Marianne Williamson, still in Democratic presidential bid, says campaign isn't about winning [View all]

Source: ABC News

March 29, 2024, 4:36 PM


Marianne Williamson, the author and spiritualist who has been one of President Joe Biden's few primary challengers in the 2024 presidential race, suspended and unsuspended her campaign last month -- and now that she's back in the race, she told ABC News that her focus is not on taking down Biden, but on bringing progressive ideas and discussions about them to the campaign trail.

Williamson suspended her campaign on Feb. 7 following a string of significant primary losses in early states. She said she didn't have the resources to continue -- however, she wasn't yet ready to abandon her candidacy.

"I suspended because I had done very poorly on the electoral level in the first three primary states. So if you just look at this in terms of the horse race, it was time to get out," Williamson said in an interview with ABC News on March 18 -- one day before a round of primaries that delivered a blow to her campaign. She was on the ballot in three states, earning an average of 3.6%.

She said she made the decision to restart her campaign ahead of Michigan's contest -- even traveling there to hold events ahead of the primary -- but didn't want to split votes between herself and the state's growing coalition of Democrats who disapproved of the Biden administration's handling of the Israel-Hamas war and were therefore voting for an "uncommitted" option. "I was afraid that if I got in right then that it would look like I was challenging something," Williamson said. "The morning after the Michigan primary, I got back in. Realizing the obvious limitations [to my candidacy] but also realizing that there's a larger purpose here than trying to compete in the horse race."

Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/marianne-williamson-democratic-presidential-bid-campaign-isnt-winning/story?id=108316131