Marianne Williamson has laid off all of her campaign staff, but technically, she’s still in the 2020 presidential race.
The self-help author hasn’t qualified for a Democratic debate since this summer, and her name has plummeted from Google searches, taking her from the noteworthy kooky candidate to the one everybody forgot. Yet she has made it clear that she will not be ending her bid for the White House any time soon.
In a statement released Thursday, Williamson announced that she could no longer afford “a traditional campaign staff.” She wrote:
For those who wondered why the crystal lady jumped into the 2020 fray in the first place, the answer, as her campaign wanes and she clings to the national platform she’s built, is clear. Williamson never wanted the White House, just as perhaps she never wanted to be in Congress when she ran (and lost) in 2014.
“As long as I feel a connection with voters that gets to the heart of things, bringing forth the conversation that would win the 2020 election and help transform this country,” Williamson wrote, “I will remain in the race.”
Williamson talks of attempting to “wage peace,” “incentivize health,” and posit a “politics of love.” She knew she’d never be a Democratic favorite, as Vogue reminded her when the magazine excluded her from its spread of female candidates.
At the time, she shot back: “If we’re going to free this country to be all that it can be, then first we have to free ourselves from the thought forms dictated to us by a corporate/political/media establishment.”
Her goal was not to win but to question the establishment.
Throughout her campaign, Williamson has proposed emotional and spiritual revival through outlandish plans such as $100 billion in reparations to descendants of slaves and establishing a Department of Peace, an Orwellian-sounding governmental arm that would actually embrace pacifism by training people to participate in “nonviolent conflict resolution.”
These ideas might be bonkers, but the motivations behind them touch on the desire for national healing. Unfortunately, good intentions don’t make good policies.
Although Williamson’s rhetoric has resonated with some fans, her polling now flounders at 0.2%. Williamson tried to promise her supporters heaven, but they gave up when they were left with nothing but good intentions.
