Marianne Williamson fired her entire staff. Why she won’t end her 2020 presidential bid
Spiritual leader and author Marianne Williamson is polling somewhere between 0 to 1 percent, is well short of the necessary donors to make it to the next debate and has fired her entire campaign staff.
And yet, she announced on Thursday night that she will not end her long-shot 2020 presidential run.
“I am not suspending my candidacy,” Williamson said. “However, a campaign not having a huge war chest should be not be what determines its fate.”
Patricia Ewing, Williamson’s former campaign manager confirmed a report from WMUR revealing that the author had fired her entire campaign staff earlier this week. Ewing said she and all her colleagues were dismissed on Dec. 31.
“She had an extraordinary run for president and was the first woman to get on the debate stage who wasn’t a politician,” Ewing said. “She’s had a good run.”
A former Pomona College student and unsuccessful congressional candidate in Los Angeles, Williamson has campaigned aggressively in the Golden State, holding 20 events in California since announcing her presidential bid in January 2019.
Financial woes have hurt Williamson, as she lagged behind the crowded field throughout much of the race. After delivering what were widely seen as offbeat performances in the first two Democratic debates in June and July, she failed to meet key donor and polling thresholds set by the Democratic National Committee. She missed out on the September debate and would not return onto the stage. By the end of the month, Williamson had less than $724,000 in the bank.
Throughout her campaign, she has called for a “Department of Peace Creation” to prevent wars and a “Department of Youth” to deal with chronic stress and anxiety.
The unconventional candidate who has spent most of her adult life in California vowed to call New Zealand’s prime minister as her first act as president.
“My first call is to the prime minster of New Zealand (Jacinda Ardern) who said that her goal is to make New Zealand the best place in the world for a child in the world to grow up,” Willaimson said at the June debate. “And I will tell her ‘Girlfriend, you are so on, because the United States of America is going to be the best place in the world for a child to grow up.’”
She later warned the country during the second debate that President Donald Trump is creating a “dark psychic force” that Democrats must confront if they want to defeat him in the general election.
She called Trump a “sociopath” during an appearance on The Bee’s “California Nation” podcast.
On Thursday, she said she’d commit herself to “talking about a politics of love” on a national platform.
“There is an inherent value in talking about those things as a presidential candidate,” Williamson said. “In my mind, the fact that they couldn’t make it into the machine of politics is not a reason to stop talking; if anything, it’s a reason to KEEP talking.”
Williamson’s decision to stay in the race came shortly after an announcement from former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro that he’d end his 2020 campaign. The two candidates, as well as former Pennsylvania Rep. Joe Sestak, will remain on California’s March 3 primary ballot because they missed the Dec. 26 deadline to withdraw their names. Early voting begins on Feb. 3.
“It’s amazing what you can do with volunteers,” Williamson concluded.
This story was originally published January 2, 2020 at 9:19 PM with the headline "Marianne Williamson fired her entire staff. Why she won’t end her 2020 presidential bid."