A Surprise

Remember Jim Gilmore? He's one of two former Republican governors who were mentioned briefly in May as potential presidential candidates. I gave them a shout-out in a post on May 20 (read it here) then forgot all about them. (The other former guv was Bob Erhlich.)

Anyway, much, much to my surprise, Gilmore has now declared himself to be a candidate for the GOP nomination, bringing the official field to 15-soon-to-be-17. Donald Trump is surging in the polls, Republican leaders are fretting and the first debate is 3 1/2 weeks away. This just gets more and more entertaining.

Declared GOP Candidates

1. Ted Cruz (March 23) 
2. Rand Paul (April 7)
3. Marco Rubio (April 14)
4. Dr. Ben Carson (May 3) 
5. Carly Fiorina (May 4) 
6. Mike Huckabee (May 5) 
7. Rick Santorum (May 27)
8. George Pataki (May 28)
9. Lindsey Graham (June 1) 
10. Rick Perry (June 4) 
11. Jeb Bush (June 15)
12. Donald Trump (June 16) 
13. Bobby Jindal (June 24) 
14. Chris Christie (June 30)
15. Jim Gilmore (July 8)

Possible Republican Candidates
John Kasich (Announcement July 21)
Scott Walker (Announcement July 13) 

Days until Election Day: 484