2008 Presidential Campaign Blog

Twin Cities Selected As Site Of 2008 RNC Convention

Washington, D.C. – The Republican National Committee made an announcement this afternoon regarding the 2008 Republican National Convention.  RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman and RNC Co-Chairman Jo Ann Davidson hosted a press conference call today, Wednesday September 27, 2006 at 3:00 pm CDT.

"I am pleased to announce that the Site Selection Committee of the Republican National Committee met today and has decided to begin negotiations with the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul to be our host for the 2008 Republican National Convention," said Chairman Jo Ann Davidson.

PARTICIPANTS: RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman, RNC Co-Chairman Jo Ann Davidson, Minnesota Senator Norm Coleman, Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak, and Saint Paul Mayor Chris Coleman.

Fred Harris 1972 Announcement

Statement of U.S. Senator Fred R. Harris in Washington, DC.

"1972 is a crucial year. America won?t be the same in 1976. I intend to try to turn this country around before it's too late.

I am a candidate for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States.

People have a right to believe that if they get interested in a presidential campaign things will change.

I believe that a President can call this country back to the greatness that is in us. I mean to try."

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David Roederer Named Iowa Chairman For Straight Talk America PAC

Friday, September 22, 2006

David Roederer to Join Straight Talk America
   
ALEXANDRIA, VA - We are pleased to announce that David Roederer will be joining Straight Talk America as the Iowa Chairman of the PAC. He will help guide Straight Talk America’s efforts to help elect Republican candidates up and down the ballot, especially in Iowa.

Mr. Roederer has been involved in campaigns at all levels of government. He chaired the Iowa Bush-Cheney 2004 Campaign.

“I am honored David is sharing his considerable talents with Straight Talk America,” Senator McCain said. “He has proven to be a devoted Republican and I look forward to working with him to determine how Straight Talk can best help our Party’s candidates in Iowa as the 2006 elections draw closer.”

“I am pleased to have the opportunity to assist Senator McCain’s Straight Talk America PAC,” Roederer said. “Senator McCain has demonstrated unwavering commitment to electing Republican candidates, and I look forward to helping him achieve his goals this November.”

Carol Moseley Braun 2004 Announcement

Announcement Speech on 22 September 2003 at Howard University - Washington, D.C., Benedict College - Columbia, SC, University of Illinois - Chicago, IL.

"I would like to thank all of the friends, supporters, and strangers, too, who have led me along my path towards this day. Over the past several months I have traveled America, talking with people, listening to them, registering voters and engaging in a passionate debate about our country's direction. I am grateful to all those who opened their homes and their hearts, to those who shared their experiences with me, and who made it possible for me to explore the prospect of a Presidential campaign. Thank you for your encouragement.

Today, I am officially declaring my candidacy for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States.

I am running for the Democratic nomination because I believe this party ought to stand for inclusion, hope, and new ways to resolve old problems.

I am fighting for the nomination because I am determined to move our party in the direction of our nation's most noble ideals, and live up to our generation's duty to leave the next generation no less freedom, no less opportunity, no less optimism than we inherited from our ancestors.

I am dedicated to building partnerships for peace, prosperity and progress based on new ideas that are as practical as they are innovative. These partnerships will help us shape an American renaissance and renewal in the best traditions of our country.

I have the experience, the ability and the ideas to heal and renew America. In all of my public service, I have broken down barriers, built bridges and brought people together to achieve solutions that put the public interest first.

The time has come to meet the challenge of our founding fathers' vision, and I am prepared to fight for you and with you to revive the American dream of freedom and opportunity. Together we will break down barriers. Together we will rebuild and restore our country. And together we will give ourselves the greatest gift of all: an America we can be proud of.

Thank you for your patriotism. Thank you for your energy. Thank you for your faith in the goodness of this country. We will lift up the hearts of the American people. We will inspire hope. We will renew the American Spirit. And we will win. Together, failure is impossible."

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Steve Forbes 1996 Announcement

Steve Forbes Presidential Announcement at the National Press Club on September 22, 1995.

"It's no secret. I am here today to announce that I am running for President of the United States.

This is, to say the least, an unusual candidacy, and I expect there are a few skeptics in the room.

But, I am throwing my hat into the ring today in full confidence that this campaign for President can and will succeed.

I am running because I believe the American people share the same desire for an end of politics as usual. I believe that they share the same vision of an unshackled future-- a future that embraces all the wonderful opportunities in the new economy.

And I'll leave you with a final thought. Fifteen years ago, in 1980, the candidacy of a man named Ronald Reagan was considered right here, at this great Press Club. And his prospects seemed so bad that when you listed candidates and their support, he got an asterisk. That's pretty much where I'm starting. But, like Reagan, that's not where I intend to finish."

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Alan Keyes 2000 Announcement

Alan Keyes Announcement Speech in Iowa on September 20, 1999.

"Thank you, please have a seat. Thank you all for coming. I want first to make it very clear that the purpose of bringing you all together tonight is to clarify, if there had been any doubt in anybody's mind, that I am seeking and do intend to pursue the Republican nomination for President of the United States.

What we must try to do within the Republican Party today is bring the healing influence of the real grass roots to a cadre of leadership that has lost its way in the confusions of ambition and power. This is something that from time to time the people of this country are called to do if we are to preserve our heritage of self-government. It is hard work. It will require that in spite of all hesitation and embarrassment and this and that, we show a willingness to stand in our own circles, in our own families, amongst our own friends and our own workplaces, in our own churches, to issue the call for an unequivocal commitment to this agenda of principle. But I believe that if we are willing to do so, then that faithfulness will indeed be rewarded by our God, with a victory that will help to restore the hope that alone can come in this country from our dedication to the moral spirit of reverence for truth and for God that is in fact the basis of our claim to rights, and our hope for justice and liberty. Thank you very much."

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Sargent Shriver 1976 Announcement

Announcement Statement of Sargent Shriver at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C. on September 20, 1975.

I am happy to announce my candidacy for President of the United States.  I seek an open nomination openly arrived at, earned in the primaries and local caucuses and state conventions.  I want to tell you why I am running and why I am asking people to join in running with me.

It may be hard for some to believe, but it is not lust for elective office or power.  I know too well, and in ways too personal, the sadness and isolation associated with the Presidency.  So I do not approach this campaign in a spirit of compulsive ambition or naive exhilaration.

Every candidate for the office of the presidency in recent memory has believed that his was the critical hour.  So, it is difficult to find language undebased by the rhetoric of the past to express how I feel about where we are as a people today.

So I look forward to a people's campaign.  And I'm grateful to the many who are here to start with me, including planeloads and busloads of friends and associates who have known me most of my life; people committed to justice and community, regardless of region, race, religion, and all the a conventional divisions of left, right and center. 

Finally, I'm fortified by my family -- by my mother who has seen 23 presidential campaigns, by my wife, Eunice, and our sons and daughter, by my brother Herbert, by Rose Kennedy and Ethel Kennedy and Jackie, by Jean, and Pat, and Joan, and when my most admirable sister-in-law, Willa Shriver of Baltimore.  In peace and war, in public and private life, they know the demands and duties, the joys and sorrows of the kind of course I'm taking, and have encouraged me to take it. 

I intend to claim it, not for myself alone, but for the family that first brought it into being, for the millions who joyfully and hopefully entered public service in those days in order to produce a better life for all, and to those billions of unknown, uncounted human beings who I've seen all over the world -- in Asia, South America, Western Europe and the Soviet Union -- for whom the memory of those days and of John Kennedy is still an inspiration to their minds and a lift to their hearts.  That's what we must all be proud of once again. 

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Wes Clark 2004 Announcement

Announcement Speech of Wesley K. Clark  on September 17, 2003 in Little Rock, Arkansas

"My name is Wes Clark. I am from Little Rock, Arkansas, and I'm here to announce that I intend to seek the Presidency of the United States of America.

Well for my family and me, it's been a long journey from Little Rock. From West Point to Vietnam, 34 years in the United States Army, through war in the Balkans, back to Little Rock for business. And I'm proud to have made that journey, proud to have served my country in uniform, and proud to be back home today in Little Rock.

Now we're talking about a new journey. This is a journey I couldn't begin without all of you, friends and family, high school classmates, business colleagues, close personal friends, from all over the state, especially I want to recognize the hundreds of people who are here because of the Draft Clark movement. Thank you.

So that's our campaign. We're firm in our intent, we're clear in our purposes, we're mustering the resources, building the nucleus, drawing the support of people from all across this great land. We're underway and moving forward, we need your help here in Little Rock. Here in Arkansas and across America. But I want to reach out especially to those in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and everywhere across America. Get ready, we're moving out!"

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John Edwards 2004 Announcement

John Edwards Presidential Announcement Address on Tuesday, September 16, 2003 in Robbins, North Carolina.

"Good morning. Welcome to my hometown, Robbins, North Carolina.

I grew up in an American town, and I grew up with America's dream. I owe everything I have to the America I grew up in.

And so this is where - today - to make opportunity the birthright of every American, I declare myself a candidate for President of the United States.

I am running for president because I have lived in the bright light of the blessing of America. I am running for President because the great gift of an equal chance is the greatest gift I know. I am running for President, because the greatness of America that has come before is nothing compared to the greatness of America that lies ahead."

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Pete du Pont 1988 Announcement

Pete du Pont Announcement For The Presidency in Wilmington, Delaware on September 16, 1986.

"I want to talk with you today about the future of our country, and about how together, we might help shape that future.

As a nation we will soon be without the graceful, confident leadership of Ronald Reagan. Under his leadership, we've known what we stood for as a people and where we wanted to go as a nation. Sooner than we realize he will step down from the presidency; so we must begin to think about who will next lead this country, and in what direction.

One hundred eighty-seven years ago a man named Pierre Samuel du Pont and his two sons left France to find opportunity in a freer world. They and their descendants enjoyed that freedom and prospered with it. Today one of those descendants has been given another extraordinary opportunity. He has been allowed the privilege of dreaming to lead the nation his ancestors risked everything to join.

I'm sure old Pierre is smiling as he looks down from the heavens to hear his namesake say, yes, I am a candidate for the president of the United States of America.

Full Speech Text