There's now a 17th Republican presidential candidate

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published 30 July 2015

As if the Republican presidential field weren't already big enough, one more candidate has decided to jump in at the very last minute. Former Virginia Governor Jim Gilmore filed with the FEC on Wednesday, declaring his intention to run for president just eight days before the first GOP debate. Gilmore, who is now the 17th candidate vying for the GOP nomination, served as governor of Virginia from 1998 until 2002 and was chair of the Republican National Committee in 2001.

However, as the Daily Intelligencer notes, Gilmore is "such a long shot that he might not even qualify for the Fox News debate" — and that's after Fox decided to open the debate up to all "candidates who are consistently being offered to respondents in national polls." Gilmore has only appeared in one of five of the most recent national polls, Politico reports, and they, too, have called his launch "his longest of all long-shot presidential bids."