Former senator and Vietnam veteran Jim Webb to run for president in long-shot bid against Clinton

Former US senator Jim Webb announced his presidential campaign yesterday, opening a long-shot bid against Hillary Rodham Clinton and a field of Democratic rivals for the party’s 2016 nomination.

Webb, 69, a decorated Vietnam veteran and a former top Navy official, is expected to focus his campaign on helping working-class Americans compete in the economy, tackling campaign finance reform and preventing the US from getting involved in foreign entanglements like Iraq and Afghanistan.

Webb acknowledged he would face major hurdles but vowed to bring an outsider’s voice to the 2016 race.

“I understand the odds, particularly in today’s political climate, where fair debate is so often drowned out by huge sums of money. I know that more than one candidate in this process intends to raise at least a billion dollars,” Webb said in a statement. But “We need to shake the hold of these shadow elites on our political process.”

Webb’s opposition to the Iraq War – his son Jimmy served in the conflict – played a central role in his surprise Senate election in 2006 against a Republican challenger. While he chose not to seek re-election after one term, his military and foreign policy credentials could allow him to become a debate stage foil to Clinton, who served as President Barack Obama’s secretary of state.

Webb has said US foreign policy has been “adrift” since the end of the cold war and called for a new foreign policy doctrine that would outline the circumstances in which the U.S. would use military force.