When Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) stood up in front of a standing-room-only audience at Liberty University last month, he became the first announced candidate in the 2016 presidential race. Cruz, who was the outspoken freshman senator who held the floor for 21 straight hours in a pseudo-filibuster in 2013, is a firebrand anti-Obama, anti-establishment candidate who will surely leave his mark on the race.

Meanwhile, a packed-to-the-brim cadre of other A-list Republicans are gearing up their 2016 campaigns. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has all but officially declared his intentions to attempt to follow in his brother and father’s footsteps. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and CPAC straw poll winner Rand Paul have both formed Political Action Committees in preparation for a run, while familiar faces New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Mike Huckabee, Rick Santorum, Rick Perry and others have all expressed pointed interests in running.

Meanwhile, on the blue side of the aisle: nothing but static.

If the Democrats have any hope of running this race on anything close to their own terms, they need a candidate. Now.

The only Democrat to make any sort of official statement about the presidency so far is Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) who made it explicit that she will not be running for president — emphasizing that point repeatedly, most recently on Tuesday’s “Today” show.

That leaves America patiently waiting for Hillary Clinton, the assumed and all-but-crowned Democratic nominee, to announce her candidacy. Unfortunately, unless she emailed someone about it during her time as Secretary of State, we probably won’t hear about it until after this whole public records debacle clears up — experts are surmising a mid to late April announcement at this point.

Whether or not the rest of the potential GOP candidates declare any time soon — and they likely will — there is now a full field of active, vocal and persistent Republican presidential hopefuls roaming the country, giving stump speeches and rallying donors. Each day without at least one prominent Democratic candidate is an eternity — an enormous, vacuous space that the Republican Party is primed to fill with anti-Obama, anti-immigration or pretty much any other anti-Democratic rhetoric it can come up with.

It’s safe to say at this point, it doesn’t really matter if America has even heard of the Democrat who announces first — it just matters that someone announces soon. Like really, really soon.

Even before Cruz announced his candidacy, the Republican Party had been dominating the conversation. Starting with and stemming from the 2014 midterm elections, the conservative arsenal has consisted of a whole bunch of “anti” stances — anti-Obamacare, anti-Immigration reform, anti-gay marriage and anti-abortion. If President Barack Obama has ever spoken out in favor of it, the Republican Party wants to take it down.

Even though many self-identified Republicans might not agree with all — or even any — of the major stances the Party has taken, with no Democratic candidate to go head to head combatting these calls, this rhetoric may just become reality. Additionally, with no Democrats currently running, America isn’t even particularly sure what the party’s platform will even be this time around.

So what are you waiting for, Democrats? Wait any longer and there won’t be an opportunity to set your own agenda — it’ll be refuting Republican claims from day one, straight through till that fateful Tuesday in November.

This is an ultimatum for the Democratic Party: Get a candidate and get one soon.

Zach Goldberg is a senior economics, policy studies and energy and its impacts major. His column appears weekly. He can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @zgolds.

Published on April 1, 2015 at 11:17 pm