President Barack Obama told supporters in an email Monday morning that he is formally starting his 2012 re-election campaign and asked their help to build a grass-roots organization like what helped him win in 2008. The announcement, which had been expected this week, came along with a video featuring supporters talking about how they want to help Obama win a second term.

In an email signed simply “Barack” to the at least 13 million people on the Organizing for America mailing list, Obama said that his campaign will file papers Monday to launch the campaign, even though the re-election “may not reach full speed for a year or more.”

“But as my administration and folks across the country fight to protect the progress we’ve made — and make more — we also need to begin mobilizing for 2012, long before the time comes for me to begin campaigning in earnest,” he wrote.

“We’re doing this now because the politics we believe in does not start with expensive TV ads or extravaganzas, but with you — with people organizing block-by-block, talking to neighbors, co-workers, and friends. And that kind of campaign takes time to build,” Obama wrote.

The email teased “a new organization” that his supporters will work to build, saying it would be “farther reaching, more focused, and more innovative than anything we’ve built before.”

Specifically, Obama wrote, the plan will be to coordinate “millions of one-on-one conversations between supporters across every single state, reconnecting old friends, inspiring new ones to join the cause, and readying ourselves for next year’s fight.”

The Republican field is wide open.

Watch the video: