Hillary Clinton's 2016 Presidential Candidacy Made Official With Email From Aide, Rather Than a Tweet

After months of being a presumed candidate for the 2016 presidential race, Hillary Clinton made it official on Sunday.

The confirmation came from an aide’s email rather than, as expected, a video or tweet from the candidate.

“I wanted to make sure you heard it first from me — it’s official: Hillary’s running for president,” John Podesta said in an email to Democratic supporters.

However, that email was followed shortly thereafter by a YouTube video featuring Clinton herself. The video begins with a montage of people telling their stories, including two Spanish-speaking brothers talking about starting their own business, and a gay man talking about his upcoming wedding.

“Everyday Americans need a champion, and I want to be that champion,” Clinton says.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uY7gLZDmn4

It’s probably apt in this day and age of social media. And Clinton recently hired Google executive Stephanie Hannon to serve as her technology chief.

She will need that kind of help in the digital space, especially after recent controversy over her use of a private email address while she was Secretary of State. And besides a panoply of domestic and international issues, Clinton also faces a spate of tech-related ones to address, from NSA spying to privacy incursions by big Internet companies to immigration legislation to trying to improve science and math education to making sure the American innovation engine does not sputter.

She got some help, though, with an endorsement Saturday from President Barack Obama, who said, “I think she would be an excellent president.”

For more on the now-official candidate, here’s Re/code Co-Executive Editor Kara Swisher interviewing Clinton in February, where Clinton talked about her use of digital devices, and where she made some of those statements that got her into trouble.

Update, 12:30 pm PT: Clinton has now posted an official tweet on her candidacy; it came well after the email and YouTube video.

https://twitter.com/HillaryClinton/status/587336319321407488

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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