WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) – Hillary Clinton will announce her second run for the presidency today, starting her campaign as the Democrats’ best hope of fending off a crowded field of lesser-known Republican rivals and retaining the White House.
The overwhelming favourite for the Democratic presidential nomination, Clinton will nonetheless face multiple challenges as she returns to the campaign trail seven years after losing the nomination in 2008 to Barack Obama.
She has been a high-profile figure in American politics for more than two decades since her husband, Bill Clinton, won the presidency in 1992, and her fame still eclipses the other likely Democratic contenders and Republican opponents.
But with the fame comes a set of challenges Clinton will need to overcome in the coming months. She will try to get past a controversy over her use of personal email while secretary of state, and find a way to connect with ordinary Americans after her years as the top US diplomat.
Her advisers, including her husband, have urged her to take nothing for granted, arguing voters would be repelled by anything that resembles a pre-ordained coronation. A Democrat close to the Clinton camp told Reuters on Friday that Clinton, who is also a former US senator, would announce her long-anticipated plans through video and social media.
After the announcement, she will travel to the early voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire, said the source, who asked to remain unidentified.
A representative for Clinton declined to comment.
Clinton, 67, has sounded out potential campaign themes during public appearances, casting herself as both a love-filled new grandmother with a vested concern in the future and a wise former diplomat who understands how countries thrive and fail.
In contrast to her 2008 campaign, Clinton has shown signs she will not play down how being a woman distinguishes her from the 44 men who have served as US president.
