“While the state of our defeat is evident to all, the state of victory is real,” he wrote. “We uncovered deeper, truer truths than those consistently acknowledged by the political establishment.”
Williamson House Rep. Dean Phillips, along with D-Minn., is one of the few Democratic candidates running for incumbent President Joe Biden. She and Phillips continued to poll by single digits.
Williamson received roughly 2% of the vote in South Carolina's Democratic primary last weekend.
The self-help guru campaigned on an anti-establishment platform, looking to “disrupt the system” according to one of his slogans. This is his second presidential bid after a failed primary campaign in 2020.
Williamson, 71, said he was running for president to “definitely repair” the damage done by former President Donald Trump and prevent him from winning a second term.
But the Texas native entered the race mainly to replace Biden after early polls showed the president trailing on key issues like the economy and losing support among key Democratic voting blocs like Latino voters.
Biden's weak spots created an opportunity for candidates like Williamson and Phillips to campaign primarily as Biden replacements.
“Biden won't win. I will,” Williamson wrote X post Hours before Tuesday's Nevada Democratic primary results are due.
But as the primary season got under way, it quickly became clear that Williamson's upbeat and spiritual message didn't resonate with voters this year any more than it did in 2020.
Biden scored wins in New Hampshire as a write-in candidate and in the South Carolina primary, pushing Williamson into the fringes of the field.
Biden's best shot at winning the vote was in New Hampshire's Democratic primary, where his name is not officially on the ballot. New Hampshire voters pride themselves on their independence from a rigid two-party system, and outside candidates tend to do better in the Granite State than they do elsewhere.
Despite structural advantages, New Hampshire produced a candidate like Williamson, who ultimately received just 4% of the Democratic primary vote.
“Although we did not succeed in running a successful political campaign, I know in my heart that we affected the political airwaves,” Williamson wrote Wednesday.
“We spoke for the most neglected people in America today and for those whose wounds are most in need of healing. I wish I could have reached them,” he wrote.
