Marianne Williamson: ‘You don’t even know what misogyny is until you’ve been a woman running for president’

In second presidential bid, Williamson is running a more grounded campaign - as a political outsider appalled at how America's political elites have ignored the needs of ordinary people

A penthouse-gym in north-west Washington DC served as a campaign stage for the long-shot Democratic presidential candidate Marianne Williamson last week. Athleisure-clad political consultants came and went, as if typecast from a political TV drama. The Washington monument poked between buildings in the distance.

Williamson is far from an average political candidate, even in the modern era of American politics where it often feels much of what was once unthinkable has become a scary new normal. She is not a politician, but instead an author and wellness guru, whose quixotic first tilt at the White House four years ago was far from successful but saw her grace the Democratic debates and score a viral hit with her message to Donald Trump that she would harness love" to defeat him.