Chelsea Manning, whose 35-year prison sentence was commuted by President Barack Obama during his final days in office, has remained an outspoken activist. | Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for OUT Magazine Chelsea Manning files for U.S. Senate run

Chelsea Manning, a transgender woman who was convicted in 2013 of leaking thousands of classified documents to WikiLeaks, has filed paperwork to run for the U.S. Senate in Maryland.

Manning, whose 35-year prison sentence was commuted by President Barack Obama during his final days in office, has remained an outspoken activist on intelligence and transgender-rights issues. Her case remains deeply controversial, particularly among conservatives, who criticized Obama's decision.


Manning would be a primary challenger to Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), the ranking member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Cardin has served two terms in the Senate and served two decades in the House. He won reelection in 2012 by just over 30 points.

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President Donald Trump has called Manning an "ungrateful traitor."

On Sunday, Manning officially announced her campaign with an ad featuring scenes of Manning in Maryland interspersed with images of the white nationalist rally in Charlottesville and protesters clashing with police.

"We need to stop expecting that our systems will somehow fix themselves," she said. "We need to actually take the reins of power from them."