By Will Weissert, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — Self-help author and spiritual guru Marianne Williamson on Wednesday announced the end of her long-shot Democratic challenge to President Joe Biden.
The 71-year-old onetime spiritual adviser to Oprah Winfrey contemplated suspending her campaign last month after winning just 5,000 votes in New Hampshire’s primary, writing that she “had to decide whether now is the time for a dignified exit or continue on our campaign journey.”
Williamson ultimately opted to continue on for two more primaries, but won just 2% of the vote in South Carolina and about 3% in Nevada.
“I hope future candidates will take what works for them, drinking from the well of information we prepared,” Williamson wrote in announcing the end of her bid. “My team and I brought to the table some great ideas, and I will take pleasure when I see them live on in campaigns and candidates yet to be created.”
Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips is the last nationally known Democrat still running against Biden, who has scored blowout victories in South Carolina and Nevada and easily won in New Hampshire — despite not being on the ballot — after his allies mounted a write-in campaign.
Biden is now more firmly in command of the Democratic primary. That’s little surprise given that he’s a sitting president, but it also defies years of low job approval ratings for Biden and polls showing that most Americans — even a majority of Democrats – don’t want him to run again.
Williamson first ran for president in 2020 and made national headlines by calling for a “moral uprising” against then-President Donald Trump while proposing the creation of the Department of Peace. She also argued that the federal government should pay large financial reparations to Black Americans as atonement for centuries of slavery and discrimination.
Her second White House bid featured the same nontraditional campaigning style and many of the same…
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