Ben Carson will declare his presidential candidacy in Detroit next Monday. Not a minute too soon.

The retired neurosurgeon and conservative star formed a presidential exploratory committee on March 3. Since then, he’s been traveling around the country in what might be called a non-strategic way — making paid speeches that he had longstanding commitments to give, appearing at events for his Carson Scholars Fund (which awards money to promising students around the country) and, in other ways, not directing any particular focus on the key early states of Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada.