In a four-minute campaign video, Pataki says "it is time to stand up, protect our freedom and take back this country."
"If we are to flourish as a people, we have to fall in love with America again," he says in the video, which features images of the Freedom Tower and the 9/11 memorial in New York City.
His personal website, which sports a new "Pataki for President" banner, emphasizes that he'll place "people over politics."
Pataki, who served as the three-term governor of New York, is viewed as an extreme longshot for the nomination, with little name recognition outside his home state.
This story originally appeared on NBC News