Bill Richardson 2008 presidential campaign Bill Richardson 2008 presidential campaign The 2008 presidential campaign of Bill Richardson, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson announced his candidacy on January 21, 2007, for President of the United States on ABC's "This Week" with George Stephanopoulos, by virtue of forming a presidential exploratory committee. Richardson, who is of Hispanic descent, joined a diverse field for the Democratic nomination, which already included an African American in Senator Barack Obama of Illinois and a female in Senator Hillary Clinton of New York and became the first individual of Hispanic descent to mount a nationwide campaign for president. He withdrew from the
2008 Democratic Party presidential primaries with Democratic turnout surpassing Republican turnout even in traditionally red states where the number of registered Democrats is proportionally low. Many states reported high levels of Democratic voter registration in the weeks before primaries. From January 3 through February 5, Democratic turnout exceeded Republican turnout, 19.1 million to 13.1 million. The high Democratic turnout was attributed to several factors: 2008 Democratic Party presidential primaries The 2008 Democratic presidential primaries were the selection processes by which voters of the Democratic Party chose its nominee for President of the United States in the 2008 U.S. presidential election. Senator Barack Obama of Illinois