WASHINGTON (AP) -- Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig says his presidential exploratory committee has reached the $1-million benchmark he said would trigger a formal White House bid.

The Democrat announced his fundraising total in an interview on ABC's "This Week."

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Lessig says he's running to address campaign finance reform, voting rights issues and "political gerrymandering."

Should he achieve his agenda as president, the 54-year-old South Dakota native promises to resign and let his vice president take over.

He declined to name potential vice presidential picks when asked during the interview.

Lessig previously said he would resign his position at Harvard and focus on the nomination race if he raised at least $1 million by Labor Day and didn't believe the other candidates were sufficiently focused on "returning political power to citizens."

See photos of all of the candidates who are officially running in 2016:

8 PHOTOS All officially announced 2016 Presidential candidates See Gallery Law professor: I've hit $1M mark to trigger presidential run Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont (D) (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images) Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton of New York (D) (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images) Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee (R) (Photo by Matt Sullivan/Getty Images) Former CEO, Businesswoman Carly Fiorina of California (R) (Photo by Richard Ellis/Getty Images) Former New York Governor George Pataki (R) (Photo by Darren McCollester/Getty Images) Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina (R) (Photo by Jessica McGowan/Getty Images) New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (R) (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images) Former Virginia Governor Jim Gilmore (R) (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images) Up Next See Gallery Discover More Like This HIDE CAPTION SHOW CAPTION of SEE ALL BACK TO SLIDE

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