Marianne Williamson, the self-help writer who has staged two long-shot Democratic campaigns for president, introduced on Thursday that she was becoming a member of the race for chair of the Democratic Nationwide Committee.
Ms. Williamson, a onetime religious adviser to Oprah Winfrey, mentioned in an open letter to the committee membership that the Democratic Occasion wanted to know the “emotional” pressure of President-elect Donald J. Trump’s attraction and “create the energy to counter it.”
Ms. Williamson, 72, almost certainly faces lengthy odds in her bid for social gathering chair. A variety of social gathering officers, together with the previous Maryland governor Martin O’Malley, are jostling for the job. The present chair, Jaime Harrison, shouldn’t be searching for re-election. Ms. Williamson is the primary woman to formally enter the race.
In an interview, she blamed an “insider-club mentality” for the Democratic Occasion’s disappointing efficiency in November, when Republicans received management of the White Home and Congress.
She mentioned she would provide an antidote to the social gathering’s “institutional resistance to anyone but their pre-prescribed list of insiders.” If elected, she would start a nationwide listening tour to listen to about voters’ financial challenges, she mentioned.
“The Democratic Party needs to get off its high, elite perch and actually talk to the people of the United States,” she added.
Ms. Williamson, a progressive who has endorsed reparations for slavery and known as for a U.S. Division of Peace, achieved some viral debate moments within the 2020 Democratic presidential main, however dropped out of that race earlier than the New Hampshire main. (Throughout that race, she described vaccine mandates as “Orwellian,” however then backtracked after going through criticism, issuing statements saying that she was “pro-vaccine.”)
In February, she suspended her second presidential run after ending in a distant third place behind President Biden in Nevada’s Democratic main election. In Nevada, she completed behind “none of these candidates.” She later threatened to attempt to problem Vice President Kamala Harris’s nomination on the social gathering’s conference after Mr. Biden left the race.
The Democratic Occasion’s 448 committee members are anticipated to vote for the subsequent chair on Feb. 1.
Different candidates embody Nate Snyder, who labored within the Division of Homeland Safety below Mr. Biden and President Barack Obama; Ken Martin, the chief of Minnesota’s Democratic Occasion; Ben Wikler, the chair of Wisconsin’s Democratic Occasion; and State Senator James Skoufis of New York.
Mr. Skoufis instantly dismissed Ms. Williamson’s candidacy.
“We aren’t going to rebuild our party through new-age spiritual intervention,” Mr. Skoufis mentioned in a press release. “We are going to rebuild our party with leaders who know how to win elections.”
