--- title: Martin O'Malley Announces Presidential Campaign in Baltimore description: "The presidency is not a crown to be passed back and forth by you between two royal families," he said canonical: https://time.com/3902449/martin-omalley-presidential-run/ author: Charlotte Alter article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-05-30T15:00:30.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-30T11:47:38.417Z article:section: Politics og:title: Martin O'Malley Announces Presidential Run og:description: "The presidency is not a crown to be passed back and forth by you between two royal families" og:url: https://time.com/3902449/martin-omalley-presidential-run/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8cc6fa8322932f24/69885253cd1bba6bad6fb923/martin-omalley-21.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Martin O'Malley maryland presidential race og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Martin O'Malley Announces Presidential Run twitter:description: "The presidency is not a crown to be passed back and forth by you between two royal families" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8cc6fa8322932f24/69885253cd1bba6bad6fb923/martin-omalley-21.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Martin O'Malley Announces Presidential Run ## 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 [Charlotte Alter](/author/charlotte-alter/) and [Sam Frizell](/author/sam-frizell/) May 30, 2015 3:00 PM CUT  Former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley speaks during an event to announce that he is entering the Democratic presidential race, on May 30, 2015, in Baltimore. Former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley speaks during an event to announce that he is entering the Democratic presidential race, on May 30, 2015, in Baltimore.Evan Vucci—AP by [Charlotte Alter](/author/charlotte-alter/) and [Sam Frizell](/author/sam-frizell/) May 30, 2015 3:00 PM CUT Two-term Maryland governor Martin O’Malley announced his presidential campaign Saturday with a swing at Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush. “Recently, the CEO of Goldman Sachs let his employees know that he’d be just fine with either Bush _or_ Clinton,” he said in his campaign announcement on Federal Hill, overlooking Baltimore. “Well, I’ve got news for the bullies of Wall Street—the presidency is not a crown to be passed back and forth by you between two royal families.” O’Malley is a longshot candidate for the Democratic nomination, polling at 1% among Democrats compared with Hillary Clinton’s 57%, according to a May 28 Quinnipiac survey, despite his frequent trips to Iowa and New Hampshire. His allies have launched a super PAC called Generation Forward that will support his campaign in early nominating states. During his speech, O’Malley, who is also former mayor of Baltimore, cast the city’s recent racial unrest—including a night of riots after the funeral of Freddie Gray, who died of injuries sustained in police custody—as an symptom of a larger American problem. “What took place here was not only about race…not only about policing in America. It’s about everything it is _supposed to mean_ to be an American,” he said. “The scourge of hopelessness that happened to ignite here that evening, transcends race or geography.” He also took swings at Wall Street. “Tell me how it is, that you can get pulled over for a broken tail light in our country, but if you wreck the nation’s economy you are untouchable,” he said. During his announcement speech, O’Malley highlighted his record as Maryland’s governor, noting that he supported a successful bid to legalize gay marriage and helped raise the minimum wage. **_Read Next_**_:_ [_Martin O’Malley Phoned Hillary Clinton Ahead of His Presidential Launch_](http://time.com/3902421/martin-omalley-hillary-clinton/ "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3902449/martin-omalley-presidential-run/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3902449/martin-omalley-presidential-run/"},"headline":"Martin O'Malley Announces Presidential Run","datePublished":"2015-05-30T15:00:30.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-30T11:47:38.417Z","description":"\"The presidency is not a crown to be passed back and forth by you between two royal families\"","url":"https://time.com/3902449/martin-omalley-presidential-run/","keywords":["2016 Election","Hillary Clinton","2016 Election topic","jeb bush","baltimore","Martin O'malley","presidential campaign"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8cc6fa8322932f24/69885253cd1bba6bad6fb923/martin-omalley-21.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Charlotte Alter","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/"},{"@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/blt8cc6fa8322932f24/69885253cd1bba6bad6fb923/martin-omalley-21.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Martin O'Malley maryland presidential race","caption":"Martin O'Malley maryland presidential race","creditText":"Evan Vucci—AP","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/3902449/martin-omalley-presidential-run/","name":"Martin O'Malley Announces Presidential Run"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Martin O'Malley Is Running For President","description":"Former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley announced his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination Saturday, but he has a steep popularity gap to beat.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/moCjIrlL/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-05-30T14:38:18.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/moCjIrlL.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3902449/martin-omalley-presidential-run/","duration":"PT1M39S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3902449/martin-omalley-presidential-run/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```