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I ran for President in 2020 – and thus spent a fair amount of time with the other candidates. Cory Booker, Joe Biden, Amy Klobuchar, Tulsi Gabbard, Pete Buttigieg, Kamala Harris – we would all run into each other speaking or campaigning in the early states or at any number of public forums. Sometimes you’re in the same waiting room for 20 minutes before the cameras go on.

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One candidate I connected with early on was Marianne Williamson. Marianne was always warm, generous and thoughtful anytime I saw her. And she worked as hard as anyone, relocating to Iowa for months and conducting dozens, perhaps hundreds of community events. She campaigned with me in Iowa at least once down the stretch.

Marianne recently announced she is running for President in 2024. I love her courage and independence; it takes a lot to run, perhaps more to run again.

“We are six inches away from the edge,” Marianne says. “Americans need to know that we can do more than just survive. We can thrive.” I interview Marianne on the podcast ([link removed]) this week. “We keep being told that ‘things are complicated.’ They’re not complicated. They’re corrupt.”

I’ve written ([link removed]) that I think a contested primary would be a good thing. Isn’t that what democracy is all about? Marianne and I discuss at length the DNC’s changing of the primary calendar to elevate South Carolina at the expense of New Hampshire and Iowa. “I was in New Hampshire last week and the Democrats there are mad,” Marianne comments. “What did they do wrong? Their big mistake was that they didn’t vote for Joe Biden.”

There are, I’m sure, a dozen major Democrats who want to run for President but are being told not to by the party. “Someone was told it was political suicide to run,” Marianne shares. “What am I protecting?” Meanwhile polling shows that a majority of Democratic voters – 60% - either want to move on from Joe Biden or want a competitive primary.

Marianne is clear-eyed about the nature of the challenge. “I know they are going to try to invisible-ize me. But I think that’s a lot harder now than it was. People are catching on.”

Mark Leibovich in the Atlantic this week wrote ([link removed]) that Trump has instilled a massive risk aversion in the Democrats. In the same article, he encourages a challenge to Biden. He cites a couple very American principles of choice and freedom as reasons to have a competitive primary.

Marianne concurs. “If the people vote for Joe Biden as the nominee, I’ll be among the first to support him. But shouldn’t the people decide? Is this not still a democracy?” Marianne is going to test that proposition, and I for one am grateful. Our way out of our current polarization is more democracy, not less.

For my interview with Marianne, click here ([link removed]) . To check out Forward in your area, click here ([link removed]) – we are growing all of the time. Let's reconnect our leaders to what people actually want.

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Andrew Yang
Founder, Forward Party
forwardparty.com ([link removed])
andrewyang.com ([link removed])

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