WASHINGTON – Democrat Carol Moseley Braun, the only black woman to serve in the U.S. Senate, formally declared her candidacy for the president Monday, forging ahead with a long-shot bid in an otherwise all-male contest for the White House.
“I am uniquely qualified to do the job of president, and I offer the clearest alternative to this current administration, whose only new idea has been pre-emptive war and a huge new bureaucracy,” Braun said in a low-key appearance at Howard University.
Her only introduction came from her 26-year-old son, Matthew Braun.
“A woman can fix the mess they have created, because we are practical, we are not afraid of partnerships and we are committed to making the world better for our children.”
Braun stunned the political establishment in 1992 – the “Year of the Woman” – unseating an incumbent Democratic senator in the primary, two-term lawmaker Alan Dixon, on her way to what was once considered an improbable victory in November.
