Chelsea Manning, the transsexual former US serviceman who was imprisoned for several years for providing classified files to WikiLeaks, has once again confirmed her intent to run for senate. Her campaign kicked off with a video ad, along with a link for campaign donations using her hashtag #WeGotThis.
"We live in trying times. Times of fear, of suppression, hate. We don’t need more or better leaders, we need someone willing to fight. 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 this at every level. We need to fix this. We don’t need them anymore, we can do better. You’re damn right we got this," the would-be senator narrates.
Manning’s ad evoked a storm of criticism on Twitter, with people accusing the former whistleblower of treason and blasting the ad.
There was even at least one person who criticized the ad itself, while admitting to support Manning.
Having filed her candidacy applications with the Federal Elections Commission on Thursday, Chelsea Manning is expected to run against the 74-year-old incumbent Ben Cardin (D-Md) who has served two terms and is up for re-election in November.
In 2013 Manning was convicted and sentenced to 35 years in prison for releasing more than 700,000 classified government documents, but was released in May 2017 after serving seven years when President Obama granted her clemency.