A 70-year-old author Saturday announced plans to challenge 80-year-old Joe Biden for the Democratic Party’s 2024 presidential nomination, in Washington, D.C.
“I, as of today, am a candidate for the office of president of the United States,” said Marianne Williamson during her presidential campaign kick-off.
This is not Williamson’s first rodeo; she entered the 2020 presidential primary but dropped out early after failing to raise enough money for a deep run. She made a calculated jab at President Biden by announcing her candidacy at Washington’s Amtrak hub, Union Station, according to an Associated Press report.
“The status quo will not disrupt itself … that’s our job,” Williamson said during her Union Station event.
“We know that this country is plagued by many challenges now, not the least of which is hatred and division, which is greater than any of us have experienced national life,” the candidate declared. “It is our job to create a vision of justice and love that is so powerful that it will override the forces of hatred and injustice and fear.”
Biden famously rode an Amtrack train 220 miles daily during his days as a Delaware senator. He is fond of telling the oft-debunked story about a conductor congratulating him as vice president for logging more miles in an Amtrak train than in Air Force Two.
Williamson, a one-time spiritual adviser to Oprah Winfrey, is not expected to do much better in 2024 than she did in 2020. She did, however, beat the incumbent to the punch by declaring her candidacy before him. Family and party members have said for months the president will stand for reelection, but it’s been nothing but radio silence from the Oval Office so far.
Williamson’s campaign, bearing signs of red, blue and black that feature the slogans “A New Beginning” and “Disrupt the System,” plans to visit early-voting states, including New Hampshire. The Granite State had conducted the nation’s earliest primary until a Biden-backed plan placed South Carolina at the front of the primary line beginning in 2024.
She spoke cogently and coherently during an interview with Jesse Waters, which contrasts favorably with the president’s public speaking lately.
Her chances of becoming the party’s presidential nominee are considered as low as people consider the chances of the 2016 GOP candidate Donald Trump winning his party nomination.
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