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George Pataki is actually running for president this time

by Andrew Prokop
Updated
George Pataki, at the premiere of the “Game Change” movie in 2012. He did not change the game that year.
George Pataki, at the premiere of the “Game Change” movie in 2012. He did not change the game that year.
George Pataki, at the premiere of the “Game Change” movie in 2012. He did not change the game that year.
D Dipasupil / FilmMagic / Getty
Andrew Prokop
Andrew Prokop is a senior politics correspondent at Vox, covering the White House, elections, and political scandals and investigations. He’s worked at Vox since the site’s launch in 2014, and before that, he worked as a research assistant at the New Yorker’s Washington, DC, bureau.

After years of threatening to do it, former Republican New York Governor George Pataki is running for president.

In a 9/11-themed campaign video today he says he’s joining the pack on the hunt for the Republican presidential nomination.

“I’ve been up in that tower,” Pataki says of Freedom Plaza. “That’s exactly what we hoped, that we would not just rebuild what was here but build higher and taller and soar to new heights and show people we weren’t going to think small and live afraid.”

Though the video is brand new, there’s a certain feeling of déjà vu to it. For years, the media has predicted Pataki would jump in. But year after year, it never happened.

For instance, in August 2011 — months into the GOP presidential race — the New York Daily News reported that Pataki was "expected to enter the race," as a "moderate" alternative to "the more strident GOP rhetoric." (That never happened.)

Similarly, two months after he stepped down as governor, Pataki took a job at a law firm — but when he did so, he made sure to inform the New York Times that that didn't mean a presidential bid was out of the question. (That bid didn't happen, either.)

Indeed, Eric Koch, the communications director for New York's Democratic city council speaker, tweeted out several other stories floating higher offices or campaigns for Pataki that never ended up happening — one practically every year:

But this time, it seems, he’s serious.

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