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Marianne Williamson’s new age-infused campaign resonates in Fairfield, Iowa.
Marianne Williamson’s new age-infused campaign resonates in Fairfield, Iowa. Photograph: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Marianne Williamson’s new age-infused campaign resonates in Fairfield, Iowa. Photograph: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

'Bringing love into politics': Marianne Williamson finds a foothold in Iowa

This article is more than 4 years old

The university town of Fairfield is a hub of transcendental meditation, progressive politics – and Williamson supporters

Marianne Williamson is the longest of long shots.

After an at-times surreal performance in the first Democratic primary debate, the self-help author turned presidential candidate has languished in the polls and failed to qualify for the third debate in September.

But in Fairfield, Iowa, a thriving town of about 10,000, she’s no joke.

In this unlikely seeming hub of transcendental meditation and progressive politics smack in the middle of midwestern farm country, where she has appeared multiple times here both before and since launching her 2020 bid, Williamson’s new age-infused campaign resonates.

Her at-times controversial spiritual teachings connect with many in this town mostly for one reason: it is home to the Maharishi University of Management, a private college affiliated with the transcendental meditation movement. According to data compiled by the New York Times earlier this month, she’s in the top three in donations received in the area – right up there with Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders.

While her candidacy is unlikely to take her to the White House, some here in Fairfield feel that the message she has brought to the campaign is one worth hearing.

“It’s all about community,” Fairfield resident David Sands said of her platform on a recent afternoon in Revelations Cafe – a coffee shop and bookstore that sells books by Williamson. “It’s all about working together.”

Williamson at the Des Moines Capital City Pride fest in June Photograph: ZUMA Press, Inc./Alamy Stock Photo

“In this very contentious time, that’s a really good message,” he added.

Fairfield residents who spoke to the Guardian have no illusions about her chances. They know she probably won’t be the next president, and they don’t even necessarily view her as their preferred candidate; Sands, for instance, is an ardent Sanders supporter. But the community’s fondness for Williamson – while much of the country has treated her campaign as a political novelty act – is illustrative of the town’s unique political culture – particularly in Iowa, where the crowded field of Democratic candidates have spent months barnstorming ahead of next year’s caucus.

Though the state as a whole went for Donald Trump in 2016, it also has a strong progressive tradition. Barack Obama won its six electoral votes in both 2008 and 2012, and Sanders lost only narrowly to Hillary Clinton at the caucus last cycle. But Fairfield seems uniquely progressive – an area that served as Sanders’ strongest base of support in the state during the last primary – and willing to consider nontraditional political candidates who may be disregarded by the national media.

Located in south-eastern Iowa, just a little ways up the road from the farmhouse painter Grant Wood immortalized in American Gothic, Fairfield is a small town with a big reputation.

With its thriving startup culture, it has been lovingly described by some as “Silicorn Valley”. With its university, founded by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in 1973, it has become a hub for mindfulness and transcendental meditation. It’s been profiled by major media outlets, including the New York Times and the Washington Post, and was even the focus of an Oprah Winfrey program in 2012. And with the attention has come a wave of presidential candidates, including Williamson, Sanders, Pete Buttigieg, Beto O’Rourke, Cory Booker and Tulsi Gabbard – another controversial long shot whose message has resonated with some voters here.

“She’s ahead of her time,” Fairfield resident Mary Tarnoff said of the Hawaii representative.

Williamson, at the Iowa State Fair in August about to hit The Soapbox . Photograph: Michael Brochstein/ZUMA Wire/REX/Shutterstock

Implicit in some of the coverage of Fairfield is the notion that transcendental meditation drives the town’s tendency toward progressive politics and respect for less traditional political figures.

“People who meditate naturally find themselves wanting things to move,” Sands said. “They want their business to grow. They want the environment to improve, their community to be beautiful and fun to be in and safe and all those other things, and so they’re more inclined to be active in that way. Whereas, yeah, some of the other towns in Iowa that are more dominated by tradition – tradition means pretty much the same. But the world is changing. And that’s where it doesn’t work for them so well.

“There’s a vitality that exists to a considerable degree here because of that,” he said.

But Jonas Magram of Climate Action Iowa rejects the notion that transcendental meditation is a driving factor in the town’s progressive disposition. “TM doesn’t turn you into a liberal,” the Fairfield resident said, noting that some practitioners of TM in town are conservative and some of the area’s progressives do not meditate.

Instead, Magram points to the fact that many residents here are from elsewhere – including from coastal cities more known for progressive politics than the corn belt.

“When people moved here in the 70s and early 80s, it was like most small towns in Iowa,” Magram said. “We had to get creative to support ourselves. So a lot of entrepreneurism sprung out of necessity.”

David Goodman, a professor at Maharishi who has lived in Fairfield for more than three decades, is originally from Canada. He was a precinct captain for Sanders last election, and has been impressed with him, Warren and Pete Buttigieg so far this cycle.

But he also has affection for Williamson, even as he regards her prospects as unlikely.

“She talks about wisdom and bringing love into politics,” he said. “When people meditate, there is some idea that they’re increasing in wisdom. A lot of people here connect with that and relate to that.”

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