Marianne Williamson's campaign is running in the red
The sole remaining Democratic primary challenger to President Joe Biden who has any support in the polls shed even more staff members in the last three months and spent more than she raised.
Spiritual guru and third-time political candidate Marianne Williamson brought in just $821,000 in the third quarter of her presidential campaign and spent more than $825,000, according to her latest filing to the Federal Election Commission, covering July 1 through Sept. 30. A majority of the incoming haul came from donors giving less than $200.
The immediate burn through the quarter’s cash underscores the challenges the longshot candidate has had in gaining traction this time around.
Her campaign is also deeply in debt. She carried $270,000 in debt the previous quarter and that grew to $347,000. The campaign declared having about $101,000 cash on hand.
The campaign, led by Carlos Cardona, lost six staffers in one bout of firings and resignations at the end of the last reporting period, and the stop in staff salary payments in this report confirm the further departures of the campaign’s second South Carolina director, Brandon Upson; Press Secretary Duran Brown; and fellow staffers Cory Arichbald, Christian Castro and Molly Reed.
Williamson’s consistent staff churn this cycle has not only impacted internal campaign operations but has led to public rebukes of her online.
A group of seven former staffers wrote a letter, first reported in August by Jenn Dize, who writes the Courage News Substack, alleging that Williamson’s own management style is causing her campaign to fail.
“Based on our observations and our interactions with her, Marianne Williamson has demonstrated no intention of becoming president, no strategy to win this election, and no ability to effectively lead this country or follow through on her progressive platform,” the letter said.
The former staffers also expressed serious doubts that the Williamson campaign was organized enough to get on the ballot or win the nomination.
Cardona did not respond to multiple requests for comment from POLITICO.
Williamson increased her time on the campaign trail this quarter, and the campaign’s largest expense after salaries and payroll taxes was travel. The Williamson campaign spent about $82,000 on commercial air travel, hotels and transport — among the events across the country were stops in New Hampshire, South Carolina, Michigan and Texas.
But the time on the road isn’t positively shifting her place in the polls. She entered the race polling at 9 percent and now maintains an average of about 4 percent support, according to RealClearPolitics.
The best-selling author has loaned the campaign $220,000 so far this cycle. But she did not make any additional contributions in the third quarter, according to the report.
In a Zoom call with volunteers during the summer, Williamson said she couldn’t keep putting her own money into the campaign and stressed how running for office was interfering with her main occupation as an author of spiritual books.
She has since delayed the release of her upcoming book, "A Mystic Jesus." It was originally scheduled to come out last month but will be released next year.