Marianne Williamson, a prominent progressive who ran for president in 2020, confirmed in an interview published Thursday that she will run again for the Democratic nomination for president in 2024.
That would put her in a Democratic primary against President Biden, who has not announced his own plans but is widely expected to run for reelection next year.
“I wouldn’t be running for president if I didn’t believe I could contribute to harnessing the collective sensibility that I feel is our greatest hope at this time,” Williamson told the Medill News Service, which is run by Northwestern University, in an exclusive interview.
No other Democrats have officially waded into the race yet, making Williamson the first. Williamson previously teased “an important announcement” that she said she would be making on March 4, which has been speculated as a presidential announcement.
Williamson gained notoriety during the 2020 presidential race, especially during the first several presidential primary debates where some of her spiritual remarks won her fans online. However, her campaign lasted one year, and she dropped out in January 2020.
During her interview with the Medill News Service, she also criticized the Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) decision to change the early presidential primary schedule, which places South Carolina as the first state in the lineup. South Carolina, where Biden placed first in 2020, is widely credited for helping boost his momentum in that Democratic primary.
“How can you claim to be a champion of democracy when your own process is so undemocratic?” Williamson told the student-run news outlet.
The news comes as polling has often shown Democrats less favorable of a Biden reelection bid. One poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research , for example, saw only 37 percent of members of his party polled supportive of a second Biden term.
Biden was expected to make an announcement that he will be running for reelection in the coming weeks, multiple sources told The Hill last month, though it’s unclear when that might happen.
