Former presidential candidate Marianne Williamson, 70, is teasing a challenge to President Joe Biden for the 2024 Democratic nomination.
The self-help guru went viral during the 2020 primary debates but, like then-Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA), dropped out before voting started. Williamson later endorsed Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT). Now, she says she will have a special announcement to make early next month.
“As America gears up for the 2024 presidential election, I’m preparing an important announcement on March 4th in Washington DC,” Williamson said.
She told POLITICO on Friday that she took issue with Biden running on the economy, saying such a campaign speaks to the “disconnect” between party elites and the American people. Her campaign strategy, she said, would be to “tell the truth.”
Joe Biden is expected to run again, but has not formally declared his intentions. A Williamson candidacy, however, would be Biden’s first high-profile challenger for 2024 — and possibly his only one if Democrats stay in line.
When Williamson was asked bluntly on Friday about critics who say she has “no conceivable path forward” and another campaign would simply be a “vanity project,” the would-be candidate invoked other movements throughout American history.
“Abolitionists would not have thought that abolishing slavery was possible,” Williamson said. “The suffragists would have had days when they didn’t think women’s suffrage was possible. Civil rights workers would have thought that desegregation wasn’t possible.”
Williamson rose to prominence as the author of 14 books who made regular appearances on the Oprah Winfrey show. She ran a failed independent House campaign in 2014 and is the founder of Project Angel Food, which delivers food to sick people, and a co-founder of the education and activist group Peace Alliance.
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