Huffington Post – Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) is in it to win it in 2012.

The conservative congresswoman and Tea Party favorite formally declared her candidacy for president of the United States on Monday in Waterloo, Iowa, where she was born and grew up as a child before moving to Minnesota.

A radio ad running in the Hawkeye State ahead of Bachmann’s announcement touted her connection to the primary battleground.

“Iowa is not just another state on the presidential campaign trail,” says a narrator in the spot, according to the Star Tribune. “For Michele Bachmann, Iowa will always be home. Born and raised in Waterloo, Michele Bachmann has deep roots here, and our town holds a special place in her heart.”

The first Des Moines Register poll of the election season, which was released over the weekend, shows the Republican hopeful running at the front of the GOP presidential primary pack — just one percentage point behind former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney — among likely Iowa GOP caucus-goers.

An Associated Press-GfK poll released last week found Bachmann riding a wave of momentum following her performance in New Hampshire’s first presidential debate of the election season. At the Granite State forum, which was held two weeks ago, the GOP hopeful signaled her intention to formally launch a presidential campaign.

MichelePAC, one of Bachmann’s two political action committees, took in $214,000 during the month of May, topping the $173,000 the organization hauled in April.