewed her favourably as a possible presidential candidate, according to an ABC/Washington Post survey, now 49% do. She has suffered a marked drop in the number of people viewing her as “honest and trustworthy”.

Clinton faced a furore last month over the disclosure that as secretary of state she conducted government business over a personal email server. The decision allowed Clinton’s personal aides to sift through her messages and erase those they deemed irrelevant before handing over her archive to US officials for release as public records.

Republicans made clear in a statement on Sunday that they intend to paint Clinton as untrustworthy and dogged by controversy. “Over decades as a Washington insider, Clinton has left a trail of secrecy, scandal, and failed policies that can’t be erased from voters’ minds,” said Reince Priebus, the party’s chairman.

She has also been accused of leaving herself open to serious conflicts of interest by accepting millions of dollars in donations from foreign governments to her family’s philanthropic foundation while serving as America’s most senior diplomat.

The Democratic party establishment, however, is expected to unite behind Clinton as their presumptive nominee. The US electoral college will give Democrats an in-built advantage over Republicans in 2016, although it is extremely rare for a party to hold the White House for three consecutive terms.

Clinton’s frontrunner status means she will have to absorb relentless attacks in the 577 days remaining before the election. On Saturday, Obama gave Clinton a strongly worded endorsement. “She was an outstanding secretary of state,” the president said on a visit to Panama, when asked about her imminent announcement. “She is my friend. I think she would be an excellent president.”

Bush and other Republicans vying for their party’s presidential nomination attacked Clinton even before her campaign’s official unveiling. The former Florida governor’s online video, which was posted to Twitter, warned voters against a continuation of “the Obama-Clinton foreign policy”.

He also moved to challenge Clinton’s claim to be a champion of the middle class, arguing that his “conservative ideas” would be those that ensured all Americans had “the right to rise and the opportunity to achieve the American dream”.

Rand Paul said on Sunday morning he intended to draw attention to what he called “a history of the Clintons thinking that they’re above the law” in light of the controversy over her email server. Aligning Clinton with the “neocons in my party”, the Republican Kentucky senator also criticised her support for US intervention in Libya in 2011 and her push to arm rebels in the Syrian civil war.

Speaking to CNN, he argued that Clinton’s claims to fight for women’s equality were undermined by the acceptance of donations by the Clinton Foundation from authoritarian regimes in the Middle East with “abysmal human rights records”.

Rick Santorum, the former Pennsylvania senator who finished second in the 2012 Republican primary, said in a statement: “Hillary Clinton does not have the right vision to lead America.”