Pawlenty camp says no formal White House announcement yet
WASHINGTON |
(Reuters) - Former Minnesota Republican Governor Tim Pawlenty told a CNN interviewer on Tuesday he was "running for president," but his campaign said it was not an official announcement.
"I'm running for president," Pawlenty said in an excerpt of a CNN interview taped for broadcast on Tuesday evening. "I'm not putting my hat in the ring rhetorically or ultimately for vice president. I'm focused on running for president."
Pawlenty's campaign downplayed his comments on CNN, which came in response to a question about whether he would accept an offer to be the Republican vice presidential nominee.
"He will have a formal announcement about running for president later this spring," Pawlenty spokesman Alex Conant told CNN.
Pawlenty last month became the first high-profile Republican to show serious intent to run, announcing in a video on his Facebook page that he would set up a presidential exploratory committee, a formal step toward seeking his party's nomination.
Republican Mitt Romney announced on Monday he was forming an exploratory committee to raise money for a challenge to Democratic President Barack Obama.
Romney, an unsuccessful presidential contender in 2008, and former governor of Massachusetts, hovers near the top of most polls of Republicans along with former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, who also ran for the party's 2008 presidential nomination.
(Reporting by JoAnne Allen; Editing by Peter Cooney)
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