Marianne Williamson drops long-shot 2024 presidential bid

Author Marianne Williamson announced her exit from the 2024 presidential race.

“As of today we are suspending our campaign,” she wrote Wednesday evening in a message to supporters.

Williamson was one of few Democratic challengers to incumbent President Joe Biden, along with House Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn. She and Phillips both consistently polled with single-digit margins.

She won roughly 2% of the vote in South Carolina’s Democratic primary.

2024 was Williamson’s second presidential bid after another failed campaign in 2020.

The 71-year-old self-help guru campaigned with an anti-establishment tenor, looking to “Disrupt the System,” as one of her slogans read.

Williamson also said that she was running to “course-correct” the damage of former President Donald Trump and prevent him from securing a second term.

But the Texas native mainly entered as an alternative to Biden during a time when early polling showed him lagging on key issues like the economy and with essential demographics like Latino voters. The president’s early low numbers and other concerns about his age stoked fear in the Democratic Party, leaving an opportunity for candidates like Williamson and Phillips to campaign primarily as Biden substitutes.

“Biden will not win. I will,” Williamson wrote in an X post hours before the results of the Nevada Democratic primary.

But as primary season kicked off, Williamson’s enthusiasm and often spiritual message did not translate to voter support.

Biden delivered sweeping victories, squeezing Williamson even farther into the margins of the field.

In a particularly stark case, Biden won New Hampshire where his name was not officially on the ballot and where fringe candidates like Williamson tend to do well due to the large undeclared voter population. Williamson secured 4% of the vote in New Hampshire.

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