Clinton makes it official:'I'm running'.

Byline: Amy Chozick

Ending two years of speculation and coy denials, Hillary Rodham Clinton announced Sunday that she would seek the presidency for a second time, immediately establishing herself as the likely 2016 Democratic nominee.

"I'm running for president,'' she said with a smile near the end of a two-minute video released just after 3 p.m.

"Everyday Americans need a champion. And I want to be that champion,'' Clinton said. "So I'm hitting the road to earn your vote -- because it's your time. And I hope you'll join me on this journey.''

The announcement came minutes after emails from John D. Podesta, Clinton's campaign chairman, alerting donors and longtime Clinton associates to her candidacy.

Podesta said Clinton would meet soon with voters in Iowa and host a formal kickoff event sometime next month.

The announcement effectively began what could be one of the least contested races, without an incumbent, for the Democratic presidential nomination in recent history -- a stark contrast to the 2008 primaries, when Clinton, the early front-runner, ended up in a long and expensive battle won by Barack Obama. It could also be the first time a woman captures a major party's nomination.

Regardless of the outcome, Clinton's 2016 campaign will open a new chapter in the extraordinary life of a public figure who has captivated and polarized the country since her husband, former President Bill Clinton, declared his intention to run for president in 1991. Hillary Clinton was the co-star of the Clinton administration, the only first lady ever elected to the U.S. Senate and a globe-trotting diplomat who surprised her party by serving dutifully under the president who defeated her.

She will embark on her latest -- and perhaps last -- bid for the White House with nearly universal name recognition and a strong base of support, particularly among women.

But in a campaign that will inevitably be about the future, Clinton, 67, enters as a quintessential baby boomer, associated with the 1990s and with the drama of the Bill Clinton years.

This campaign will begin on a small scale and build up to an effort likely to cost more than any presidential bid waged before, with Clinton's supporters and outside super PACs looking to raise as much as $2.5 billion in a blitz of donations from Democrats who overwhelmingly support her candidacy.

Much of that enthusiasm is tied to the chance to make history by electing a woman president. But some, too, owes to the lack of...