--- title: Martin O'Malley Phoned Hillary Clinton Ahead of Presidential Launch description: Barely 24 hours before launching his campaign to challenge Hillary Clinton, former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley phoned the Democratic presidential front-runner canonical: https://time.com/3902421/martin-omalley-hillary-clinton/ author: Sam Frizell article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-05-30T13:52:01.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:59:05.276Z article:section: Politics og:title: Martin O'Malley Phoned Hillary Clinton Ahead of His Presidential Launch og:description: The call was brief and cordial og:url: https://time.com/3902421/martin-omalley-hillary-clinton/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb99aff32891fc7d7/6988524f428a9e275fccd795/martin-omalley-presidential.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: maryland governor martin o'malley og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Martin O'Malley Phoned Hillary Clinton Ahead of His Presidential Launch twitter:description: The call was brief and cordial twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb99aff32891fc7d7/6988524f428a9e275fccd795/martin-omalley-presidential.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Martin O'Malley Phoned Hillary Clinton Ahead of His Presidential Launch ## Video: Martin O'Malley Is Running For President [Watch (HLS stream): Martin O'Malley Is Running For President](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/moCjIrlL.m3u8) (1:39)  _Published 2015-05-30. Former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley announced his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination Saturday, but he has a steep popularity gap to beat._ by [Sam Frizell](https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/) ## Sam Frizell May 30, 2015 1:52 PM UTC  Former Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley is joined by his wife Katie O'Malley (R) as he announces his intention to seek the Democratic presidential nomination during a speech in Federal Hill Park in Baltimore, Maryland, on May 30, 2015. Former Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley is joined by his wife Katie O'Malley (R) as he announces his intention to seek the Democratic presidential nomination during a speech in Federal Hill Park in Baltimore, Maryland, on May 30, 2015.Jim Bourg—Reuters by [Sam Frizell](https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/) ## Sam Frizell May 30, 2015 1:52 PM UTC Barely 24 hours before launching his campaign to challenge Hillary Clinton, former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley phoned the Democratic presidential front-runner to personally inform her of his plans. The call between the two Democratic rivals was brief and cordial, and came on the same day that O’Malley filed his candidacy papers with the Federal Election Commission, according to two sources familiar with the conversation. O’Malley, the two-term governor of Maryland who left office in January, is launching his presidential campaign Saturday morning in Baltimore, the city where he spent seven years as mayor. Clinton and O’Malley have a complicated relationship as fellow Democratic party notables. O’Malley was one of the first Democratic governors to endorse Clinton’s candidacy for president in the 2008 election, and was a major fundraiser for the then-Senator. Last year, former president Bill Clinton strongly praised O’Malley’s time as governor. But as he has prepared to run for the White House, O’Malley has staked out a position to Hillary Clinton’s left on an array of policies, including trade, Wall Street reform and immigration. While he has largely refrained from directly attacking her, he has made a point of emphasizing their disagreements at every juncture. On the call, O’Malley told Clinton that he is running because he believes it’s time for “new leadership” of the country. Not coincidentally, the phrase is the slogan for his nascent presidential campaign, visible on half a dozen campaign signs around the stage at his launch event on Baltimore’s Federal Hill. The 52-year-old plans to emphasize his youthfulness in comparison with Clinton, who is 67 and one of the oldest candidates to ever seek the presidency. Friday’s call is not the first time Clinton’s campaign has communicated with O’Malley. Around St. Patrick’s Day, Clinton’s campaign chair John Podesta held a private meeting with O’Malley and told the former governor that they were going to take any possible campaign seriously. A spokesman for the Clinton campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment. O’Malley is a longshot candidate for the Democratic nomination, especially when compared to the Clinton juggernaut. Despite frequent trips to Iowa and New Hampshire with all the accompanying press coverage, O’Malley is polling at 1% among Democrats nationally compared with Hillary Clinton’s 57%, according to a May 28 Quinnipiac survey. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3902421/martin-omalley-hillary-clinton/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3902421/martin-omalley-hillary-clinton/"},"headline":"Martin O'Malley Phoned Hillary Clinton Ahead of His Presidential Launch","datePublished":"2015-05-30T13:52:01.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:59:05.276Z","description":"The call was brief and cordial","url":"https://time.com/3902421/martin-omalley-hillary-clinton/","keywords":["2016 Election","Hillary Clinton","2016 Election topic"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb99aff32891fc7d7/6988524f428a9e275fccd795/martin-omalley-presidential.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sam Frizell","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb99aff32891fc7d7/6988524f428a9e275fccd795/martin-omalley-presidential.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"maryland governor martin o'malley","caption":"maryland governor martin o'malley","creditText":"Jim Bourg—Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3902421/martin-omalley-hillary-clinton/","name":"Martin O'Malley Phoned Hillary Clinton Ahead of His Presidential Launch"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Martin O'Malley Is Running For President","description":"Former Maryland Gov. 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