Marianne Williamson Speaks to Exeter Community

By EVAN DIERBERG, LUCY JUNG and LAUREN LEE

On Oct. 2, Exeter’s Democratic Club hosted 2024 presidential candidate Marianne Williamson in Water Street Bookstore. 

Williamson spoke on the agenda of her campaign, answered questions, and urged the audience to take action. She spoke of the hate-driven progress of those who are “willing to go to great lengths to effectuate their worldview,” citing last month’s Neo-Nazi demonstrations in Florida and movements to ban studies of Black history. Williamson concluded, “We have to be as convicted behind a worldview of love as people who hate are convicted behind a worldview of hate.”

Finally, Williamson said “as voters in New Hampshire, you do have a lot of power,” and that “to whatever extent you feel moved to using that power, on behalf of my campaign, I thank you from the bottom of my heart.” 

Long-time Democratic Club advisor Jacquelyne Weatherspoon shared the history of the Academy’s hosting presidential candidates on campus. According to Weatherspoon, hosting candidates is a long tradition. Weatherspoon said, “$100 to the Secretary of State’s office is all it costs to run for president from New Hampshire. So when you don’t have a lot of money, but you feel you have a strong message, you would come to New Hampshire. Sometimes the New Hampshire primaries would have 20 people running for president from all over the country.” 

“At that time, [around 20 years ago,] the Academy was extremely generous and kind to the larger community of Exeter. It would be announced in a local paper that such and such a candidate would be in the assembly hall, and anybody was welcome to come. It was a way for the community to learn about local policies, right here at Phillips Exeter,” Weatherspoon continued.  

More recently, however, the Academy has been unable to host candidates directly on campus as Exeter qualifies as a non-profit. Democratic Club co-head and senior Nat Welling said, “Something with tax codes makes us unable to host candidates on campus if they’re running for the office. Luckily we’ve hosted similar events in Water Street Bookstore before, and they were great for letting us host Ms. Williamson there.”

Attendees reflected on Williamson’s speech and Q&A session. 

Democratic Club co-head and senior Aliyana Koch-Manzur said, “Though there wasn’t a lot of promotion for the event, the place ended up being packed — people were sitting on the floors because there weren’t any chairs left.” 

Koch-Manzur reflected on the atmosphere of the event. “It was a very intimate environment. Everyone who wanted to could come up to her afterward, talk to her, and take pictures. [Even her speech] felt more like a conversation; there was some back and forth.” 

Republican Club co-head and upper CJ Smith affirmed the importance of New Hampshire as an early primary state. “There are a lot of opportunities in Exeter to see political candidates and learn about their policies at their events, so I try to take advantage of those as much as possible,” Smith noted. Despite believing that “it was a great event and a really good opportunity to engage,” Smith reflects on feelings of frustration caused by the lack of response to a question he posed. “I asked a question about her policies and the overall United States business and environment. She said I didn’t have any evidence for my claims and basically dismissed my question without really answering it.” 

Welling spoke on the level of transparency that Williamson had in her speech. “What stood out to me was how anti-establishment she came off as. It was nice to see such a left-leaning candidate who was willing to call out both parties for not getting things done in the past. She was very unfiltered.”

Democratic Club co-head and senior Eric Wu also appreciated Williamson’s emphasis on moving forward. “She wants to stand up to [the establishment] and really represent people, which I found to be very exciting and inspiring.”

Weatherspoon shared her views regarding Williamson’s campaign. “To me, when I listened to her, she was in between Bernie Sanders and former candidate, Ralph Nader. Nader would talk about cars and fuel, and what it’s doing to the environment, things like that. She spoke about similar things.” 

Some of Williamson’s main campaign goals were the environment, the money that [the United States] spends on defense, and student loans. For students, Weatherspoon continued, “[Williamson’s] focus on student loans would have definitely been attractive. I saw the heads nodding in the room when she was talking about that. One thing I noticed was that she’s hitting every college campus in the state of New Hampshire. So what that says to me is that part of her strategy is targeting education, student loans, to gather support from young voters and first-time voters.”

Overall, the guest speaker event was a success, and Exeter’s political clubs are expecting to host more speakers like Williamson in the near future. “Around six Republican candidates are coming [this] week, such as Mike Pence, Vivek Ramasaway, and Nikki Haley, who’s coming for the second time,” Koch-Manzur said. 

“Although Dem Club isn’t sponsoring any of those events, I would encourage any students who are interested in politics at all to go to them. Though you may disagree with the speakers’ views, the experience of seeing what it’s like to run for president and what the areas of focus are on a national level is really insightful. I think everyone should try to experience that,” Koch-Manzur said.