Richard Ojeda, seen at a West Virginia gym in May 2018, made an unsuccessful bid for Congress in the state’s 3rd District. | John Raby/AP Photo Elections Richard Ojeda to run for president

Richard Ojeda just lost his bid for West Virginia’s 3rd Congressional District, but by Sunday evening, he filed papers to run for president.

The filing with the Federal Election Commission came on the same day Ojeda told supporters to be prepared for a Monday announcement.


“I hope you will join me tomorrow at noon EST for an important announcement,” he said in a Sunday email to supporters. “Because like I said, we are not done fighting.”

On Tuesday, Republican Carol Miller defeated Ojeda 56 percent to 44 percent in the southern West Virginia District.

Ojeda, a fiery Democrat who initially voted for Donald Trump, then admitted he regretted it, predicted in his concession speech Tuesday: “Make no mistake about it! You’re going to know my name!”

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In an email to supporters on Sunday, the state senator and former Army paratrooper said he learned from his congressional run that he wanted to take his campaign to a bigger stage.

Ojeda lost by 12 points on Tuesday, but was emboldened by a 31-point shift toward blue since Trump won the district by a 49-point margin in 2016.

“That is when I realized — families in Logan, West Virginia, were going through the same struggles as families in the Bronx, San Francisco and Houston,” he wrote. “This was not a West Virginia problem. This is an American problem and it has to change.”

