Filing Let Bachmann Seize Spotlight

The Hill reports:

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) announced during Monday evening's presidential debate that she'd filed paperwork to run for president.

"I filed today my paperwork to run for president of the United States … I wanted you to be the first to know," she said.

She added she would make a formal announcement at a later time.

Bachmann, the conservative congresswoman with ties to the Tea Party movement, made the announcement during her first answer of the Republican debate in Manchester, N.H.

Bachmann reiterated her announcement in a Web video posted halfway through the debate.

"I worked very hard to bring your voice to the House of Congress," she said. "Now I want to take your voice into the White House, where it hasn't been heard for a long time."

The Minnesota lawmaker had made rumblings suggesting that she would announce during a trip to Iowa, but instead chose to do so in New Hampshire, the first-in-the-nation primary state