Marianne Williamson speaks at a campaign event at the University of Southern Maine’s Portland campus on Thursday. Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer
Democratic presidential candidate Marianne Williamson is not your typical politician.
She made that clear during a campaign stop in Portland Thursday night, when she told an audience of about 50 people who came to see her on the campus of the University of Southern Maine that if elected she will perform very differently from President Biden or Republican front-runner Donald Trump.
“My campaign is not for everyone,” Williamson said. “It’s for those people who realize that yes, we are the frogs in boiling water and someone needs to jump out.”
Williamson, who has written 14 books, including the 1992 New York Times bestseller: “A Return to Love, A Reflection on the Principles of A Course in Miracles,” said she is the candidate with the credentials needed to break the cycle that Americans have allowed themselves to fall into.
For far too long, Williamson said Americans have been living on the edge whether it being worried about how they are going to pay for their medicines and health care bills, the civilian casualties in Gaza, the war in Ukraine, or recovering from devastating acts of gun violence like the mass shooting that took place in Lewiston last month.
“It seems as though we are in a permanent state of crisis,” Williamson said. “There are so many disasters coming at us on a daily basis that we don’t have time to prepare for a new era of solutions. We have to start now.”
As leader of the country, Williamson would embark on what she described as “a season of repair,” a process of healing and putting people above profits that could take as long a decade to implement.
Her campaign agenda includes pushing for adoption of universal healthcare for all Americans. Williamson said she also will create a Department of Peace.
“We must learn how to wage peace,” she said. “We need to play peace games, not war games, and we need a Peace Academy.”
Marianne Williamson, speaking at a campaign event at the University of Southern Maine’s Portland campus on Thursday said, “This election is not about the left or the right, it’s about the powerful versus the powerless.” Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer
Williamson said the country’s political establishment has allowed “a matrix of corporate overlords” to pollute our waters and lands, and to manufacture weapons that are used to kill fellow citizens, all for the sake of profit. She says the principles that drive our economy are soul-less.
“This election is not about the left or the right, it’s about the powerful versus the powerless. This is a moment of opportunity,” referring to the voters, who support her views.
One audience member asked during a question-and-answer session if she had considered trying to get a celebrity to endorse her campaign. Williamson had spoken earlier about a “media blackout” on her 2024 reelection effort. She said that when she ran for president in 2020, she had a lot of media exposure including appearances on cable news network CNN.
Williamson said she plans to stick to her principles and forge ahead.
“I think there are a lot of closet Marianne Williamson fans out there,” she quipped.
A Nov. 1 Quinnipiac University poll shows that in a Democratic primary race, Biden receives 77% support among Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters, followed by Williamson with 8% support.
A child holds a Marianne Williamson button at a campaign event at the University of Southern Maine’s Portland campus on Thursday. Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer
The Quinnipiac poll also showed that among Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters who support a candidate in the 2024 Democratic presidential primary, 34% say they are firmly set on their choice for the Democratic nomination no matter what happens leading up to the Democratic primary, while 63% say they might change their candidate choice depending on what happens leading up to the Democratic primary.
Williamson told the audience that anything is possible.
“You never know when there could be a huge breakthrough or who could come out of the blue,” she said.
One of the reasons she came to Portland this week was to collect signatures for Maine’s Democratic primary in March 2024.
Carlos Cardona, her campaign manager, said Williamson will need to collect 2,000 valid signatures of registered voters to get her name on the March 5 ballot.
So far, Williamson has been successful on getting her name on the New Hampshire, Texas, Nevada, South Carolina and Arkansas Democratic primary ballots, Cardona said.
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