Updated: 10:53 p.m.

Rep. Michele Bachmann will seek the Republican presidential nomination, she announced Monday evening during CNN’s GOP presidential debate in New Hampshire.

Instead of answering moderator John King’s first question, the Minnesota Republican said that she had turned in her paperwork earlier in the day to become an official candidate and that a more formal announcement would be forthcoming. Bachmann had been expected to announce her candidacy at some point in June in Iowa.

Bachmann recently hired Republican strategist Ed Rollins to run her campaign, and her chief of staff, Andy Parrish, recently stepped down to work for Bachmann in an unidentified job, presumably on her campaign.