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Marianne Williamson speaks to the crowd as she launches her 2024 presidential campaign in Washington, Saturday, March 4, 2023.
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Author Marianne Williamson formally announced Saturday that she’s running for president in 2024, her second bid for the White House following an unsuccessful campaign in 2020.
Her announcement likely sets up the first – albeit long-shot – Democratic primary challenge to President Joe Biden, who has long said he intends to run for reelection but has yet to make a formal announcement.
“I have run for president before,” she told supporters at her campaign launch at Union Station in Washington. “I’m not naive about the forces which have no intention of allowing anyone into this conversation who does not align with their predetermined agenda.”
Williamson spoke for roughly 20 minutes, mostly about economic and social injustice, along with corruption in Washington.
“The status quo will not disrupt itself; that’s our job,” she said. “Let the people get in there. We’ll handle it from here.”
In a statement last month teasing her announcement, Williamson said she was motivated by “a realization of the Democratic Party’s shift away from the party of President Franklin Roosevelt” and “the economic injustices endured by millions of Americans due to the influence of corporate money on our political system.”
“The opponent is not a specific situation or circumstance,” Williamson said Saturday. “The opponent is an economic mindset that has had its grip on this country for the last 50 years.”
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Marianne Williamson poses for a portrait in Los Angeles in January 2019.
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Williamson, a native of Houston, attended Pomona College in California after graduating from high school. "In my mid-20s I began reading a set of books called 'A Course in Miracles,' " she says on her campaign website. "The 'Course' is not a religion, but rather a self-study program of spiritual psychotherapy based on universal spiritual themes. There is no dogma or doctrine; it is simply a book on how to forgive. I had no idea at the time that my study of the 'Course,' plus writing and speaking about it, would turn into a 35-year career."
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Williamson and actress Judith Light attend an AIDS charity party in Los Angeles in 1991.
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Williamson appears with talk-show host Sally Jessy Raphael at a taping in 1993. Williamson's first book, "A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of A Course in Miracles," became a New York Times best-seller in 1992.
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Williamson shakes hands at a book signing in 2002. She has written several best-selling books in her career.
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Williamson, third from right, joins media mogul Oprah Winfrey and other Winfrey friends for the launch of Winfrey's XM Radio station in 2006.
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In 2007, Williamson speaks at a news conference in Washington to reintroduce a bill called the Department of Peace and Nonviolence Act.
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Williamson speaks to supporters in 2013 as she ran for a congressional seat in California. She finished fourth in the Democratic primary.
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Williamson and her daughter, India, in 2014.
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Williamson is joined by, from left, Katy Perry, Hayden Slater, Nicole Richie and Rivka Sophia Rossi during a campaign event in April 2014.
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Williamson leads a "love mob" campaign rally in May 2014.
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Williamson speaks at her election-day rally in Santa Monica, California, in June 2014.
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Williamson attends an awards show in 2015 for Project Angel Food, a nonprofit she founded that serves home-bound people with AIDS and other life-threatening illnesses.
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Williamson cuts a cake to commemorate Project Angel Food's 10-millionth meal in 2016.
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Williamson announces her presidential campaign in January 2019.
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Williamson greets supporters after announcing her presidential bid.
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Williamson speaks at a campaign stop in Keene, New Hampshire, in March 2019.
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Williamson takes questions from potential voters during a CNN town hall in April 2019.
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Williamson makes a point during the first Democratic debates in June 2019.
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Williamson addresses people at the Iowa State Fair in August 2019.
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Williamson, left, holds hands with supporters in a moment of meditation in Iowa City in January 2020. She dropped out of the presidential race later that month.
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Williamson leaves the stage after endorsing Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders during a campaign rally in Austin, Texas, in February 2020.
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Williamson announces another presidential bid in March 2023.
In her bid for the Democratic nomination in 2020, Williamson failed to gain traction in a crowded primary field. Her appearances on the debate stage, though, did garner attention. She said then-President Donald Trump had harnessed a “dark psychic force of collectivized hatred” and vowed that her first act as president would be to call then-New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and say, “Girlfriend, you are so on,” in response to Ardern saying that she wanted to make her country the best place in the world to be a child.
However, the author then went on to repeatedly miss the Democratic Party’s fundraising and polling thresholds to qualify for most of the primary debates. She laid off her campaign staff nationally a week before dropping out of the race in early 2020.
After suspending her campaign, Williamson threw her support behind businessman Andrew Yang in the Iowa caucuses before officially endorsing Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ bid for president.
During her previous campaign, the former Democratic hopeful pushed for expansion of social safety net programs and reparations to the descendants of slaves.
Meanwhile, on the GOP side, Republicans are lining up for the opportunity to take on Biden, with Trump as the leading contender.
Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor and US ambassador to the United Nations, and Vivek Ramaswamy, a biotech and health care entrepreneur, have announced their own presidential bids to challenge the former president in the Republican primary.
This story and headline have been updated with additional developments.