Ben Carson, the retired pediatric neurosurgeon who is a favorite of grassroots conservatives, today announced formation of an exploratory committee to help him decide whether to run for president in 2016. The move makes him the first likely Republican candidate to do so.

Carson, fresh off a well-received appearance Thursday at the Conservative Political Action Conference, released a video in which he summarizes his considerations and says he will ponder a White House run for a “few” more months. He finished a close fourth in CPAC’s presidential preference straw poll listing 17 candidates.

“I have spent most of my life caring for the health and wellbeing of children,” Carson says in the video. “Today I am no longer their doctor, but I am more concerned about their future than ever.”

Carson, who rose from poverty as the son of a single mother to become celebrated for pediatric surgical innovations at Johns Hopkins Hospital, also says:

If I run, it will be because I know the very survival of our great country depends on strong leadership to address our real concerns about security, about jobs, about America’s standing in the world. If I run, it will be because it is not acceptable for us to be dismissed and ignored by Washington politicians we have trusted to lead this country. … Rest assured, if I run for president I will do so with only one goal in mind and that is to heal and strengthen this great nation.

Earlier, at 9:17 a.m. EST, Carson had tweeted his first announcement of the new Carson America Exploratory Committee. Filing papers for such a committee with the Federal Election Commission allows candidates who are testing the waters to raise money and spend it on such things as travel and polls without the stricter filing requirements for formal candidates.

For a sense of how Carson’s inclinations have changed, begin at the four-minute mark of his on-camera interview with The Daily Signal before last year’s midterm elections:

 Carson enjoys a vocal, excited follower base over social media and they—and others—wasted little time in responding to the news: