Marianne Williamson isn't giving up on Democrats, throwing her hat in the ring to be the new chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC).
After two unsuccessful Democratic primary presidential runs, Williamson, a prominent author and progressive leader, doesn't see those campaigns as failures. Instead, she told Newsweek on Friday that she "planted some seeds" and "the only failure in life is what you fail to learn."
Whether Democrats, who lost control of the U.S. Senate and the presidency in the 2024 election after losing the House in 2022, will learn from their failures remains to be seen. Williamson, along with a slate of other Democratic leaders running to be the DNC's new chair, believe significant reforms are needed in order for the party to win back Congress and the White House in the coming years.
"Many people are afraid of change. I think what Democrats should be most afraid of right now is not changing," Williamson said.
As some progressives advocate for abandoning Democrats altogether, believing the party is irredeemable and too beholding to wealthy donors over voters, Williamson has consistently tried to work within the party.
Her concerns about President-elect Donald Trump, his billionaire backer Elon Musk and the direction the Republican Party is headed make her see the Democratic Party as the best vehicle to move forward politically. She said the left "absolutely must have the institutional heft" of the political party if it wants to "counter the increasing authoritarianism" many see in Trump's movement.
Williamson spoke to Newsweek in an exclusive interview via Zoom to discuss what she believes Democrats need to do to win, why she believes Trump has been successful and Musk's "terrifying" influence over the incoming administration. The interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
How Democrats Can Counter Trump's Power
"Donald Trump's power is that he makes people feel that he cares. We're going to counter that by actually caring. I've been up close and personal with people in their most agonizing hours for the last 40 years of my life. So, when I am up close and personal with people whose lives are hard, much harder than they should be in the richest country in the world, and those hardships are at least indirectly, due to bad public policy. I'm moved by that, and I believe the Democratic Party should be a conduit for the help they need," Williamson said.
She added: "Way too many of those people do not feel like the Democratic Party has their back and their response to that, in too many cases, has been either to give up on politics completely and not even vote, or to accept false hope from the other guy.
"The Democratic Party left a great big void, and Trump simply walked into it. Anybody with even a rudimentary knowledge of history knows that whenever there are large groups of desperate people. Those groups form a petri dish, out of which all manner of personal and societal dysfunction becomes almost inevitable, and that includes ideological capture by genuinely psychotic forces. It also includes attraction to the political strong man."
What the Democratic Party Needs to Change
"What we need at the helm is someone with a much broader vision of the mission and purpose at hand. And that cannot just be to fight Donald Trump. It has to be to inspire the American people. He is a phenomenon, and we must become a phenomenon," Williamson said. "I want to address internal cause. Internal cause has to do with the frayed bonds of affection between the Democratic Party and particularly the working people of the United States."
She continued: "I would take a listening tour, and I would show some contrition, and I would show some humility on part of the on the part of the party, and I would be listening to people."
On Musk's Influence Over the Incoming Trump Administration
"Musk's outsized influence is to me, terrifying. He's a genius, and someone whose genius I admire in many ways. But that doesn't mean that his perspective on American society, and particularly where we should go over the next decade, is any more or less important than anyone else's," she said.
"I don't believe that a country should be run only like an efficient business. It should be run like a responsible family. You don't feed your children because it's the efficient thing to do. You don't take care of your elderly because it's the efficient thing to do. You don't take care of the Earth and the Earth's resources necessarily, because it's the efficient thing to do, but because it's the right thing to do."
On Criticism of Democrats Being Too 'Woke'
"The Democratic Party should never apologize for caring about anybody. We want to care about everyone. I don't think the problem is that we care too much about trans people, or we care too much about any particular group, but that we at least demonstrated far too little care about the average American mother of two, getting up every morning, working at Walmart, doing her best," Williamson said. "She doesn't have any particular exotic ethnic, sexual, cultural or moral orientation or identity, but she matters too. Nobody matters more, and nobody matters less."
Will Williamson Be Supported by Progressive Lawmakers?
"I've felt like a political mistress to a lot of people over the last few years, people who will tell me in private, 'I really support you, really.' What the left needs more than anything right now is courage, spine, willingness to be unpopular. When I was growing up, the left, the left-wing factions within the Democratic Party, had chutzpah."
What She Thinks People Get Wrong About Her
"First of all, I could turn my computer around right now, you wouldn't see any crystals in my house. Not that I have a problem with crystals. I see myself described almost as though I'm a lady selling pendulums at a kiosk at an airport. Not that I have any problem with that lady selling pendulums at the kiosk at the airport, by the way. That's just not me, and it's not anything I've ever been. I feel that I've had a decent and a dignified career," she said. "It's an ancient trope, isn't it? That a woman who doesn't toe the line must be crazy."
What Happens Next?
Williamson has joined a long list of candidates running to be DNC chair.
The candidates include former Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley, Minnesota's current Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party chair Ken Martin, Wisconsin's Democratic Party chair Ben Wikler, former Maryland Senate candidate Robert Houton, executive member of the Newton, Massachusetts, Democratic City Committee Jason Paul, New York state Senator James Skoufis and former Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official Nate Snyder.
Forums featuring qualifying candidates will be held in January. In order to qualify, a candidate must submit a nominating statement signed by at least 40 committee members by January 25. The 448 voting members will elect the party's newest chair, as well as other officers, on February 1. The party's winter meeting will be in National Harbor, Maryland.
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