Williamson lays off entire campaign staff

Best-selling author Marianne Williamson has laid off her entire campaign staff, according to two sources close to the campaign.

The longshot Democratic presidential hopeful will continue to seek her party’s nomination. But she’ll do so without a staff behind her. Manchester, N.H.-based television station WMUR first reported the mass layoffs on Thursday.

Williamson, an author and celebrity spiritual adviser, has been campaigning for the Democratic nomination for nearly a year. But she has struggled to break out of the lower tier of the primary field, often failing to register in national polls.

Unlike her middle- and top-tier rivals, Williamson retained only a small staff. Her latest federal financial report filed in October showed only a few dozen employees on her team. Among those laid off was campaign manager Patricia Ewing.

Still, the decision to eliminate her staff entirely suggests that she may be winding down her presidential run altogether. One former staffer said that financial pressures were behind the layoffs. Williamson raised just over $3 million in the third quarter of 2019, but spent roughly 94 percent of what she took in.

What’s more, Williamson appears almost certain to miss the next Democratic primary debate on Jan. 14. If so, it would be the fifth debate that she has failed to qualify for.  

News of the layoffs came hours after former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro announced that he would suspend his presidential campaign.

— Updated at 3:44 p.m.