Withdrawal from 2004 Presidential Race - Jan. 15, 2004

On January 4, 2004, Moseley Braun withdrew from the 2004 presidential race and endorsed Howard Dean.

(Applause) Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. I'm very honored. Thank you so much.

I want to thank you, Tom Harkin, for those wonderful words. And my old friend, I know we're going to be on the trail together.

I want to thank everybody for your kindness to me and for allowing me to participate as a candidate for the Democratic nomination for president of the United States.

This campaign has been a wonderful learning experience for me, one that restored my faith in the political process and renewed my belief in the goodness of the American people.

I am here today to thank those Iowans who were prepared to stand for me in Monday's caucuses, and ask that you stand instead for Howard Dean. (Applause.)

Your support is precious to me, and so I make this recommendation with the most sincerity and thought I have ever brought to any decision.

Governor Dean has the energy to inspire the American people, to break the cocoon of fear that envelopes us and empowers President Bush and his entourage from the extreme right wing. And he has a program to put our company back on track to tax fairness, job creation, balanced budgets, and an economy that works for everyone, regardless of race or sex. (Applause)

He has the experience to know that state and local and national governments have to cooperate and collaborate and end the destructive game of monetary musical chairs that creates unfunded mandates and failing schools. He understands that the real war on terrorism starts with putting the domestic security of the American people first.

He can, as they say, work well with others around the world and craft a foreign policy that is neither arrogant nor preemptive, but that begins with respect and builds on alliances. (Applause)

He takes seriously our stewardship of the planet and our environmental responsibilities.

Howard Dean is a Democrat we can all be proud to support. (Applause.)

Now, I am so very grateful to you who have made my candidacy possible and who believed, as I do -- as I did -- that my campaign offered Americans a unique opportunity for progress. When barriers of gender and race fall in America, our nation is richer for it. And all Americans—all Americans—will benefit… (Applause) All Americans will benefit from an opening up of a reservoir of talent and capacity and contributions and ideas that have been locked up for far too long.

But in candor, to share with you, the funding and organizational disadvantages of a non-traditional campaign could not, in the end, be overcome. And so this campaign was unable to compete effectively or support your hard work as it should. Continuing would not have been fair to the hundreds of delegates, especially congressmen Bobby Rush and Danny Davis, and thousands of volunteers and millions of supporters who wanted to give the American people a message of hope and progress.

We were and we are determined to give the next generation of Americans no less than what we inherited from the first one, and we are committed to opening up our democracy. We will get there one day. (Applause.)

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., once said, and I quote, "The arc of the moral universe is long but bends towards justice."

Progress for our republic will come when we live up to the ideal of equality and inclusion that is at the heart of the American dream. The political process is an avenue for building a more perfect union, if for no other reason than it is, at the end, purely a mathematical process. With one vote more than the next guy, you win—at least most of the time. (Laughter and applause.)

When women run for office, when people of color run, we open up the possibility that women and people of color can win. I have a record—and I'm glad Tom referenced it—I have a record of building bridges, bringing people together and breaking barriers, and I am proud of my role in breaking new ground with this campaign. (Applause.)

I was able to walk in the footsteps of my hero, former Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm. And we qualified for ballot position in more states than any woman has ever done in the history of this country. (Applause.)

So to those of you who believed in this effort, I say take heart. You can claim the nobility of moving our country forward and of opening up possibilities for all our daughters. I thank you for your vision and your patriotism. (Applause.)

But today especially, I ask that you share my view that Governor Dean is the candidate best equipped to continue the progress we need to have, to bring Americans together, to renew our country and restore our privacy, our liberty and our economic security. His leadership will help us live up to our generational responsibility. And so I am happy to support him and hope that you will stand for him with the conviction and courage with which you would have stood for me.

I appreciate your continued support. And I look forward to dancing with you at the inaugural ball for Howard Dean this time next year. (Cheers, applause.)...

Thank you so much.

I'm just going to bring on Governor Dean. You've heard enough from me. Governor Howard Dean.

Speech from http://www.c-span.org/video/?179994-1/moseley-braun-withdrawal.