Former California GOP gubernatorial candidate Larry Elder announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination for president on Thursday. He said he felt it was his patriotic duty to do so.
Elder, who lost to Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) during the recall election in 2021, announced the news to Fox News’s Tucker Carlson. Elder said he was the only male member of his family not to serve in the military and felt running for president was a moral and patriotic duty for him.
LARRY ELDER GEARS UP FOR 2024 WHITE HOUSE RUN: ‘DEEPLY PLANNING’
“The reason I am doing this: My father was a World War II vet, served as a Marine — first black Marines,” Elder said. “My late older brother Kirk was in the Navy during the Vietnam era, and my little brother Dennis served in Vietnam in the army. I’m the only one didn’t serve, and I don’t feel good about that. I feel I have a moral, religious, patriotic duty to give back to a country that’s been so good to my family and me. That’s why I am doing this.”
Elder teased a potential run earlier this month, stating he was “deeply planning” a presidential run. His campaign will focus on policing and what he calls a “lack of fathers” in the country — most notably in the black community.
“The disgraceful lie the Democrats put on everything that America is systematically racist. It isn’t just a lie, Tucker; it has real consequences,” Elder said.
“Police are pulling back. It’s called the Ferguson effect or George Floyd effect. People that are harmed by that are the black and brown people, which are who people on the Left claim they care about. There’s a study shows hundreds if not thousands are dead because police aren’t engaging in proactive policing because they are demoralized by people calling them racist.”
“The second thing, the 10,000-pound elephant in the room regarding stuff in Chicago and other cities with mass mobs, is the lack of fathers in the home,” Elder continued. “Right now, today in America, 40% of all kids enter the world without a father in the home married to the mother — 70% in the black community.”
“The question we should be asking: How do you go from 25% black kids entering the world without a father in the home in 1960 to the more [than] 70% today? The answer is the welfare state. We incentivized women to marry the government and men to abandon moral responsibility. If I do nothing else but focus people on those two issues, I will [have] performed a service to my country.”
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The radio host, who garnered over 3.5 million votes during the unsuccessful 2021 election, said in January that he had already traveled to New Hampshire and Iowa and met with donors.
Elder joins a growing field of Republican candidates that so far includes former President Donald Trump, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, and entrepreneur and author Vivek Ramaswamy. Former Vice President Mike Pence and Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) are still considering presidential bids.
