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Former Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee on Thursday revealed his mind that he is mulling over contesting the White House election in 2016.
With the so-called announcement, Chafee has become the first Democratic leader to publicly challenge the probable front-runner of his own party for the presidency Hillary Clinton, who is expected to announce her bid this month.
“Throughout my career, I exercised good judgment on a wide range of high-pressure decisions, decisions that require level-headedness and careful foresight… Often these decisions came in the face of political adversity,” Chafee said in a released statement.
Chafee also announced that he had formed an exploratory committee to consider his run for the White House bid in 2016.
Chafee has served eight years as a Republican in the US Senate. He then chose to change his party affiliation to independent when he had decided to run for the post of Rhode Island governor in 2010. During his last year in office in 2013, Chafee clubbed hands with the Democratic Party.
In 1999, Chafee was appointed to the Senate for the first time after the death of his father, John Chafee, in office. He was elected to a six-year term in 2000. In 2006, Chafee lost a re-election bid to Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse.
In 2010, his first run for governor was successful but he had opted out of a second term.
