Jon Huntsman, a Republican former governor of Utah and former U.S. ambassador to China, officially entered the 2012 U.S. presidential race on Tuesday.

Huntsman made the announcement in New Jersey with the Statue of Liberty as a backdrop, the same location where Ronald Reagan announced his candidacy for the White House in 1980.

Huntsman was twice elected governor of the western U.S. state of Utah, but left early in his second term to serve as President Barack Obama's ambassador to China. He had also served as ambassador to Singapore under president George H.W. Bush.

He joins a crowded field of Republican contenders who hope to deny President Barack Obama a second term, including former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, former House speaker Newt Gingrich, members of Congress Michele Bachmann and Ron Paul, and former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty.

Like Romney, Huntsman is a Morman and his religious background could become an issue. A new Gallup opinion poll found that one in five Americans would not vote for a Morman presidential candidate.