Freedom Folks: Tancredo Throws Hat In The Ring On Monday!

Source: Denver Post

Tom Tancredo will announce Monday on an Iowa radio program that he is running for president.

The Littleton congressman, who has had an exploratory committee, will tell radio host Jan Mickelson in Des Moines that he is formally joining the race for the Republican nomination, two sources close to the congressman said.

Like other presidential candidates using alternative forums to break the news that they are seeking the Oval Office, Tancredo, the anti-illegal immigration stalwart, is choosing the medium that has given him a home for almost a decade.

“We’re looking at a day of announcements on talk radio,” a source close to the campaign said. “That’s where the conservative movement has made its mark. That’s where our people get their news.”

Tancredo decided to join the race after raising more than $1 million two months sooner than the goal he had set, one of the sources close to Tancredo said. Though that is a tiny amount of money compared to what other candidates are raising, Tancredo intends to spend that and at least $1 million in matching funds in just Iowa and New Hampshire.

Tancredo’s goal is to force top-tier Republican candidates Sen. John McCain of Arizona, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, to talk about immigration, the source close to Tancredo said. In particular, Tancredo will target McCain, co-sponsor of the immigration legislation that passed the Senate last year before dying when House Republican leaders refused to merge it with House legislation.

Tancredo will speak on at least 20 different radio programs Monday. Numerous stations are calling asking him to speak, the source in his campaign said, adding, “people are very excited about it and want to be a part of it.”

On Tuesday Tancredo will fly to Boston where he will speak on a radio program there that has a large market in New Hampshire. The week will be spent on talk radio.

“Over the years when we really didn’t have a voice, we turned to talk radio,” the campaign source said.

It also fits Tancredo because talk radio is “the voice of the immigration movement,” the campaign source said. “It’s through talk radio that the movement has spread across the country.”

Tancredo told The Denver Post earlier this week that he isn’t going to decide any time soon whether he’s going to leave his congressional seat as he runs for the Republican presidential nomination.

“I don’t know that I won’t run again, should things not turn out that I was president of the United States,” Tancredo said.