Self-help guru and long shot 2020 Democrat presidential candidate Marianne Williamson has been in the news with rumors she laid off her campaign staff while vowing to stay in the race.

Politico reported that Williamson confirmed she has laid off her staff, but she said she will not drop out “as long as I feel a connection to voters:”

Responding to a fan on Twitter expressing hope that she would remain in the race for the Democratic nomination, the spiritual guru replied that “reports of the end of my campaign have been drastically exaggerated today,” and linked to a statement on her campaign website asserting she was not going anywhere. “I am not suspending my candidacy, however; a campaign not having a huge war chest should not be what determines its fate,” Williamson said. The point of my candidacy has been to tell the heart’s truth and that does not cost money. Forging a new path for campaigns is going to be necessary, if we’re ever to forge a new path for our country.” On Twitter, she argued that “money is not what determines one’s value and it’s not what should determine the legitimacy of one’s political campaign.” https://twitter.com/marwilliamson/status/1212916827287932930

The statement on Williamson’s website said she is “extremely grateful for the contributions that poured into the campaign over the last two days of 2019. They have enabled us to pay down accumulating campaign debt.”

“As long as I feel a connection with voters that gets to the heart of things, bringing forth the conversation that would win the 2020 election and help transform this country, I will remain in the race,” Williamson said in the statement.

She then provided a long list of reasons she is staying in the race, including to “wage peace” instead of war, advocate for universal health care, “racial and economic justice,” the “politics of love,” and climate change.

“I’m talking about a World War II level mass mobilization to reverse climate change over the next seven years,” Williamson said.

Williamson gained fame as a self-help author and spiritual adviser to Oprah Winfrey.

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