Marianne Williamson, a best-selling spiritual author and lecturer, continued her campaign for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination with a stop in Exeter on Wednesday evening.
The Texas-born candidate spoke in front of a standing room-only crowd inside Water Street Books, where her own works are stocked in the “Inspiration” section of the shop.
“Now we need a more integrative, holistic perspective on our politics, one in which we realize that we are the immune system, and that we have to cultivate a healthy democracy,” she told the crowd.
During her nearly-hour long stump speech, Williamson railed against “authoritarian corporatism” and a “sociopathic economic system” that she says is leading to an epidemic of despair and anxiety in America.
“The American Revolution is an ongoing process. It is just like your health, it is just like exercise with your body--you never get to say ‘done,’ I don’t have to take care of my body anymore...and same with your democracy.”
Williamson, who rose to prominence in the early 1990’s after an appearance on the Oprah Winfrey Show, highlighted three key areas of her campaign: the toll of trauma on children, ongoing systemic racism in America, and a national defense model that is built not on safety but rather profits.
In 2014, Williamson, who is 66, ran for Congress in Los Angeles, where she finished fourth in an open primary. She told the audience in Exeter an immediate goal in this campaign is to meet the Democratic National Committee’s requirement of at least 65,000 individual donors to participate in debates.
Williamson finished her pitch to New Hampshire voters with a plea for patience: spend the next twelve months listening to all candidates and their ideas, before deciding who to back in the primary.
“Then, about a year from now, you are going to go into the closet of your own heart, and there will be a name, and if it is mine, I will be deeply honored," she said to applause.
