Gravel Interested in Challenging Obama’s Renomination

Former U.S. Senator and 2008 Presidential candidate Mike Gravel is opening the door to a potential second run for President in 2012.

Gravel, who left the Senate in 1980, is best known for his role in releasing the Pentagon Papers.

In an interview with The Daily Caller, Gravel opens the door to taking on Obama:

The Daily Caller: Are you considering another run for president in 2012? Would you consider a primary challenge against President Obama?

Mike Gravel: Both are possible.

Gravel launched his 2008 bid for the White House nearly 2 years before the first primary or caucus. He was the first “major” candidate into the race and he traveled the country, campaigning extensively and participating in all of the early debates.

Gravel won only 404 votes or 0.14% in the New Hampshire primary, but continued his campaign on a shoestring budget. As the race rapidly narrowed to a one-on-one contest between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, Gravel remained the third candidate still technically in the race. His dismal showings, however, would frequently put him in the cluster of candidates around 1% — the majority of those being former candidates who had already ended their bids but could not remove their names from the ballot in time.

Gravel remained in the race, but was unable to take advantage of his position as the only still active challenger to Obama and Clinton. Unfortunately, his campaign had failed to secure ballot access in most of the later Democratic contests. Gravel’s final showing was on May 6, 2008 in the North Carolina primary — he polled 12,452 votes or about 0.8%.

Weeks earlier, Gravel had announced he was leaving the Democrats to seek the Libertarian Party’s nomination. At their convention in late May, the former Senator was eliminated from contention on the fourth ballot with with 76 votes out of a total 629 votes cast.