Jill Stein, Green Party candidate, considers a second run for president

Jill Stein, the Green Party’s presidential candidate in 2012, is considering another run at the presidency.Elise Amendola/Associated Press/File 2011/Associated Press

Dr. Jill Stein announced Friday that she has formed an exploratory committee to run for president a second time as a Green Party candidate.

Stein, a resident of Lexington, said in an interview that she is better prepared this time around because her campaign is not starting from scratch. As the 2012 Green Party nominee she appeared on ballots in more than 30 states, something she hopes to build on.

“The Green Party is not a corporate political machine,” Stein said. “We do not have the special-interest money, but the upside is that we get to stand up for the American people.”

Stein was born in Chicago and attended Harvard College and Harvard Medical School. Her first stab at electoral politics was running for Massachusetts governor in 2002.

She announced the formation of the exploratory committee at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. She said she will take the next few weeks and months to see if she can build a team to run a campaign before officially jumping into the race. She did say that she “would very much like” to run in 2016.

She said the idea of running a second time for president came from the results of the 2014 midterm elections, in which Republicans picked up seats in the US House and Senate.

“What we saw in 2014 was people starting to peel away, particularly from the Democratic Party, and that is why it was a disaster,” Stein said. “It wasn’t so much a victory for Republicans as it was a defeat for the Democrats.”

She added: “The timing is right for another option.”