(WASHINGTON) — Marianne Williamson, an author and speaker who was President Joe Biden’s final Democratic opponent, said earlier this week that she is no longer a candidate for the party’s nomination now that 2024 presidential primaries have ended.
The presidential primary cycle concluded on Saturday with voters from Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands casting some of the last ballots. Williamson was on the ballot in most states and territories this election cycle, notwithstanding a brief suspension of her candidacy in February before shortly jumping back into the race.
She did not earn any Democratic delegates, but acted as an alternative for voters opposed to Biden in some places where “uncommitted” or write-in options were not available.
“Now that the primaries are complete, I’m no longer a candidate for the Democratic nomination for president. Deep thanks to all my donors, volunteers and supporters who stood for the radically humanitarian agenda that was the core of my campaign,” Williamson wrote in a post on X on Tuesday.
In March, Williamson told ABC News that she was back in the race with a focus not on defeating Biden electorally, but on bringing progressive ideas and discussions about them to the campaign trail.
“We articulated an analysis of our history as well as a regenerative path forward that I believe in my heart is the most powerful antidote to authoritarianism and national decline. I hope our message will continue to resonate and impact our political conversation for many years to come. With deep appreciation to all,” she wrote in the post on Tuesday.
Williamson — who also ran for president in 2020 — was the first Democrat to enter the 2024 presidential cycle. She announced her bid at Union Station in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 26, 2023. Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips and progressive commentator Cenk Uygur were also Biden challengers in the primary race this cycle, but suspended their bids several months ago.
Williamson’s signature 2024 proposals were not unlike the platforms she ran on in 2020: an overhauled economic system with the institution of an economic Bill of Rights, the creation of a Department of Peace, a Department of Children and Youth and a focus on housing, drug and crime policy reform, among other platforms.
“The status quo, ladies and gentlemen and everyone else, will not disrupt itself,” Williamson said as she announced her candidacy. “It is our job to create a vision of justice and love that is so powerful that it will override the forces of hatred and injustice and fear.”
She was distinct in the 2024 cycle in that she’d emerged as a promising alternative for some Democrats disillusioned with Biden’s stance on the Israel-Hamas war, especially in places where an “uncommitted” option wasn’t available on the ballot — considered a protest vote against Biden, who hasn’t achieved a cease-fire in Gaza. In Arizona, for example, there was a concerted push for voters to select Williamson in the absence of a more direct cease-fire ballot option.
Williamson suspended her campaign on Feb. 7 following a string of significant primary losses in early states. She said she didn’t have the resources to continue — however, she wasn’t yet ready to abandon her candidacy. Now, she said she’ll “continue in every way possible” to advocate for Americans who she was running for.
“Having been on the ground for the last year and a half talking to voters, I have seen what people go through; our political elites and talking heads are in a bubble and it shows. I will continue in every way possible to be a voice for Americans whose hardships are too little addressed in this country, the adequate response to which remains the key to our winning in November,” Williamson said in a statement to ABC News.
“The primary is over, but what is not over is the need for a more fair economy — for universal healthcare, a guaranteed living wage, an Economic Bill of Rights, a US Department of Peace, subsidized child care, and a society where humans can more easily thrive,” she said.
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