Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Marianne Williamson drops out of 2020 presidential race

(JTA) — Marianne Williamson has ended her run for president.

The Jewish writer and self-help guru made the announcement in a message to supporters on Friday, The New York Times reported.

“I stayed in the race to take advantage of every possible opportunity to share our message,” she said. “With caucuses and primaries now about to begin, however, we will not be able to garner enough votes in the election to elevate our conversation any more than it is now.”

The longshot candidate had laid off her staff earlier this month and had not qualified for recent presidential debates. Among her campaign promises was paying reparations to African-Americans for slavery and creating a Department of Peace.

Williamson drew criticism for controversial comments on health, including calling mandatory vaccines “Orwellian” and calling clinical depression “a scam.” She later backtracked on the comments.

Williamson grew up in Houston attending Congregation Beth Yeshurun, a Conservative synagogue where she also went to Hebrew school. Last year, she spoke to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency about having recently attended High Holiday services at an Orthodox synagogue and visiting Israel many times in recent years.

The post Marianne Williamson drops out of 2020 presidential race appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.