Chelsea Manning Files For U.S. Senate Run In Maryland

NORTH BETHESDA, MD — Chelsea Manning, the former Army private convicted of leaking troves of government documents to WikiLeaks, has filed paperwork to run for U.S. Senate in Maryland, according to Federal Election Commission Filings.

Manning, 30, would be challenging Sen. Ben Cardin, a Democrat who has served two terms and is up for reelection in November. The filing states that Manning is running as a Democrat. According to Manning's website, she currently lives in the D.C. suburbs of Maryland; The Washington Post says Manning lives in North Bethesda.

Manning was sentenced to serve 35 years in prison but former President Barack Obama commuted her sentence last year. The commutation was criticized by some, including President Trump, who tweeted shortly after his inauguration, "ungrateful TRAITOR Chelsea Manning, who should never have been released from prison, is now calling President Obama a weak leader. Terrible!"

The day after her sentencing, Manning revealed that she was a transgender woman. Manning's time in prison had come under scrutiny and her alleged mistreatment led her to attempt suicide twice. Her incarceration was complicated by the fact that she is a transgender woman serving time at a male military penitentiary.

When her commutation was announced, Manning said that when released she wanted to give back to help the trans community. Manning is a progressive activist and writes on various issues including transparency, free speech and civil liberties.

In September, Manning was invited as a visiting fellow to Harvard University but the fellowship was revoked after the university received backlash.

In 2010, Manning was arrested after she provided nearly 750,000 documents to Wikileaks that included documents about the war efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan, State Department cables, and information about prisoners in Guantanamo Bay.

When reached by Washington Post reporters at her home, Manning declined to comment on her candidacy, but said she might release a statement next week. “Our only statement on the record is, ‘No statement’,” Manning said.

Cardin, who served 20 years combine in the Maryland House of Delegates and the U.S. House of Representatives before winning the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Paul Sarbanes in 2007, had an approval rating of 50 percent in October, The Baltimore Sun reports.

Last year, Manning wrote a column for The Guardian opposing compromise in politics. “We need to stop asking them to give us our rights,” she wrote, says the Sun. “We need to actually take the reins of government and fix our institutions.”

Todd Eberly, a political science professor at St. Mary’s College, told the Post Manning is likely to campaign as an unabashed progressive. “We live in a world now where the old rules of politics don’t seem to matter anymore,” Eberly said. “We don’t care about experience and qualifications. We seem to care about how a candidate makes us feel.”

Maryland’s primary election will be held June 26. The general election is Nov. 6.

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