April 21, 2011, Johnson announced via Twitter, "I am running for president." He followed this announcement with a speech at the New Hampshire State House in Concord, New Hampshire. He was the first of an eventually large field to announce his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination. Johnson again chose Ron Nielson of NSON Opinion Strategy, a director for both of his New Mexico gubernatorial campaigns, as his presidential campaign manager and senior advisor. The campaign was headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, where Nielson's offices are located. Johnson's economics advisor was Harvard economics professor Jeffrey Miron. Initially, Johnson hoped Ron Paul would not run for president so that Johnson could galvanize Paul's network of libertarian-minded voters, and he even traveled to Houston to tell Paul of his decision to run in person, but Paul announced his candidacy on May 13, 2011. Johnson participated in the first of the Republican presidential debates, hosted by Fox News in South Carolina on May 5, 2011, appearing on stage with Herman Cain, Ron Paul, Tim Pawlenty, and Rick Santorum. Mitt Romney and Michele Bachmann both declined to debate. Johnson was excluded from the next three debates on June 13 (hosted by CNN in New Hampshire), August 11 (hosted by Fox News in Iowa), and September 7 (hosted by CNN in California). After the first exclusion, Johnson made a 43-minute video responding to each of the debate questions, which he posted on YouTube. The first exclusion, which was widely publicized, gave Johnson "a little bump" in name recognition and produced "a small uptick" in donations. But "the long term consequences were dismal." For the financial quarter ending June 30, Johnson raised a mere $180,000. Fox News decided that because Johnson polled at least 2% in five recent polls, he could participate in a September 22 debate in Florida, which it co-hosted with the Florida Republican Party (the party objected to Johnson's inclusion). Johnson participated, appearing on stage with Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich, Jon Huntsman, Ron Paul, Rick Perry, Mitt Romney, and Rick Santorum. During the debate, Johnson delivered what many media outlets, including the Los Angeles Times, and Time, called the best line of the night: "My next-door neighbor's two dogs have created more shovel ready jobs than this administration." Entertainment Weekly opined that Johnson had won the debate. Libertarian presidential nomination and campaign Although Johnson had focused the majority of his