Presidential campaign announcements in the United States
A campaign announcement is the formal public launch of a political campaign, often delivered in a speech by the candidate at a political rally.
Formal campaign announcements play an important role in United States presidential elections, particularly in shaping the start of a campaign season.[1][2][3] They became more significant with the introduction of presidential primaries (as opposed to state caucuses) in the early 20th century. The expression to "throw one's hat in the ring", describing a challenger in boxing, was popularized by the Theodore Roosevelt 1912 presidential campaign.[4] There has been a trend of announcements coming earlier, and even being preceded by an invisible primary phase[5] and often as a first public step by an exploratory committee.[6]
A pledge to not run, the opposite of a campaign announcement, is known as a Shermanesque statement.[7]
Presidential announcements took new social media political forms in the 2012 and 2016 campaigns.[12][13] The ambiguity of waiting for formal announcements for US elections in general has been criticized.[9][14]
The Ross Perot 1992 presidential campaign had been de facto active as an independent campaign with a conditional announcement statement on Larry King Live (a talk show first), before the candidate withdrew, and then re-entered and formally announced only a month before the election.[15][16]
^"A Look Through History of Presidential Announcements". ABC News. April 10, 2015. Retrieved January 22, 2019.
^Trent, Judith S.; Friedenberg, Robert V.; Denton, Robert E. Jr. (2011). Political Campaign Communication: Principles and Practices. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 210. ISBN 9781442206717.
^Denton, Robert E. Jr. (2017). Studies of Communication in the 2016 Presidential Campaign. Lexington Books. ISBN 9781498560306.
^Gooden, Philip; Lewis, Peter (June 30, 2013). Idiomantics: The Weird and Wonderful World of Popular Phrases. A&C Black. ISBN 9781408157435.
^Parlapiano, Alicia (April 16, 2015). "How Presidential Campaigns Became Two-Year Marathons". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved January 22, 2019.
^Elving, Ron (December 5, 2012). "Declaring for President is a Dance of Seven Veils". NPR.
^Delahunty, Andrew; Dignen, Sheila (2012). "Shermanesque". Oxford Dictionary of Reference and Allusion. Oxford University Press. p. 328. ISBN 9780199567461.
^Hohmann, James (December 23, 2015). "Ted Cruz's announcement was the most buzzed about non-Trump moment of the GOP race in 2015". The Washington Post.
^ a bCillizza, Chris (May 18, 2015). "How candidates announce for president is getting ridiculous". The Washington Post.
^Glueck, Katie. "The curse of being first". Politico. Retrieved January 22, 2019.
^"Everybody knows these Democrats will probably run for president so why won't they just say it?". NBC News. November 23, 2018. Retrieved January 22, 2019.
^Stromer-Galley, Jennifer (2014). Presidential Campaigning in the Internet Age. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199731947.
^Bitecofer, Rachel (2017). The Unprecedented 2016 Presidential Election. Springer. ISBN 9783319619767.
^"Why we like candidates who are clear about their election plans—and don't care about formal kickoffs". Daily Kos. Retrieved January 22, 2019.
^Holmes, Steven A. (October 2, 1992). "The 1992 Campaign: The Announcement; Perot Sticks to His Unorthodox Campaign Style". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved January 22, 2019.
^Kurtz, Howard (October 28, 1992). "The Talk Show Campaign". The Washington Post.
^Gearan, Anne (April 12, 2015). "Clinton strikes populist tone in long-awaited campaign announcement". The Washington Post.
^"The First 2020 Candidate Is … Hold On, I Had The Name Right Here … John Delaney". FiveThirtyEight. July 29, 2017. Retrieved January 22, 2019.