New York Mayor Bill de Blasio is running for president, he announced Thursday.
“Donald Trump must be stopped. I’ve beaten him before and I will do it again,” the mayor said in a video published to YouTube called “Working People First,” announcing his campaign.
The two-term mayor plans to travel to Iowa and South Carolina for campaign stops in the coming days, a campaign spokesperson told NBC on Wednesday.
In his first interview since announcing his presidential bid, de Blasio told ABC’s “Good Morning America” that his campaign will “put working people first.”
“I say it very bluntly, there is plenty of money in this world, and there’s plenty of money in this country, it’s just in the wrong hands,” de Blasio said. “All Americans deserve that kind of opportunity to live a better life.”
Protestors outside the “Good Morning America” studio in Times Square could be heard chanting “liar, liar, liar” during the interview.
According to the New York Daily News, de Blasio made the decision to run after his political action committee, Fairness PAC, recently concluded a poll of Iowa voters. He’s also visited several other early primary states, bankrolled by the same PAC.
The 2020 candidate will jockey for attention in an ever-crowded field of Democrats vying to challenge President Donald Trump. Twenty-three other Democrats have already joined the race, including Montana Gov. Steve Bullock (D), who also announced his campaign this week.
If de Blasio is counting on his mayoral experience to set him apart, he may need to seek a different angle. Two other Democratic candidates are also mayors: Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana, and Wayne Messam of Miramar, Florida.
De Blasio will likely highlight his progressive accomplishments as mayor of the U.S.’s largest city, including working to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, enacting universal prekindergarten and free preschool, and challenging the Trump family’s New York business enterprises.
Hayley Miller contributed reporting.