Marianne Williamson—a long shot Democratic presidential candidate—is back for round two (or three) after suspending her campaign on Feb. 7.
In a video posted to X Wednesday morning, Williamson announced she is unsuspending her campaign, after topping still running Dean Phillips in last night’s Michigan primary.
“I had suspended it because I was losing the horse race, but something so much more important than the horse race is at stake here and we must respond,” she said. “Right now, we have a fascist standing at the door. Everybody’s all upset about it. Well, we should be upset about it. But we’re not going to defeat the fascist by, well by what? What is President Biden offering?”
Williamson previously ran for president in 2020 before bowing out, making this her third effort at the Oval Office.
She went on to rail against the fact that millions of voters have to work multiple jobs to get by while President Joe Biden praises the economy.
“What is he saying beyond ‘you know, the economy is really doing well’? Are you kidding me? For whom?” Williamson said. “It’s doing well for 20% of us and that’s to be celebrated, but that 20% is on an island surrounded by a vast sea of economic despair.”
Williamson criticized medical debt, lack of increased in minimum wage, and increased militarism, saying that “we the people basically don’t own this country right now.”
“We’re a government for all intents and purposes of the corporations, by the corporations, and for the corporations and we need a president who says this,” she continued. “And we need a president who lays down an agenda and says we’re going to turn this thing around, we’re going to take an economic U-turn.”
Williams said a thriving middle class doesn’t come from “Donald Trump’s policies,” but rather through programs like Medicare for All, tuition-free college, guaranteed housing, and paid family leave.
“We have to respond to Donald Trump’s dark vision of possibility,” she said. “We need to have a peace academy as well as a military academy. We have to have armies of peacebuilders as well as armies of military personnel.”
“We need to learn to wage peace,” she added before calling for an end to the war on drugs, a ceasefire in Gaza, reparations, and ramping down fossil fuel extraction.
“We’re watching a car crash in slow motion here. Everybody knows it,” she concluded. “Some people would say ‘oh Ms. Williamson, you’re delusional.’ I’ll tell you what’s delusional. What’s delusional is just closing our eyes and crossing our fingers and just hoping that somehow Biden and [Kamala] Harris will be able to beat that juggernaut of dark, dark vision.”
Williamson’s announcement came in the wake of the Michigan primary, where she won 3% of the vote despite her campaign being (at the time) suspended. That beat Rep. Dean Phillips’ (D-Minn.) showing of 2.7% but came up short of the 13.3% voters who were “uncommitted.” (A push to vote “uncommitted” was part of an effort to protest the Biden administration’s response to the war in Gaza).
The move by Williamson to reverse course prompted a flurry of memes and jokes online.
“Marianne Williamson unsuspending after her zombie campaign beat Dean Phillips,” wrote one X user with a clip from HBO’s “Veep.”
Many of responses were directed at Phillips, who has pledged to remain in the primary race against Biden despite poor showings thus far.
“Dean Phillips somehow managed to come in fourth in a two-man race, prompting the third-place finisher to return,” quipped one person.
A Marquette Law School poll conducted Feb. 5-15 found that 6% of registered voters would vote for Marianne Williamson in a primary, compared to Biden’s 66% and Phillips’ 2%.
