Ben Carson, world-famous surgeon who is equally as well known for his politically conservative stance as he is his surgical skills, announced in Detroit this Monday morning that will be entering the field of Republicans looking to land in the White house in 2016.
“I’m Ben Carson, and I’m a candidate for president of the United States,” he told a crowd in his hometown of Detroit today, making his presidential bid official to wild applause.
“I’m willing to be part of the equation and therefore, I’m announcing my candidacy for president of the United States of America,” Carson told WKRC, a Cincinnati, Ohio, television station, one day before he kicked off his campaign in Detroit.
The announcement puts Carson, 63, the black former head of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center, into his first political campaign.
The announcement is the latest stop on his meteoric rise to political stardom. Carson, 63, burst onto the political scene in 2013 when, addressing the typically nonpartisan National Prayer Breakfast, he spoke about the dangers of political correctness, put forward the idea of a flat tax, and criticized President Obama’s health-care law. What made it stand out: He did it right beside a steely faced Obama.
“I’m not going to do and say what’s politically expedient, I’m going to say what’s right,” Carson said in an interview with Bloomberg before his announcement. “If that’s something that resonates with the people great and if it doesn’t, that’s who I am and I’m not going to change.”
Carson making the announcement in Detroit is significant for several reasons. He grew up in the Motor City and in his book Gifted Hands, he discusses the hardships he endured when his family lived on government assistance, causing him to have bouts of with angfer and educational apathy.
Carson addressed supporters Monday morning in Detroit, the battered city where he spent much of his youth—a period defined by points when his family relied heavily on government assistance. According to his best-selling autobiography, Gifted Hands, Carson had to overcome personal bouts with anger and educational apathy.
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