Martin O'Malley Suggests His Candidacy Is Like Obama's

Though he's way down in the polls, former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) said Thursday he's not that concerned about his 2016 presidential chances.

O'Malley, speaking to reporters in Mount Vernon, Iowa, compared himself with other candidates once seen as long shots, but who are now "household names."

"Usually in our party, it develops that there is a choice between the inevitable frontrunner, who all of us know, and the new candidate for our country's future that most of us are only now going to meet," O'Malley said. "And I think that this is another year like those years. I am not in a particularly different position than many other names that are now household names that have started off at 1 or 2 percent nationally."

O'Malley didn't mention him by name, but one of those former candidates was presumably President Barack Obama, who faced long odds against Hillary Clinton when he launched his presidential campaign in 2007. Despite the uphill start, Obama was already recognized as a national rising star in the Democratic Party after his keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. O'Malley is still working to introduce himself to voters around the country.

According to HuffPost Pollster, which aggregates publicly available polling data, O'Malley trails Clinton by 58.1 percentage points among likely Democratic primary voters.

Samantha-Jo Roth contributed video reporting from Mount Vernon, Iowa.