Since his personal Declaration of Independence, Republicans and Democrats alike have watched Amash carefully for signs he’d run for president. They’re unmistakable.

“I’ll say what I’ve said before, I haven’t ruled it out,” Amash said, the closest he came to sounding like a traditional politician. “But I’m running for Congress as an independent in my district. I’m very excited about that. I feel very good about that.”

He wants to be clear that he’s not abandoning his re-election bid—yet. “Just to be clear, I am running for office as an independent for, you know, my congressional seat. And I’ve filed for that, and you know, we’re, we’re doing what it takes to, to win that race.”

One more time. He begins to speak more cautiously.

“At some point you’ll be at, we’ll be at the point where I have to rule out, you know, running for president. And I’m not at that point yet. But, you know, we’re probably getting closer to that point now. If you’re going to run a campaign for president, you need enough time to run a strong campaign and you need enough time to win the campaign. I’m not running for president unless I believe I can win.”