Durham, N.H. – After months of testing the waters, former Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee launched his run for the Republican presidential nomination on late-night television Wednesday.
Thompson used an appearance on NBC’s “Tonight Show With Jay Leno” to kick off his campaign. “I’m running for president of the United States,” Thomp son told Leno during the show’s taping early Wednesday evening.
He followed that up at midnight with a longer video on his website outlining his reasons for running, citing threats to national security and the economy and the need to change Washington.
“I know that reform is possible in Washington because I have seen it done,” he said. “I do not accept it as a fact of life beyond our power to change that the federal government must go on expanding more, taxing more, and spending more forever.”
Thompson’s long-awaited announcement brings a potentially formidable candidate into the Republican race. His Southern roots, conservative message and celebrity appeal from films and television’s “Law & Order” already have pushed him into second place in most national polls, behind former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
But Thompson’s late start leaves him well behind in organizing his campaign in early-voting states such as Iowa and New Hampshire, where former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has used television ads to build a lead in the polls, and in South Carolina and Florida, where Giuliani is ahead.
Thompson’s entry could quickly alter the dynamics of a wide-open Republican nomination battle that has evolved rapidly through the course of the year.
Thompson will try to capitalize on the lack of enthusiasm among Republican voters for their presidential choices.
Thompson brings to the race a Southern conservative, something that has been missing since prospective candidates such as former Sens. George Allen of Virginia and Bill Frist of Tennessee saw their prospects fade even before the campaign began.
But his start-up period proved extremely rocky. His early fundraising did not set any records, and he went through a succession of senior campaign advisers before recruiting Bill Lacy, who managed his 1994 Senate campaign.
Thompson will hit the campaign trail this morning when he boards a bus for a three-day trek around Iowa. He will then spend two days in New Hampshire and a day in South Carolina.
Best known for his portrayal of Arthur Branch, the gruff New York district attorney on “Law & Order,” Thomp son, 65, began his career in politics when he was recruited by then-Sen. Howard Baker Jr., R-Tenn., to serve as the Republican counsel on the Senate select committee investigating the Watergate scandal.
An early case as a lawyer opened a door to Hollywood, where he appeared in numerous movies over the years. He was elected to the Senate in the 1994 GOP landslide. He left the Senate in 2003, returning to Hollywood and to a lobbying career.
In April, Thompson revealed that he had been diagnosed with lymphoma in 2004 but said that had been treated and is in remission.
Name: Fred Dalton Thompson
Age: 65; born Aug. 19, 1942, in Sheffield, Ala.
Experience: Actor, 1987-2007; Tennessee senator, 1994-2003; attorney, Arent, Fox, Kintner, Plotkin & Kahn, 1991-94; Tennessee Appellate Court Nominating Commission, 1985-87; special counsel to the Senate Intelligence Committee, 1982; special counsel to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, 1980-81; special counsel to Tennessee Gov. Lamar Alexander, 1980; attorney in private practice, 1975-94; minority counsel to the Senate Watergate committee, 1973-74; assistant U.S. attorney, 1969-72
Education: B.S., Memphis State University, 1964; J.D., Vanderbilt University, 1967
Family: Divorced and remarried; five children, one deceased
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