Marianne Williamson is wowing Gen Z on TikTok. But could she beat Biden in the polls?

Speaking from the edge of the stage at the second Democratic debate in 2019, she railed against corrupt corporations, environmental degradation and “dark psychic forces” of hatred. With the cadence of a fired-up minister and the confidence of John F. Kennedy grasping for the moon, she vowed to overcome then-President Donald Trump with the power of love. By the time the cameras stopped rolling, the relatively unknown author had taken off like a rocket online, becoming the most Googled candidate in 48 states.

For a brief moment, Marianne Williamson had captivated the country.

Now, one failed campaign and four years later, Williamson is back, mounting a second long-shot bid for the presidency.

But this time, her viral moments are being made far from the debate stage — none have been organized by the Democratic National Committee. Instead, they’re being shot on a phone and uploaded online.

She’s tapped into the power of TikTok, with nearly half a million followers and millions of views.

“You always try to get your message heard in whatever way possible and in my case there has clearly been a blackballing of sorts in certain mainstream corners of the media,” Williamson, 70, told McClatchy News. “So, TikTok is an independent media platform that gives you direct access to people.”

Translating her virality into votes, however, will not be easy. The electorate is indeed open to a fresh face, as most voters don’t want Biden or Trump, the front-runners in their respective primaries, to run again, according to an April NBC poll.

But the odds remain stacked against Williamson, who is struggling to be taken seriously, polling in the single digits and facing an incumbent president with the full backing of the DNC.

From author to aspiring politician

Unlike most White House contenders, Williamson has never held public office. She instead made a name for herself as a self-help author and self-described spiritual leader.

Daytime television viewers regularly saw her on The Oprah Winfrey Show. In one episode, she prayed for bickering sisters, and in another, she argued against a military response to 9/11.

The Texas native and West Coast transplant took the well-trodden path from the TV studio to the political arena in 2014, launching a campaign for Congress in California. She ultimately finished fourth after running as an independent in a crowded primary, according to the Los Angeles Times.

She took a second bite at the apple — a much bigger apple — when she announced her run for president in 2020, adopting an ambitious progressive platform. But, after only polling around 1 percent, she ultimately bowed out before primary voting began, according to The New York Times.

Now, she has thrown her hat in the ring once more, adopting a similar policy playbook of bold and potentially controversial proposals while casting Biden as a “typical establishment corporatist Democrat.”

If elected, among her first priorities would be scrapping the Willow Project, an Alaskan oil drilling venture, and canceling all government contracts with union-busting companies.

She would initiate an audit of “every penny spent by the Pentagon,” call for bipartisan police reform, and push for a massive slavery reparations program to the tune of $1 trillion over two decades.

More broadly, she would seek to “transition from a dirty economy to a clean economy and from a war economy to a peace economy,” which she says would include ending all fossil fuel subsidies, increasing corporate tax rates and cutting military spending.

Taking over TikTok

In an effort to promote these progressive policies, Williamson has taken to TikTok, the popular video-sharing app that a growing share of the American population — particularly adults under 30 — turns to for news.

Her videos, which include clips from cable interviews, old The Oprah Winfrey Show appearances and self-recorded shots from her car, have been viewed over 13 million times, according to a TikTok data counter.

Williamson is “all over TikTok,” Ashley Vasel, a 25-year-old veterinarian in Boston, told McClatchy News.

“When I kept seeing her I literally stopped and said wait I don’t even know who else is running,” Vasel said.

Her content seems to have resonated with many Gen Z users, who frequently crop up in the comment sections of videos to offer their wholehearted support.

“Gen Z votes for Marianne!” one commenter said, attracting over 4,500 likes.

“I’m glad the first year I’m able to do a presidential vote there is an actually AMAZING candidate,” said another.

Isaiah Cabino, 24-year-old nonprofit worker in Virginia, has joined the chorus of sympathetic commenters, defending Williamson against skeptical Democrats.

“A lot of modern day Democrat politicians are more centrist, but they use the label progressive,” Cabino told McClatchy News. “I see her as a real progressive candidate.”

The admiration is mutual, Williamson said, noting that she is “particularly fascinated by Gen Z.”

“Most of them were not even born in the 20th century. And they clearly don’t see why they should live their lives at the effect of bad economic ideas left over from the 20th century,” Williamson said. “Gen Z has the healthy rambunctiousness of youth, and many of them seem to relate to the rambunctiousness of my campaign.”

Her boisterous, youthful supporters have ruffled some feathers on TikTok, though, including Yeganeh Mafaher, a 24-year-old political analyst in Los Angeles.

Mafaher told McClatchy News she has been a “victim” of Williamson’s followers, saying they have shown up en masse to comment on her videos that are critical of Williamson.

“It’s kind of like they’re jumping on a bandwagon, almost treating her like a musician,” Mafaher said. “They’re not watching her old stuff. They’re just watching these short, perfectly made clips — almost like Andrew Tate-eque perfect owns that they can support, but they’re not looking at the broader person.”

Roadblocks to the White House

Some who have taken that broader look, and a deeper dive into her past, view her more skeptically.

Her history of promoting dubious holistic health advice, while criticizing vaccines and various medicines, has turned her off to many liberals, Matt McDermott, a Democratic strategist, told McClatchy News.

In her 1992 debut book, “Return to Love,” she called sickness “an illusion,” adding, “Cancer and AIDS and other serious illnesses are physical manifestations of a psychic scream.”

In recent years, she’s come under fire for calling clinical depression a “scam,” and referring to vaccine mandates as “Orwellian” — both statements she later walked back. She has said she supports science and medicine, and is not against vaccines.

Whether for those comments or other political reasons, Williamson has so far failed to gain broad appeal. Only ten percent of Democratic caucus voters in Iowa plan to vote for her, according to a May Emerson poll. Nationally, nine percent of Democratic primary voters said they’d vote for her, while 62% said they support Biden, according to an April Fox poll.

And, unlike four years ago, the DNC has said there will be no debates this time around, stripping Williamson and competitor Robert F. Kennedy Jr. from the chance to take Biden on face to face.

“The party that purports to be the greatest champion of democracy should not be so wary of democracy in our own house,” Williamson said while calling for Biden to debate.

“The reality is that that is just not the historical precedent in either party,” McDermott said. “It is typically always the case that the incumbent, while not literally running unchallenged, basically has the field cleared by the party apparatus.”

Without debates, substantial campaign funding and the ability to get on the ballot in 50 states — a difficult task — any campaign against an incumbent is highly unlikely to be successful, McDermott said.

In fact, only one elected president — Franklin Pierce 167 years ago — ever lost his party’s nomination while seeking a second term, according to NPR.

Still, Williamson is pressing forward with her eyes fixed on the nomination, batting away questions about impact and legacy that dog dark horse candidates.

“When you are on a tightrope, you can’t afford to ask yourself what will happen if I fall,” Williamson said.

This story was originally published June 13, 2023 at 2:34 PM with the headline "Marianne Williamson is wowing Gen Z on TikTok. But could she beat Biden in the polls?."