Hillary Clinton Set to Announce Presidential Bid 2016, Faces Little Democratic Challenge

Hillary Clinton will formally declare her second run for the presidency on Sunday in a race where she is the overwhelming favorite to win the Democratic presidential nomination, a reliable source from the Clinton camp revealed on Friday.

Clinton, 67, would announce her long-anticipated plans through video and social media, the Democratic source said. After the announcement, she will travel to the early voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire, said the source, who asked to remain unidentified.

With her planned use of social media to announce her White House run, Clinton would adopt the tactics deployed by Barack Obama in 2008 to raise large sums through small donations and appeal to young voters.

Clinton will be returning to the campaign trail seven years after losing the nomination in 2008 to Obama. This time around, Clinton is seen as the Democratic Party's best hope of retaining the White House against a crowded field of lesser-known Republican rivals.

Any doubt about Clinton's intention to run for the top post of the land is now a thing of the past as she has been quietly creating a campaign staff, with her team recently inking a lease for office space in Brooklyn, The Wall Street Journal said. The site is predicted to be her campaign headquarters.

Clinton faces little competition for the Democratic nomination. Former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley and former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb are expected to join the race but they have little national following or recognition. One potential heavyweight—Vice President Joe Biden—has said he is considering to join in the presidential derby but has not made any move yet to follow through on his alleged plan.

According to a Gallup poll last month, only 2 percent of Americans say they have never heard of Hillary Clinton.

To everyone's surprise, former Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee joined the field after he criticized Clinton on Thursday for not having anything solid in her foreign policy portfolio.

"The biggest question will be: What exactly did you accomplish in your four years as secretary of state?'" he said in an interview. "There was a lot of dust in the air. Not many concrete accomplishments," Chafee said.

Clinton has been a high-profile figure in U.S. politics for more than two decades since her husband, Bill Clinton, won the presidency in 1992. By virtue of fame alone, Clinton eclipses all possible opponents from both the Democratic and Republican parties.

But pundits said fame alone will not be enough to ensure another Clinton presidency. Hillary faces challenges she needs to overcome in the coming months. She is expected to try and clear herself from her controversial decision to use her own personal email while secretary of state. She is also expected to try and connect with ordinary Americans after her years as the top U.S. diplomat.

One of the challenges Clinton must hurdle, however, "will be showing voters she is willing to work hard for a Democratic nomination that appears to be hers to lose," the Journal said.

If she goes on to announce her candidacy now, her fundraising team will have nearly a full quarter to raise money before she has to report for donations through June. Her resources will be plenty, thanks to her husband's presidency and her own campaign in 2008. A "robust network of fundraisers" is ready to start looking for donations for her campaign.

Clinton has sounded out potential campaign themes. During recent public appearances, Clinton cast herself as both a loving new grandmother concerned about the future of the younger generation and a wise former diplomat who have a clear understanding of international politics.

In her speeches, Clinton has been underscoring the moral and economic importance of gender equality and women's rights, arguing that economic growth, the health of the middle class and the stability of foreign peace treaties all depend on reducing gender discrimination.

"Just think about all the hard-working families that depend on two incomes to make ends meet," Clinton said in a speech at a conference for women technology executives in California's Silicon Valley, citing her own experience of raising a young daughter while working as a partner at an Arkansas law firm in the 1980s. "When one is short-changed, the entire family suffers."