Thompson to announce presidential run next week

Thompson to announce presidential run next week

August 30, 2007

KNOXVILLE (WATE) -- Former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson will officially announce his campaign for president on September 6, according to his political director.

Thompson plans to make his announcement by webcast, after midnight Thursday.

He's expected to follow that by campaigning in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Florida.

Thompson will come to Knoxville on September 17 for a fund raiser.

According to Politico.com, the political director for Thompson, a 65-year-old Republican, told supporters about the former senator's plans on a conference call Thursday afternoon. 

Thompson will be the 11th Republican to join the race.

"Fred's been running hard for two or three months. He's doing very well. I think there will be a lot of excitement for him. There's been not a whole lot of enthusiasm for a lot of them that are there in there," says Rep. Jimmy Duncan (R-Knoxville).

Duncan started the Draft Fred Thompson movement in Tennessee.

Thompson's opinion columns appear on RedState.com, the Pajamas Media blog, National Review Online and his own blog, The Fred Thompson Report.

Fred Thompson served as an assistant U.S. attorney from 1969 to 1972 and as a senator from 1994 to 2003. He is also an attorney and a character actor who left NBC's "Law and Order" in May.

In June, Thompson formed a presidential exploratory committee.

Thompson was actually born in Sheffield, Alabama but he attended the public schools in Lawrenceburg, Tennessee.

He earned a double-major in philosophy and political science in 1964 from Vanderbilt University. He earned his J.D. degree from Vanderbilt in 1967.

He was the campaign manager for Sen. Howard Baker's (R-Tennessee) successful re-election campaign in 1972.

Thompson served as co-chief counsel to the Senate Watergate Committee from 1973 to 1974 in its investigation of the scandal.

He wrote a book about the investigation called "At that point in time: The inside story of the Senate Watergate Committee."