Senator Ted Cruz became the only major presidential candidate to officially enter the field yesterday, but don’t expect his rivals to let him linger there alone for too long. As the New York Times points out, the stages of America are about to be overrun with potential future presidents surrounded by audiences and landmarks that capture the essence of their newborn campaigns. The air will vibrate with “Constitution,” “Freedom,” “Future,” “Jobs,” and “Currj.” At least one person will play Bruce Springsteen.
Hillary Clinton, Senator Rand Paul, and Senator Marco Rubio are all expected to announce in the upcoming weeks. Governor Scott Walker and former Governor Jeb Bush seem likely to wait and take advantage of the fact they can help their super PACs raise millions, which, as Olivia Nuzzi points out, makes them candidates in all but paperwork anyway. Bush will be busy gobbling up donors on the West Coast in the first week of April.
Clinton gave two unpaid speeches yesterday that were among her last obligations as a civilian, and donors are getting desperate to signal support for the front-runner — but don’t want to do so unless they’re certain she’s not faking them out.
Clinton announced her last presidential bid in January 2007.
Other lesser-known candidates are likely to announce in the upcoming weeks, too; like Cruz, they need to have as much time and buzz as possible to be able to raise money to compete with the better-known candidates with better odds. And now that Cruz has taken the seemingly cursed first-announcer slot — no candidate first out of the gate has won in more than half a century — the reasons to wait are growing sparse. Unless, of course, some data-journalism-happy candidate wants to wait until June 12, the date Bloomberg Politics deemed the perfect day to announce.
Once all these candidates finally announce, however, they will join a far less exclusive club. While everyone seems to be buzzing about the people who might run next year, the more than 150 people who are already running for president have received hardly any press at all.
