Hillary Clinton just announced her presidential bid! Here’s why it’s a HUGE deal

We’ve been at the edge of our seats waiting for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s announcement of candidacy for president.  And after ages—specifically, two years—of speculation, we finally got confirmation that Clinton has announced her run for the Democratic nomination today. Here it is, people!

According to the New York Times, John Podesta, Clinton’s campaign chairman, announced her intention to run via e-mails to donors and others. “I wanted to make sure you heard it first from me – it’s official: Hillary’s running for president,” wrote Podesta in the e-mail. Later Hillary followed that up with an official tweet and a link to her website, where she posted her first campaign video. The video features everyone from small business owners and college students, to working moms and LGBT couples. And of course, Hillary Clinton, herself.

Clinton won’t be taking any time to kick off her campaign: she’s meeting with voters in Iowa soon, according to Podesta, and will host a formal event celebrating the kick-off sometime in May.

This will be her second time running, after her first time back in 2008, when she lost the democratic nomination to President Obama. According to The Times, the campaign will likely start slowly (after all, she already has a TON of support, especially from female potential voters), then build “to an effort likely to cost more than any presidential bid waged before.” The campaign is looking to raise up to $2.5 billion.

And that’s not the only reason Hillary’s bid a huge deal:

This could be one of the least contested races without an incumbent yet.

Often, the most landside primary elections are a result of one of the runners being an incumbent. Since President Obama has already served two terms, there will be no incumbent—but now that Hillary’s running, there probably won’t be much competition in the primaries.

Why? Because of the incredibly strong support she already has. As The New York Times pointed out today, Clinton’s position as a strong frontrunner means that her announcement could lead to one of the “least contested races, without an incumbent,” for the Democratic nominee.

She could be the very first woman to be a nominee for a major party.

Clinton is not the first woman to ever run for president. In fact, there have been five others, according to TIME. Still, only five women running for president in close to 150 years is insane—and there still hasn’t been a woman who has been a nominee for a major party. As mentioned above, now that Clinton has announced her candidacy, she’ll likely win—meaning she’ll be the very first woman to be a nominee for a major party.

“Being the first woman to run for president with a real chance of winning, that’s a wild card, but potentially a net positive, particularly for undecided women,” Scott Keefer, director of survey research at Pew Research Center, told the The Times.

She will be facing a lot of adversity.

First of all, Clinton is a woman, and politics is a major boys club. Secondly, a recent email scandal has put her in the hot seat even before her announcement was made. If that was any indication, her run will be under the microscope in a major way. Thirdly, as The Times points out, “in a campaign that will inevitably be about the future, Mrs. Clinton, 67, enters as a quintessential baby boomer, associated with the 1990s . . .”

She’s making her announcement two days before National Equal Pay Day.

National Equal Pay Day is the point in the year “at which, on average, a woman’s pay for working in 2014 and 2015 would equal a man’s pay just for 2014,” according to The Times. Why does this matter? It’s a lucky time (or perhaps more than a coincidence?) for Clinton to be announcing her candidacy in conjunction with the day—especially because pay equity is an issue Clinton will be highlighting. In fact, it’s an initiative she’s already begun to fight for, in part, with her recent No Ceilings progress report.

Clinton has got experience under her belt that is totally different than any previous candidate’s experience.

No one can possibly call Hillary Clinton inexperienced. Not only did she have considerable experience as the first lady of a previous administration, but she’s “the only first lady ever elected to the United States Senate and a globe-trotting diplomat who surprised her party by serving dutifully under the president who defeated her,” according to the The Times.

So what’s next? “I’m hitting the road to earn your vote,” says Hillary in her campaign video, “because it’s your time and I hope you’ll join me on this journey.”

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