KUSA - John Hickenlooper for President. It's official.
In a video posted online Monday morning, the former governor of Colorado finally entered the race to be the Democratic Party's nominee for President in 2020.
"I'm John Hickenlooper. I'm running for President because we're facing a crisis that threatens everything we stand for," Hickenlooper said in the video entitled, "Stand Tall."
The video playing during that statement showed Hickenlooper standing in front of a snowy mountain backdrop and then changed to video of President Trump.
In an interview with Good Morning America on Monday in New York, Hickenlooper was asked to describe the crisis he mentioned.
"This is a crisis of division, and I think it's probably the worst period of division that we've had in this country since the Civil War. Ultimately, I'm running for president because I believe that, not only can I beat Donald Trump, but that I am the person that can bring people together on the other side and get stuff done," Hickenlooper said.
"I've proven again and again I can bring people together to produce the progressive change Washington has failed to deliver," Hickenlooper said in a news release that went out with his announcement.
As of Friday afternoon, the spokeswoman for Hickenlooper's Giddy Up political action committee said that the former governor had not yet made a decision.
WATCH: Truth Testing Hickenlooper's presidential campaign announcement
The length, editing and quality of his campaign video suggests otherwise.
The 2-minutes, 26-second video starts with a history of some of the most challenging times Hickenlooper faced as Governor.
He highlights Colorado's drought, deadly wildfires, the 2012 floods and the Aurora theater shooting.
Then, he gives a short biography of being a failed geologist turned brewpub owner, to 16 years as Denver's mayor and Colorado's governor.
Some of those scenes were shot in the Wynkoop Brewing Company, which Hickenlooper started in 1988 and talked about during past visits to Iowa and New Hampshire.
Hickenlooper will visit Iowa for a fourth time on Friday and Saturday.
He'll first host what his news release calls a "hometown send-off" at Civic Center Park on Thursday between 5 p.m. and 8 p.m.
Last Friday, 9NEWS obtained a copy of a permit for a "community gathering/celebration" submitted by Giddy Up's Director of Special Projects and reserved in the name of "JHFP Inc."
At the time, a Giddy Up spokeswoman said "we've been doing everything to get him ready if he does get to yes, that includes looking at venues…"
If it wasn't obvious before, "JHFP Inc" stands for "John Hickenlooper for President."
His Monday announcement revealed that his Thursday event will include a performance by the Denver-based band Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats. The group also performed at Gov. Jared Polis' inaugural ball in January.
When Hickenlooper's team submitted the application for the park permit, it estimated a crowd of 2,000. The news release announcing his candidacy said that the public will need to sign up to attend.
Nine days ago, Hickenlooper visited Iowa again and told 9NEWS at the time that he was still deciding on whether or not to run.
He spoke at a soup dinner in Ames that was also attended by presidential candidates Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) and Julian Castro, former Housing and Urban Development Secretary under President Obama.
"An awful lot of people in Congress are great at coming up with visions. They're great at coming up with visions. They're great at debating the issue. We need dreamers and debaters, I'm a doer," said Hickenlooper at the soup dinner on Feb. 23. "I haven't made a final decision, but assuming I get into this race, I almost feel like it's a calling."
Earlier in the day, while visiting a coffee shop in Sioux City in the northwest part of the state, patrons wanted to know why he was visiting Iowa for a third time, but had yet to declare as a candidate.
"Because you got to talk to everybody. And if you really want to figure out what the solutions are, you have to listen to everybody. I had 20 people in there tell me different ideas for different things I talked about," Hickenlooper told 9NEWS. "To me, it's better to be late a few weeks and lose money on it and not have raised as much money as you have, but actually have everybody unified, and especially have me, heart and soul, and my wife Robin, heart and soul, that this is the right thing."
Hickenlooper joins an ever-growing list of official candidates including:
- Former Maryland Rep. John Delaney
- Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard
- Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro
- New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand
- California Sen. Kamala Harris
- South Bend, Ind. Mayor Pete Buttigieg
- New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker
- Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren
- Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar
- Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders
- Washington Gov. Jay Inslee
Other people in the limbo that Hickenlooper used to be a member of, considering a run for president include: Sen. Michael Bennet, Former Vice President Joe Biden, Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, former Texas Rep. Beto O'Rourke and former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz
Hickenlooper's campaign logo is made up of blue stripes slanting up from the bottom left to top right, to illustrate three mountains of growing heights. A single white star appears in the space between the second and third peak. "Hickenlooper" is written in white in all capital letters underneath the mountains and below that is the number "2020" in the same color blue as the mountains.
Marshall Zelinger is the politics guy for 9NEWS and Next with Kyle Clark. You can reach him at marshall@9news.com or follow him on Twitter @Marshall9NEWS
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