Sneak peek inside Hillary Clinton 2016: Campaign will avoid first person
Ad Feedback
Video Ad Feedback
Hillary Clinton
Angela Weiss/Getty Images
Now playing
03:12
Clinton aides promise different, better run at Oval Office
CBS
Now playing
01:43
Hillary Clinton defends Bill not resigning
CNN
Now playing
02:12
Clinton: Kavanaugh ceremony a political rally
Now playing
01:48
Clinton laughs at Kavanaugh's comment
CBS
Now playing
01:00
Hillary Clinton makes cameo on 'Murphy Brown'
hillary clinton amanpour impeachment_00014522.jpg
Now playing
01:47
Clinton: Impeachment 'will be left to others to decide'
hillary clinton republicans amanpour intv vpx_00000000.jpg
Now playing
03:04
Clinton: Civility starts by electing Democrats
Now playing
00:55
Clinton ends Franklin tribute with smartphone
CNN
Now playing
01:49
Clinton rejects Trump comparisons to her husband
Schomburg Center
Now playing
01:58
Bill Clinton: I apologized for Lewinsky scandal
US President Donald Trump (L) and Russian President Vladimir Putin arrive for a meeting in Helsinki, on July 16, 2018. (Photo by Brendan Smialowski / AFP) (Photo credit should read BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images)
BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images
Now playing
04:21
Fact check: Hillary Clinton's misleading comments
Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks at the Eighth Annual Women in the World Summit at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts on April 6, 2017, in New York City.
Angela Weiss/AFP/Getty Images
Now playing
00:39
Hillary Clinton goes after al-Assad, Putin
NEW YORK, NY - NOVEMBER 13: Former US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks onstage during The Child Mind Institute Summit: The State of Child & Adolescent Mental Health at The Paley Center for Media on November 13, 2017 in New York City. (Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for Child Mind Institute )
Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images North America/Getty Images for Child Mind Institute
Now playing
01:29
Clinton: Trump parrots whatever Putin says
TV3
Now playing
01:01
Clinton: Children treated as political pawns
Broadway Video/Universal Television
Now playing
01:15
Miley Cyrus tears up thanking Hillary Clinton
RBG on sexism and HRC_00010727.jpg
Now playing
01:50
RBG says Clinton was criticized worse than men
Story highlights
Hillary Clinton and her aides plan a very different campaign in 2016
Clinton will avoid using the first person whenever possible and Bill Clinton will play a smaller role
Staffers waiting for the official announcement are currently unpaid and working out of a kitchen
The person in charge of reintroducing Hillary Clinton also helped shape Michelle Obama's public persona
New YorkCNN
—
The second time around, Hillary Clinton is downsizing.
As she and a coterie of advisers prepare to launch her presidential campaign, their work is guided by a new set of humble principles: No big crowds. Few soaring rallies. Less mention of her own ambitions. And extinguish the air of inevitability propelling her candidacy.
The long and winding prelude to her announcement is nearly over, according to aides, and the start of her second bid for the White House is likely only days away. Top Democratic activists in the early-voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire privately say they have been placed on alert that Clinton will soon be on her way.
The specific moment she jumps into the race remains a closely guarded secret, even inside the crowded corridors of her small office suite in Manhattan, which new aides have descended upon to build the operation. Only a handful of confidantes actually know the precise time Clinton will pull the trigger — first on social media — yet aides have been instructed to be ready from Monday forward.
But her campaign strategy has crystallized: She will devote considerable time and attention to on-the-ground footwork in Iowa and New Hampshire. She intends to make less frequent stops in Nevada and South Carolina. Together, those four states kick off the nominating contest early next year and will help determine how warmly Democrats embrace her candidacy.
The early pieces of her strategy are starting to come into sharper view as the announcement nears. One of the most noticeable differences from her first campaign, according to more than a dozen people close to the Clintons, is a concerted effort to try and make her candidacy seem far less focused on her winning than on listening to the concerns of voters.
“The early caucus and primary states give her an opportunity to visit with folks in small, more intimate settings, where they will learn a lot about her and she will learn a lot from them,” Tom Vilsack, the agriculture secretary and former Iowa governor, who served as a national chairman of her 2008 campaign, told CNN.
Over dinner and drinks one night last week at Baratta’s, a cozy Italian restaurant in Des Moines, two top visiting Clinton strategists listened as supportive Iowa activists issued a stark warning: Some Democrats are far less enthused about her candidacy than others. After placing third in the Iowa caucuses in 2008, they said she must ask for every vote as well as being willing to run a gauntlet of small events and take part in grueling campaign sessions across the state.
Robby Mook, the campaign manager, and Marlon Marshall, a top deputy, traveled from New York to Iowa and New Hampshire last week as Clinton’s envoys. They hosted the dinner and other intimate events, hoping to show that a former First Lady, senator and Secretary of State was open to concern, constructive criticism and even complaints.
Tom Henderson, chairman of the Polk County Democratic Party in Iowa, said activists were hungry for a primary campaign or at least a serious conversation about issues facing the country and who would become President Obama’s successor. He was not invited to the dinner last week because he intends to remain neutral in the race, but he said he has shared his views with Clinton confidantes.
“The Democratic voters in Iowa are eager for this to get started,” Henderson told CNN. “Many Democrats believe that a spirited caucus and primary season is essential to a successful Democratic presidential campaign in the fall of 2016.”
Several Democrats close to Clinton say she would actually rather face a credible primary challenger — and she still might — rather than be forced to compete with unrealistic expectations of a phantom candidate being promoted by the party’s more liberal left wing.
No ‘I’ in Clinton 2016
But Clinton has told her advisers that she intends to aggressively campaign as though she has a primary opponent, aides say, by listening to concerns of voters and taking great pains to avoid the appearance of a coronation.
One approach is to avoid blatant suggestions of the historic nature of her candidacy, hoping to fight impressions that Clinton’s presidential aspirations are all about her.
That was one of the key findings of research already conducted through focus groups in Iowa and New Hampshire. Those conversations, coupled with the searing lessons from 2008, have led aides to impress upon Clinton and her loyal circle of admirers that, far more than her own political ambitions, this race must be about what voters want.
While it seems basic, the fresh crop of advisers cringe at how she announced her last presidential campaign, with a video message and a statement on her website that declared: “I’m in. And I’m in to win.”
This first-person mantra, which flourished repeatedly throughout her statement back on Jan. 20, 2007, will be all but stripped from her vocabulary, aides say. In its place will be a pledge to carry the causes of Americans who feel left behind in the economic recovery and the growing divide among classes.
Photos: Hillary Clinton's life in the spotlight
Daniel Acker/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Hillary Clinton accepts the Democratic Party's nomination for president at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia on July 28, 2016. The former first lady, U.S. senator and secretary of state was the first woman to lead the presidential ticket of a major political party.
Photos: Hillary Clinton's life in the spotlight
Lee Balterman/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Before marrying Bill Clinton, she was Hillary Rodham. Here she attends Wellesley College in Massachusetts. Her commencement speech at Wellesley's graduation ceremony in 1969 attracted national attention. After graduating, she attended Yale Law School.
Photos: Hillary Clinton's life in the spotlight
Getty Images
Rodham was a lawyer on the House Judiciary Committee, whose work led to impeachment charges against President Richard Nixon in 1974.
Photos: Hillary Clinton's life in the spotlight
DONALD R. BROYLES/AP
In 1975, Rodham married Bill Clinton, whom she met at Yale Law School. He became the governor of Arkansas in 1978. In 1980, the couple had a daughter, Chelsea.
Photos: Hillary Clinton's life in the spotlight
A. Lynn/AP
Arkansas' first lady, now using the name Hillary Rodham Clinton, wears her inaugural ball gown in 1985.
Photos: Hillary Clinton's life in the spotlight
Danny Johnston/AP
The Clintons celebrate Bill's inauguration in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1991. He was governor from 1983 to 1992, when he was elected President.
Photos: Hillary Clinton's life in the spotlight
CBS Photo Archive/Getty Images
Bill Clinton comforts his wife on the set of "60 Minutes" after a stage light broke loose from the ceiling and knocked her down in January 1992.
Photos: Hillary Clinton's life in the spotlight
LYNNE SLADKY/AP
In June 1992, Clinton uses a sewing machine designed to eliminate back and wrist strain. She had just given a speech at a convention of the International Ladies' Garment Workers Union.
Photos: Hillary Clinton's life in the spotlight
STEPHAN SAVOIA/AP
During the 1992 presidential campaign, Clinton jokes with her husband's running mate, Al Gore, and Gore's wife, Tipper, aboard a campaign bus.
Photos: Hillary Clinton's life in the spotlight
TIM CLARY/AFP/Getty Images
Clinton accompanies her husband as he takes the oath of office in January 1993.
Photos: Hillary Clinton's life in the spotlight
Getty Images
The Clintons share a laugh on Capitol Hill in 1993.
Photos: Hillary Clinton's life in the spotlight
J. Scott Applewhite/AP
Clinton unveils the renovated Blue Room of the White House in 1995.
Photos: Hillary Clinton's life in the spotlight
AFP/Getty Images
Clinton waves to the media in January 1996 as she arrives for an appearance before a grand jury in Washington. The first lady was subpoenaed to testify as a witness in the investigation of the Whitewater land deal in Arkansas. The Clintons' business investment was investigated, but ultimately they were cleared of any wrongdoing.
Photos: Hillary Clinton's life in the spotlight
Scott J. Ferrell/Congressional Quarterly/Getty Images
The Clintons hug as Bill is sworn in for a second term as President.
Photos: Hillary Clinton's life in the spotlight
KATHY WILLENS/AP
The first lady holds up a Grammy Award, which she won for her audiobook "It Takes a Village" in 1997.
Photos: Hillary Clinton's life in the spotlight
PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP/Getty Images
The Clintons dance on a beach in the U.S. Virgin Islands in January 1998. Later that month, Bill Clinton was accused of having a sexual relationship with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
Photos: Hillary Clinton's life in the spotlight
NY Daily News Archive/Getty Images
Clinton looks on as her husband discusses the Monica Lewinsky scandal in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on January 26, 1998. Clinton declared, "I did not have sexual relations with that woman." In August of that year, Clinton testified before a grand jury and admitted to having "inappropriate intimate contact" with Lewinsky, but he said it did not constitute sexual relations because they had not had intercourse. He was impeached in December on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice.
Photos: Hillary Clinton's life in the spotlight
Roberto Borea/AP
The first family walks with their dog, Buddy, as they leave the White House for a vacation in August 1998.
Photos: Hillary Clinton's life in the spotlight
SUSAN WALSH/AP
President Clinton makes a statement at the White House in December 1998, thanking members of Congress who voted against his impeachment. The Senate trial ended with an acquittal in February 1999.
Photos: Hillary Clinton's life in the spotlight
KATHY WILLENS/AP
Clinton announces in February 2000 that she will seek the U.S. Senate seat in New York. She was elected later that year.
Photos: Hillary Clinton's life in the spotlight
Harry Hamburg/NY Daily News Archive/Getty Images
Clinton makes her first appearance on the Senate Environment and Natural Resources Committee.
Photos: Hillary Clinton's life in the spotlight
Gary Friedman/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images
Sen. Clinton comforts Maren Sarkarat, a woman who lost her husband in the September 11 terrorist attacks, during a ground-zero memorial in October 2001.
Photos: Hillary Clinton's life in the spotlight
BILL PUGLIANO/AP
Clinton holds up her book "Living History" before a signing in Auburn Hills, Michigan, in 2003.
Photos: Hillary Clinton's life in the spotlight
Ronda Churchill/AP
Clinton and another presidential hopeful, U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, applaud at the start of a Democratic debate in 2007.
Photos: Hillary Clinton's life in the spotlight
The Washington Post/Getty Images
Obama and Clinton talk on the plane on their way to a rally in Unity, New Hampshire, in June 2008. She had recently ended her presidential campaign and endorsed Obama.
Photos: Hillary Clinton's life in the spotlight
Charles Dharapak/AP
Obama is flanked by Clinton and Vice President-elect Joe Biden at a news conference in Chicago in December 2008. He had designated Clinton to be his secretary of state.
Photos: Hillary Clinton's life in the spotlight
Alexei Nikolsky/RIA Novosti/POOL/AP
Clinton, as secretary of state, greets Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin during a meeting just outside Moscow in March 2010.
Photos: Hillary Clinton's life in the spotlight
Getty Images
The Clintons pose on the day of Chelsea's wedding to Marc Mezvinsky in July 2010.
Photos: Hillary Clinton's life in the spotlight
Pete Souza/The White House/Getty Images
In this photo provided by the White House, Obama, Clinton, Biden and other members of the national security team receive an update on the mission against Osama bin Laden in May 2011.
Photos: Hillary Clinton's life in the spotlight
Kevin Lamarque/Pool/AP
Clinton checks her Blackberry inside a military plane after leaving Malta in October 2011. In 2015, The New York Times reported that Clinton exclusively used a personal email account during her time as secretary of state. The account, fed through its own server, raises security and preservation concerns. Clinton later said she used a private domain out of "convenience," but admits in retrospect "it would have been better" to use multiple emails.
Photos: Hillary Clinton's life in the spotlight
Brendan Smialowski/AP
Clinton arrives for a group photo before a forum with the Gulf Cooperation Council in March 2012. The forum was held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Photos: Hillary Clinton's life in the spotlight
JEWEL SAMAD/AFP/Getty Images
Obama and Clinton bow during the transfer-of-remains ceremony marking the return of four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens, who were killed in Benghazi, Libya, in September 2012.
Photos: Hillary Clinton's life in the spotlight
Isaac Brekken/Getty Images
Clinton ducks after a woman threw a shoe at her while she was delivering remarks at a recycling trade conference in Las Vegas in 2014.
Photos: Hillary Clinton's life in the spotlight
Douglas Gorenstein/NBC/Getty Images
Clinton, now running for President again, performs with Jimmy Fallon during a "Tonight Show" skit in September 2015.
Photos: Hillary Clinton's life in the spotlight
Melina Mara/The Washington Post/Getty Images
Clinton testifies about the Benghazi attack during a House committee meeting in October 2015. "I would imagine I have thought more about what happened than all of you put together," she said during the 11-hour hearing. "I have lost more sleep than all of you put together. I have been wracking my brain about what more could have been done or should have been done." Months earlier, Clinton had acknowledged a "systemic breakdown" as cited by an Accountability Review Board, and she said that her department was taking additional steps to increase security at U.S. diplomatic facilities.
Photos: Hillary Clinton's life in the spotlight
ADAM ROSE/CNN
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders shares a lighthearted moment with Clinton during a Democratic presidential debate in October 2015. It came after Sanders gave his take on the Clinton email scandal. "The American people are sick and tired of hearing about the damn emails," Sanders said. "Enough of the emails. Let's talk about the real issues facing the United States of America."
Photos: Hillary Clinton's life in the spotlight
Evan Vucci/AP
Clinton is reflected in a teleprompter during a campaign rally in Alexandria, Virginia, in October 2015.
Photos: Hillary Clinton's life in the spotlight
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Clinton walks on her stage with her family after winning the New York primary in April.
Photos: Hillary Clinton's life in the spotlight
@hillaryclinton/Twitter
After Clinton became the Democratic Party's presumptive nominee, this photo was posted to her official Twitter account. "To every little girl who dreams big: Yes, you can be anything you want -- even president," Clinton said. "Tonight is for you."
Photos: Hillary Clinton's life in the spotlight
David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Obama hugs Clinton after he gave a speech at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. The president said Clinton was ready to be commander in chief. "For four years, I had a front-row seat to her intelligence, her judgment and her discipline," he said, referring to her stint as his secretary of state.
Photos: Hillary Clinton's life in the spotlight
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images North America/Getty Images
Clinton arrives at a 9/11 commemoration ceremony in New York on September 11. Clinton, who was diagnosed with pneumonia two days before, left early after feeling ill. A video appeared to show her stumble as Secret Service agents helped her into a van.
Photos: Hillary Clinton's life in the spotlight
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Clinton addresses a campaign rally in Cleveland on November 6, two days before Election Day. She went on to lose Ohio -- and the election -- to her Republican opponent, Donald Trump.
Photos: Hillary Clinton's life in the spotlight
Andrew Harnik/AP
After conceding the presidency to Trump in a phone call earlier, Clinton addresses supporters and campaign workers in New York on Wednesday, November 9. Her defeat marked a stunning end to a campaign that appeared poised to make her the first woman elected US president.
Reintroducing Hillary Clinton
Democrats close to her campaign-in-waiting have fought the urge to solely dwell on mistakes made during her 2008 candidacy. Their view is that she can’t win the next two years by only trying to fix what happened the first time around, even though avoiding similar missteps is a key goal.
The cadre of operatives charting a course for her second presidential campaign are seeking to try and reintroduce Clinton - this time on her own terms - to American voters. These Democratic strategists say people know of Clinton, considering she has near 100 percent name recognition in most polls, but they don’t know personal aspects of her story.
The goal in the next few months, aides say, will be to reintroduce Clinton through small, controlled and more personal events in hopes of casting her in a softer light than she was portrayed during her failed 2008 presidential run.
“The views about women candidates and how they should conduct themselves has really changed since 2008,” said Bonnie Campbell, the co-chair of Clinton’s 2008 campaign in Iowa. “First and foremost people vote for candidates that they like, people who connect with them emotionally. I think that helps with everybody but certainly it helps with women and the men who love them. It just makes her a more complete person.”
Campbell said that in 2008 she saw voters in Iowa light up when they connected with Clinton in coffee shops and in their homes, but those events were few and far between compared to large rallies and speeches.
But it’s an open question how successful the effort to reintroduce Clinton will be, with nearly a dozen Republican rivals and the full weight of the party eager to seize on more polarizing aspects in hopes of defining her in an unflattering light.
During her time on the paid speaking circuit and at philanthropic events over the last two years, Clinton regularly used her time as a mother and now a grandmother to remind Americans about her passion for early childhood education or paid leave for mothers and fathers. But Clinton rarely used those stories to convey a message about her own character aspects, something Democrats close to her would like to change.
“Reintroducing her is important because we want to make sure that the opposing party and even other Democrats aren’t able to cast the secretary in a light that just isn’t her,” Bakari Sellers, a South Carolina Democrat who ran for lieutenant governor in 2014, told CNN. “She has an amazing skill to connect with voters and we just have to give her that opportunity.”
And while the job of retooling Clinton’s image will be the job of multiple people on the communications team, it will fall primarily on Kristina Schake, a woman who, as Michelle Obama’s communications director, turned the first lady into an everywoman known for dancing on national TV, gardening with her staff and touring colleges with her daughter.
Schake, whose varied background includes working for issue campaigns, multinational corporations and Hollywood stars, will work inside the Clinton effort to make the former secretary of state more relatable.
The Clinton team been eying an April announcement for more than a month, several top Democrats and donors told CNN. To a person, they expect Clinton will be a candidate by the end of the next two weeks.
Her team is quietly planning visits to Iowa and New Hampshire as soon as she declares her candidacy, but she intends to travel alone. Her supporters say she needs to be her own person, someone who steps out of the sizable shadow that has been cast over her by her husband, former President Bill Clinton.
A discussion is underway for how much to embrace or include the former president at the outset, but aides say Hillary Clinton will be the focal point.
Unpaid volunteers working out of a kitchen
The campaign-in-waiting, meanwhile, is starting to take shape as a full-blown presidential operation. Conversations are underway on a variety of topics, including such mundane matters as how voters and even staff should refer to Clinton: Madam Secretary, senator or simply, Hillary.
Mook, who will become the campaign manager, began building out his team earlier this year. Clinton conducted one-on-one interviews for nearly all top positions. A number of political operatives, including several alumni of the Barack Obama and John Edwards campaigns in 2008, moved to New York earlier this month. The workers are currently unpaid volunteers, but have been promised paychecks soon.
The new infusion of staffers has led to cramped quarters at Clinton’s small personal office on West 45th Street, just off Times Square in midtown Manhattan. Some days, more than 25 people are jammed into a space once intended for Clintons’ far smaller personal staff.
The crammed quarters have led to some funny moments. The campaign’s digital team — one of the most important pieces of the organization, tasked with blasting out her announcement — has opened up shop in the kitchen, using counters as standing desks.
And for those who can’t take the tight space, the storied lobby of the nearby Algonquin Hotel has been a secret Clinton headquarters for a few weeks.
The nascent organization signed a lease late last week for an office in Brooklyn, a person familiar with the deal told CNN.
The two-floor Brooklyn Heights office puts Clinton just across the river from Manhattan and near a focal point for Brooklyn transportation. The building — which bills itself as “Modern Offices. Brooklyn Cool” —also houses offices for Morgan Stanley and the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.
The staffing decisions and signing of the lease signal an imminent announcement. The Federal Elections Commission mandates prospective campaigns have only 15 days between conducting campaign activities - like booking an office - and being officially throwing open the doors for yet another Clinton presidential campaign.
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has said his decision to run for the Republican nomination will be based on two things: his family and whether he can lift America's spirit. His father and brother are former Presidents.
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has created a political committee that will help him travel and raise money while he considers a 2016 bid. Additionally, billionaire businessman David Koch said in a private gathering in Manhattan this month that he wants Walker to be the next president, but he doesn't plan to back anyone in the primaries.
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal is establishing a committee to formally explore a White House bid. "If I run, my candidacy will be based on the idea that the American people are ready to try a dramatically different direction," he said in a news release provided to CNN on Monday, May 18.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont who caucuses with Democrats, has said the United States needs a "political revolution" of working-class Americans looking to take back control of the government from billionaires. He first announced the run in an email to supporters early on the morning of Thursday, April 30.
On March 2, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson announced the launch of an exploratory committee. The move will allow him to raise money that could eventually be transferred to an official presidential campaign and indicates he is on track with stated plans to formally announce a bid in May.
South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham has said he'll make a decision about a presidential run sometime soon. A potential bid could focus on Graham's foreign policy stance.
Hillary Clinton launched her presidential bid Sunday, April 12, through a video message on social media. She continues to be considered the overwhelming front-runner among possible 2016 Democratic presidential candidates.
Sen. Marco Rubio announced his bid for the 2016 presidency on Monday, April 13, a day after Hillary Clinton, with a rally in Florida. He's a Republican rising star from Florida who swept into office in 2010 on the back of tea party fervor. But his support of comprehensive immigration reform, which passed the Senate but has stalled in the House, has led some in his party to sour on his prospects.
Lincoln Chafee, a Republican-turned-independent-turned-Democrat former governor and senator of Rhode Island, said he's running for president on Thursday, April 16, as a Democrat, but his spokeswoman said the campaign is still in the presidential exploratory committee stages.
Jim Webb, the former Democratic senator from Virginia, is entertaining a 2016 presidential run. In January, he told NPR that his party has not focused on white, working-class voters in past elections.
Vice President Joe Biden has twice before made unsuccessful bids for the Oval Office -- in 1988 and 2008. A former senator known for his foreign policy and national security expertise, Biden made the rounds on the morning shows recently and said he thinks he'd "make a good President."
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has started a series of town halls in New Hampshire to test the presidential waters, becoming more comfortable talking about national issues and staking out positions on hot topic debates.
Rep. Paul Ryan, a former 2012 vice presidential candidate and fiscally conservative budget hawk, says he's keeping his "options open" for a possible presidential run but is not focused on it.
Sen. Rand Paul officially announced his presidential bid on Tuesday, April 7, at a rally in Louisville, Kentucky. The tea party favorite probably will have to address previous controversies that include comments on civil rights, a plagiarism allegation and his assertion that the top NSA official lied to Congress about surveillance.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz announced his 2016 presidential bid on Monday, March 23, in a speech at Liberty University. The first-term Republican and tea party darling is considered a gifted orator and smart politician. He is best known in the Senate for his marathon filibuster over defunding Obamacare.
Democrat Martin O'Malley, the former Maryland governor, released a "buzzy" political video in November 2013 in tandem with visits to New Hampshire. He also headlined a Democratic Party event in South Carolina, which holds the first Southern primary.
Republican Rick Perry, the former Texas governor, announced in 2013 that he would not be seeking re-election, leading to speculation that he might mount a second White House bid.
Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, a social conservative, gave Mitt Romney his toughest challenge in the nomination fight last time out and has made trips recently to early voting states, including Iowa and South Carolina.
Political observers expect New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to yield to Hillary Clinton's run in 2016, fearing there wouldn't be room in the race for two Democrats from the Empire State.