The top two campaign officials for longshot Democratic presidential candidate Marianne Williamson resigned over the weekend.
Jason Call, the campaign's deputy manager, told POLITICO on Monday that he left Williamson’s team on Friday. That came after campaign manager Peter Daou announced last Saturday on Twitter that he was leaving the campaign “after much consideration,” about one month into the job.
A Williamson campaign staffer confirmed to POLITICO that Daou and Call left the campaign, but said it was a mutually agreed-upon decision after Williamson's campaign leaned into a more progressive direction.
“The campaign is just moving in a different direction,” a Williamson campaign staffer granted anonymity to discuss campaign dynamics told POLITICO. The staffer elaborated that Daou “comes from a background of what you would call traditional Democratic politics, and Marianne is looking for something a bit more innovative.”
In an interview with POLITICO, Daou said it's "categorically false" that the campaign was too progressive for him. He declined to talk about any other internal campaign discussions or decision making.
Daou has worked for several presidential campaigns, starting as communications advisor to John Kerry in 2004, then was the head of Hillary Clinton’s 2008 online operation and was a dedicated Clinton advocate in 2016. Daou then moved into the Bernie Sanders camp in the 2020 primary before “QUITTING” the Democratic Party that year, which he also announced on Twitter.
When Daou joined the Williamson campaign, he said that her campaign was the “BEST opportunity” to fight against a corrupt political system, a theme the Williamson often discusses on the campaign trail.
Since resigning, he’s publishedtweets that suggest he's interested in supporting a third-party presidential campaign. Despite these tweets, the Williamson campaign staffer said Daou will continue working with her as an advisor.
Call, who is also running as a Green Party candidate for Washington’s 2nd congressional district, declined an interview request for this story. Call announced on Twitter that the Green Party raised money for the filing fee the day after his resignation, but he is not yet officially declared with the FEC.
In a joint statement from Daou and the Williamson campaign, Daou cites "urgent family obligations” for his departure from the campaign. The statement makes no reference to his third-party support. It also refers to him as both the deputy campaign manager and then later the interim campaign manager. Daou referred to himself as campaign manager in his tweets.
Roza Calderon will take over as Williamson’s campaign manager, according to the staffer, who added that Daou had a hand in naming his replacement. Calderon is a former Sanders 2020 presidential campaign surrogate. She was most recently the executive director of Future Generations, a grassroots organizing group with an affiliated PAC that supports progressive candidates.
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