Marianne Williamson
Historical Details
Position on Issues
For| Read My Position
"The U.S. Army defines assault rifles as 'short, compact, selective-fire weapons that fire a cartridge intermediate in power between submachine gun and rifle cartridges.' I support a ban on assault weapons."
Other| Read My Position
Candidate's Website, 2019
"Make permanent the middle-class tax cuts, while repealing the corporate tax cuts from the 2017 Tax Bill."
For| Read My Position
Candidate's Twitter Feed, 2023
Marianne Williamson supports the creation of new federal departments, such as a Department of Peace. However, she also supports abolishing some existing departments. Shortly after January 6th she wrote, "The Department of Homeland Security has been a disaster and should be abolished. We’ve seen it treat protests like threats and real threats as though they didn’t exist."
Against| Read My Position
"In a perfect world, term limits are elections. So what term limits would do, is it treats the symptom. But I believe first we need to treat the cause."
Against| Read My Position
For| Read My Position
"'Criminal penalties for criminals must be kept. Everyone who crosses the border is not a criminal. It is legal to seek asylum,' Williamson told The Post. 'Trump is trying to make asylum seekers into criminals in order to separate children from their parents as a deterrent to legal immigration. That is unconscionable and must be stopped.'"
Other| Read My Position
Williamson supports increased government spending in many areas, from housing to the environment. However, she also supports cutting defense spending. In a 2023 interview she said, "I think what we need to have as a serious conversation about the fact that it was $858 billion, that it is today, so much more than any other nation, there are people within the military themselves. Who would say that this is more than we need for actual security."
No Response
Citizens Count Issue Survey, 2023
Should the federal government combat inflation by capping price increases by large businesses?
For| Read My Position
Candidate's Website, 2019
"Children brought into the United States by their parents should not be punished for now being here. I fully support our DACA. Our dreamers represent the best about our future. I would also work to expand protections and naturalization to all undocumented immigrants who were brought here as children, regardless of their current age. They came here through no fault of their own, and many are, in fact, unaware that they are undocumented."
No Response
Citizens Count Issue Survey, 2023
Do you support mandatory competency tests for federal candidates over age 75?
Other| Read My Position
Williamson has not addressed tariffs as part of her 2024 economic agenda, but during then-president Trump's 2018 tariff hikes she said, "I am not inherently closed to the idea of tariffs, but I question the president's heavy-handed use of them in the current case."
Other| Read My Position
"First of all, I don't like the saber rattling that's even involved in that question. China's economy is not doing well. We must keep our competition with China off the battlefield. China knows that we and other Western and Western allies could cause a lot of problems for them economically, if they were to do that, just as we know that they could mess with us. We must be very careful, we must be very firm, we must not let them bully us or our allies. But we -- as much as we must make a stand for such things as human rights. At this point, we must be committed that this not spill over into a military confrontation. ... There are ways to defend Taiwan other than military. And I don't think I don't think that Taiwan appreciates that Americans are having this conversation the way they are. They have played this very carefully. They keep their heads down."
For| Read My Position
Although she has not directly addressed an electric vehicle mandate, Williamson states on her website, "Accelerate the production of Electric Vehicles, invest in charging infrastructure, and continue efforts to maximize fuel efficiency until we can move away from internal combustion engines. All parking spaces on either private or public land would have to have access to electric charging stations by 2035."
No Response
Citizens Count Issue Survey, 2023
Do you support ending China's Permanent Normal Trade Relations status?
For| Read My Position
Candidate's Website, 2023
"End qualified immunity."Other| Read My Position
Williamson does not directly address transgender women and sports on her website, but she is generally supports legal protections for LGBTQ+ for individuals. For example, she writes, "Certain parts of the LGBTQIA+ population, particularly transgender women of color, are at higher risk for marginalization and even violence. This makes them a population that needs not only equal rights but the specific status of special protection. Under a Williamson administration, they would have that."
For| Read My Position
Candidate's Website, 2019
"AS PRESIDENT I WOULD SUPPORT:
- "Eliminating the sale of assault rifles and semi-automatic weapons
- "Banning bump stocks and high capacity magazines
- "Strict control of gun use among children and access to guns among children
- "Required universal background checks, including at gun shows
- "Mandatory waiting periods for all gun dealers, including gun shows and sporting retailers
- "Reinstatement of Obama era restrictions on the ability of the mentally ill to purchase a gun
- "Child safety locks on all guns
- "Passage of Extreme Risk Protection Order Laws nationwide, allowing family members and law enforcement to seek court permission to temporarily remove guns from a person in danger of harming himself or others
- "Removing current limits on the Center for Disease Control's (CDC) ability to track and record gun ownership numbers in America (vital information which helps in researching the overwhelming amount of gun deaths and underlying causes)"
Against| Read My Position
"Regarding abortion rights, I am one hundred percent pro-choice."
Against| Read My Position
Candidate's Website, 2019
"Abortion is a moral issue, but I do not believe the government of the United States has the right to legislate our private morals. I believe the decision of whether or not to have an abortion lies solely with the pregnant woman, according to the dictates of her conscience and in communion with the God of her understanding. I do not feel the government has an appropriate right to deny or restrict that decision."
Against| Read My Position
Candidate's Website, 2023
"Regarding abortion rights, I am one hundred percent pro-choice."For| Read My Position
Candidate's Website, 2019
"In several states, restrictive measures such as the closing of abortion clinics and forced vaginal probes are currently in play. Planned Parenthood, a sole source of medical care for millions of women, is under attack in various states in an effort to block the availability of reproductive choice.
"As your president, I would seek to protect the right of every woman to make her own decisions, in her own way, regarding her reproductive choices. The choice whether or not to terminate a pregnancy is difficult enough without having the government weighing in on the decision."
Against| Read My Position
Candidate's Website, 2019
"Only by de-criminalizing drugs can we break the back of cartels and drug dealers, while getting addicts into recovery."
For| Read My Position
Candidate's Website, 2019
"Increase minimum wage to a rate that provides a living wage in its given geographical area - and set the rate to adjust for inflation from now on."
For| Read My Position
"I would expand the Women's Health Protection Act as already sponsored by 42 senators. The Women's Health Protection Act would block states from banning abortion or holding providers to excessive medical standards, like requiring abortion providers to be able to admit patients at nearby hospitals."
For| Read My Position
"Codify Roe v. Wade into a federal law"
For| Read My Position
Candidate's Website, 2019
"Reinstate and expand energy and mileage efficiency investments. Conserving energy and making the most of our resources should not be a partisan issue. It is good for everyone. Our scientists and businesses are ready to help lead these efforts, but strong national leadership is essential."
Against| Read My Position
Candidate's Website, 2019
"Transition away from the domestic use of nuclear energy. We do not need nuclear energy to fulfill our energy needs."
Against| Read My Position
Candidate's Website, 2019
"Our continued reliance on fossil fuels - coal, oil and natural gas - is holding back a new, clean energy revolution that will benefit our economy, environment, and collective public health.
"Furthermore, fossil fuel companies not only pollute our air and water, damage our health and accelerate global warming, they have also polluted our political system for far too long. As the result of energy industry lobbying and campaign contributions, the federal government supports the use of fossil fuels and hands out massive tax breaks and subsidies to companies that are already among the most profitable in the world. U.S. fossil fuel producing companies rake in hundreds of billions in revenue every year, with huge profit margins, yet the U.S. ranks the worst of all G7 countries by subsidizing fossil fuels the most-over $26-billion a year.
"Corruption, both legalized and unvarnished, makes it extremely difficult to take on the power of the energy-producing giants. Until we deal with the issue of money's powerful influence on our political system, none of this will truly change, which is why campaign finance reform is a central tenet to my governing philosophy."
For| Read My Position
Candidate's Website, 2019
"Extend federal incentives and rebates for renewable energy."
Against| Read My Position
"'I am not inherently closed to the idea of tariffs, but I question the president's heavy-handed use of them in the current case,' Williamson told The Post. 'China is taking advantage of the American worker. And the American worker has the right to feel that the government has their back, and is always ready to protect them from exploitation of a foreign government.'"
For| Read My Position
Candidate's Website, 2019
"Invest in our infrastructure, creating jobs by rebuilding roads, bridges, and rails, increasing renewable energy power, updating clean water systems, improving our rail system and massively investing in public transit."
Against| Read My Position
Candidate's Website, 2023
"Federal data shows that as of 2022 over 3,500 permits for gas and oil drilling on public lands have been issued. This is more than the previous administrations approved number of permits. A Williamson administration will sign an executive order to change the parameters for the Bureau of Land Management’s issuing of permits.
"End all new oil and gas leases in federal lands and waters. Plan the phaseout of existing oil and gas leases on federal lands."
For| Read My Position
Candidate's Website, 2023
"Eliminate the sale of assault rifles and semi-automatic weapons, ban bump stocks, high-capacity magazines, and 3-D printing of firearms. Assault weapons are used as weapons of war, and should not be sold to private citizens. 74% of Americans want to raise the minimum legal age to buy any guns to 21. In accordance with the ban on these weapons and accessories, the age to purchase guns that are legal under these laws should be raised unilaterally to 21. There should not be an age discrepancy in the type of firearm an individual can buy."
For| Read My Position
For| Read My Position
Candidate's Twitter Feed, 2023
"I would de-schedule cannabis from a Schedule One drug on my first day in office.
"Release all nonviolent drug offenders.
"Expunge their records.
"End the War on Drugs.
"Happy 4/20!"
No Response
Citizens Count Issue Survey, 2023
Should the federal government reform Social Security by requiring means testing?
Against| Read My Position
"I want to make Medicare available to everyone as an option, but not eliminate private insurance."
For| Read My Position
"Medicare provides good quality care at affordable rates, and should be available to those who want it. But millions of people like their private insurance and should be able to keep it. So the best is including Medicare as an option on the health exchanges, a public choice along with the private choices."
Against| Read My Position
Candidate's Website, 2019
"Another canard is that building a wall across our entire southern border is needed. In fact, unauthorized immigrants are increasingly entering the United States perfectly legally, then simply overstaying visas. No increase in border security will impact this most common route into our nation. Yes, we can invest in smart border security when it's actually needed, while also looking at underlying causes of the displacement of so many people south of our border, including our long failed war on drugs, which has created rampant crime and violence among our neighbors. A wall is expensive, impractical, and unlikely to address any of the real challenges we face."
Against| Read My Position
Williamson generally opposes military action and supports the creation of a Department of Peace. She writes on her website, "While America has some serious enemies – and it’s certainly our responsibility to protect our country and our children – I believe our country’s way of dealing with security issues is increasingly obsolete. We cannot simply rely on brute force to rid ourselves of international enemies. In so doing, we overburden our military by asking them to compensate for the work we ourselves are not doing."
For| Read My Position
"With the Battle of Bakhmut raging, both Russia and Ukraine are intent on winning this war. Diplomatic options are severely limited until the war begins to break one way or the other. Regardless how we got here, our only choice at this point is to either support Ukraine or to not. While the United States should do everything possible to support a negotiated settlement, our goal should also be a negotiated settlement in which Ukraine still has a chance to exist."
For| Read My Position
Candidate's Website, 2023
"Enact fair taxes on the wealthy, corporations, and Wall Street, and reduce taxes on working people. The richest people in America increased their wealth by a total of $6.5 trillion in 2021. The total wealth of the 1% reached a record $45.9 trillion by the end of 2021, and these fortunes increased by more than $12 trillion, or more than a third, during the course of the pandemic."Against| Read My Position
"Sanctions are a form of economic warfare with a high rate of failure. Punitive, coercive policies do not always achieve the best outcomes. Sanctions harm innocent people, escalate conflicts and can put us on a path to war. They can provoke targeted populations to rally round the flag, support hardliners and inflame resentment against America.
"We can achieve superior outcomes with clear-eyed respect and steps towards thawing the ice. This could help improve our relationship with Kim Jong Un and de-escalate threats from North Korea."
Against| Read My Position
"No, I do not believe a president should be able to pardon herself. And no, I would not pardon former President Trump if elected, nor would I otherwise direct the Justice Department to drop the case against him."
For| Read My Position
Against| Read My Position
"I will veto any attempts to privatize Social Security. The move from guaranteed pensions to 401k plans for workers that started in the 1980’s under Ronald Reagan has been disastrous. It has left the retirement money of working people at the mercy of the fluctuations of the stock market. This makes the money people put away for their retirement security a plaything for the trading class. Consider what happened to tens of thousands of Enron workers when that company collapsed due to its own financial malfeasance. We cannot continue to allow this level of risk with essential retirement funds."
For| Read My Position
- "The cap on social security taxation is reverse means testing. The cap is currently set at $160,200. Even if the cap is raised to $250,000 (as has been proposed) that means 95% of wage earners have their entire income subject to taxation, while the richest 5% are able to avoid a huge tax liability. How is this fair?
- "Eliminating the cap will reduce the extremes of poverty and wealth that are inherently undemocratic (This isn’t about the first and second yacht, it’s about the 3rd, 4th, 5th yachts…)
- "Eliminating the cap will immediately secure the long term solvency of the Social Security program and allow the program to expand benefits without raising the retirement age."
Against| Read My Position
"Eliminating the cap will immediately secure the long term solvency of the Social Security program and allow the program to expand benefits without raising the retirement age."
For| Read My Position
Against| Read My Position
Candidate's Website, 2023
"Eliminating unfounded restrictions on eligible voters, such as voter picture ID’s."Other| Read My Position
Candidate's Twitter Feed, 2017
Williamson has not made a statement on the Jones Act overall. However, she did support waiving the Jones Act in Puerto Rico following a storm in 2017.
Other| Read My Position
"Part of the Russian aggression against Ukraine involves the Russian interference with the Ukrainian elections. Methods that Russia used against the United States in the 2016 election were first used against the Ukrainians. Russia launched a cyber Pearl Harbor attack against the United States and successfully interfered in our elections. I support a vigorous investigation into the Russian interference in elections in the US, Ukraine and Europe, and massively strengthened cyber-security for US elections."
For| Read My Position
Candidate's Website, 2023
"The Williamson Administration will fight for ... Eliminating all interest on student loans and forgiving all federal and privately held student debt: Students are too often burdened with school loans that hold them back from following their dreams. Forgiving all student debt will allow students to work in a career they love, launch a business, or buy a home."Other| Read My Position
Candidate's Website, 2019
"IF ELECTED, I WILL WORK VIGOROUSLY FOR THE FOLLOWING: ...
- "Free college or technical school tuition for every qualified student. If we cannot find ideal offsets for this expense, I'm open to exploring ways that students can repay some of these costs with a small payroll tax once they start working (based on Oregon's efforts) or through reasonable amounts of public service.
- "Student loan amnesty. We need to explore student loan forgiveness and options to remove red tape and lockouts, and reduce on-time payments from 10 years to 5 years. We need to reduce the interest rate for repayment of loans to a nominal, if not zero, percentage rate. We need to eliminate the origination fee on federal student loans, and eliminate the annual caps on federally subsidized loans."
Against| Read My Position
"These government supports that have proven time and again to be successful at staving off poverty for millions of Americans, are being cut – by Democrats no less – at a time when rents are spiraling out of control for the poorest families, wages are stagnant due to the assault on unions and working people; while poor people are being preyed on by rapacious financial institutions via higher interest rates and paralyzing fees, and we have a legal system that traps people into a cycle of poverty for the most minor of infractions. ... A Williamson administration will:
"Cap interest rates at 10 percent across all financial institutions."
Other| Read My Position
Candidate's Website, 2019
"Transitioning to an economy that keeps its focus squarely on reducing carbon emissions is not only one of the great moral challenges of our time, but it can also open a new era of US innovation based on sustainable infrastructure, responsible resource management and meeting human needs. We need to explore every option to get there. This includes putting a price on carbon to send a sustained market signal and pay for the external damage done by these fuels. Many progressives and environmentalists feel that carbon fees should be mandatory (not market-based) and dedicated to achieving further reductions emissions to drive them down faster AND to protect lower income and people of color who have the least protection against climate impacts. My Administration would be open to all these ideas.
"It is also critically important that our economy works to sequester excess carbon currently in the atmosphere, back down into the earth. We will employ every resource to restore our forests and oceans, and promote sustainable agricultural and ranching practices, among many other critical measures. We cannot afford to do anything less."
Other| Read My Position
Candidate's Twitter Feed, 2019
Williamson opposed the Iran nuclear deal in 2015, tweeting, "Dear Pres. Obama, you don't have to be a warmonger to oppose the Iran deal. Some of us -- even true progressives -- just don't like it."
However, in 2018, when President Trump announced a withdrawal from the agreement, Williamson said on Twitter the deal "was actually working fine."
Against| Read My Position
Candidate's Website, 2019
"As president, I would immediately re-enter the Paris Climate Accords - while simultaneously working to expand talks to push for even more meaningful and enforceable agreements. In 2015, we were one of 195 countries to support this important agreement on Climate Change. We should not only re-enter, but also lead a new push for the global transition to reduce and even sequester existing carbon from the atmosphere. Our urgent goal is not just to hold temperature increases as close as possible to where they are now, but instead to reverse global warming back to more long-term sustainable levels. The current Paris Accords don't go far enough, they may help stem off the worst of the worst consequences, but what we need to be aiming for is to restore health. We must put our full efforts behind continuing a global push to come into alignment on more robust goals and make the agreements enforceable, which they are currently not."
