Chelsea Manning confirmed it: She's running for Senate in 2018
#WeGotThis
In a five-word Twitter statement on Sunday, Chelsea Manning formally announced her intention to run for a Senate seat in Maryland. Manning's candidacy was the subject of much speculation on Saturday when a Federal Election Commission filing in her name surfaced.
The tweet included her brief confirmation, a handful of emojis, the #WeGotThis hashtag that appears frequently in Manning's timeline, and a YouTube link to her first campaign ad.
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The ad doesn't lay out any policy positions. It's more of an emotional appeal, drawing on words and imagery that will resonate with the segment of the U.S. population that's been bristling under a Donald Trump presidency for the past year.
Although Manning has a Democratic primary to get through before she can make a bid for the Senate, her ad is an appeal to the anti-Trump community. Just look at the script she read from.
We live in trying times. Times of Fear— of suppression— of hate. We don’t need more—or better leaders. We need someone willing to fight. We need to stop asking them to give us our rights. They won’t support us. They won’t compromise. We need to stop expecting that our systems will somehow fix themselves. We need to actually take the reins of power from them. We need to challenge them at every level. We need to fix this. We don’t need them anymore. We can do better. You’re damn right #WeGotThis
Manning is up against a difficult primary challenge in Maryland. She'll be running against an incumbent in Ben Cardin, a popular Democrat and the state's senior Senator. He's considered a favorite to hold his seat in the 2018 election for a third six-year term.
Running in Maryland also means that Manning counts a large segment of the U.S. intelligence community -- the National Security Agency is headquartered there -- among her would-be constituents. She might have trouble convincing them to vote for her, given the materials she leaked that landed her in prison.
Cardin's spokesperson, Sue Walitsky, expressed excitement for the looming primary challenge in a statement provided to The Washington Post. Notably, the statement doesn't mention Manning by name.
"Senator Cardin is looking forward to a vigorous debate of the issues and a robust conversation with Maryland voters."
It's still early in the process and Manning has a number of procedural hurdles to overcome, such as filing for the primary with the state elections board by Feb. 26, but it's clear now that she does intend to run.
Adam Rosenberg is a Senior Games Reporter for Mashable, where he plays all the games. Every single one. From AAA blockbusters to indie darlings to mobile favorites and browser-based oddities, he consumes as much as he can, whenever he can.Adam brings more than a decade of experience working in the space to the Mashable Games team. He previously headed up all games coverage at Digital Trends, and prior to that was a long-time, full-time freelancer, writing for a diverse lineup of outlets that includes Rolling Stone, MTV, G4, Joystiq, IGN, Official Xbox Magazine, EGM, 1UP, UGO and others.Born and raised in the beautiful suburbs of New York, Adam has spent his life in and around the city. He's a New York University graduate with a double major in Journalism and Cinema Studios. He's also a certified audio engineer. Currently, Adam resides in Crown Heights with his dog and his partner's two cats. He's a lover of fine food, adorable animals, video games, all things geeky and shiny gadgets.
