The phrase "formidable candidate for" is correct and usable in written English.
You can use it when describing a person who is well-qualified, skilled, and capable of achieving success in a particular role or position. Example: "John's impressive background and extensive experience make him a formidable candidate for the position of CEO."
Mr. Bloomberg could make a formidable candidate for governor, in part because of his great wealth.
She doesn't need Biden — she would be a formidable candidate for president or vice president on her own.
Henry R. Muñoz III, the finance chairman of the Democratic National Committee and a friend and a partner in the Futuro Fund, said he believed she would be "a formidable candidate" for public office.
In 1997, Republican senators held up her nomination by President Bill Clinton to the appeals court for more than a year, foreseeing that as a Hispanic appellate judge she would be a formidable candidate for the Supreme Court.
After saying he had "tremendous respect" for Mrs. Clinton and calling her a "formidable candidate" for national office, Mr. Warner said that Mrs. Clinton was not the presumptive Democratic nominee.
One for the inessential on all counts folder is A Long Way Down, an excruciatingly tone-deaf adaptation of Nick Hornby's already iffy novel about suicide-club bonding, and already a formidable candidate for the year's most objectionable film.
The Republican effort to enlist formidable candidates for the Senate suffered another setback Thursday when Rep. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D). announced that he will not run despite President Trump's personal appeals for him to challenge Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp in one of the year's top battlegrounds.
B1 Republican Leaders Wanted As Gov. George E. Pataki prepares to reveal his political plans for 2006, New York's Republican Party is riven by conflicts in finding formidable candidates for three key races next year: governor, attorney general and the United States Senate seat held by Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Many observers expect that she would be the most formidable candidate in a free-for-all race that did not rely on official party support.
"Let's face it, Adolfo is a formidable candidate," said Councilman David I. Weprin, another candidate for comptroller.
Democrats here and in Washington believe that their nominee, Doug Jones, is the most formidable candidate they have fielded for the Senate in this state in over two decades.
