2016 Race Just Got a 6th Democrat

Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig says his presidential exploratory committee has reached the $1 million benchmark he said would trigger a formal White House bid. "I'm running to get people to acknowledge the elephant in the room," the Democrat told ABC News. Lessig says he's running to address campaign finance reform, voting rights issues and "political gerrymandering." Lessig pledged to be a "referendum president," who serves only long enough to achieve his agenda; the 54-year-old South Dakota native would then resign and let his vice president take over.

He declined to name potential vice presidential picks when asked during the interview. Lessig previously said he would resign his position at Harvard and focus on the nomination race if he raised at least $1 million by Labor Day and didn't believe the other candidates were sufficiently focused on "returning political power to citizens." (More Lawrence Lessig stories.)