“…what we really need is a strong and unapologetic progressive to lead us.”
In 2010, Chelsea Manning was charged with violating the Espionage Act for providing WikiLeaks with over 250,000 documents.
She pleaded guilty to 10 lesser charges in an effort to avoid the death penalty and then, in 2013, was sentenced by a military judge to 35 years in prison.
After serving only seven years of her 35-year sentence, Manning’s sentence was commuted by former President Barack Obama three days before he left office, and she was released in May 2017.
Now, Manning is pursuing a career in the United States government. According to The Washington Post, she filed to run as a Democrat for the United States Senate in Maryland.
In January 2017, the 30-year-old lauded Obama and outlined the need for leaders similar to him in a column for The Guardian:
This vulnerable legacy should remind us that what we really need is a strong and unapologetic progressive to lead us. What we need as well is a relentless grassroots movement to hold that leadership accountable.
She will be challenging Democrat Ben Cardin, who is up for re-election in November and has served two terms.
NBC News 4 reported that Manning filed her paperwork Thursday and has become the fifth candidate who has declared their intention to run for Cardin’s seat.
