Conservative radio host Larry Elder joins GOP presidential race with 2024 bid

Conservative radio host Larry Elder announced on Thursday that he’s throwing his hat in the GOP nomination for the 2024 presidential election. 

“My announcement Tucker, is I’m announcing that I’m running for the presidency of the United States on your program,” Elder told Fox News host Tucker Carlson during an appearance on his show, saying that he has a “moral, religious, and a patriotic duty” to run for president while noting his family’s past experiences in the armed forces. 

Elder, 70, added that policing and crime are the two issues that worry him the most ahead of the next election, claiming Democrats have failed in that department. He also expressed his concern over the growing statistics of fatherless homes and environments in minority communities. 

“We’ve incentivized women to marry the government. We’ve incentivized men to abandon their financial and moral responsibility,” Elder claimed. “And if I do nothing else in this race, but focus people on those two issues … I would perform this service to my country.” 

The radio host also ran an unsuccessful bid to unseat California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) during a recall vote in 2021.

Elder, who left his longtime radio show “The Larry Elder Show” in April 2022, also launched a political action committee earlier last year in an effort to support Republican candidates in federal and local races.

Elder will now enter a soon-to-be-crowded field for the GOP nomination, running against declared candidates — such as former President Trump, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson — and a slew of rumored candidates.

“America is in decline, but this decline is not inevitable,” he tweeted on Thursday following his announcement. “We can enter a new American Golden Age, but we must choose a leader who can bring us there. That’s why I’m running for President.”