Chelsea Manning, the former Army private convicted of leaking classified government documents to WikiLeaks, is running for the U.S. Senate in Maryland.
Manning, a 30-year-old transgender woman born as Bradley, filed candidacy paperwork with the Federal Elections Commission on Thursday, the Washington Post reported.
She was convicted in 2013 of 20 counts for releasing more than 700,000 classified government documents and sentenced to 35 years in prison — the longest sentence ever imposed in a leak case. She was released in May last year after serving seven years, when President Obama granted her clemency.
Some praise her as a hero for fighting government secrecy. Others, including President Trump, bill her a traitor for releasing documents from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and Guantánamo.
She moved to Maryland following her time in a Kansas military prison, and has made headlines constantly since.
She posed in a swimsuit for Vogue in August, shared her beauty secrets in an article for Yahoo!, penned columns about transgender rights and government transparency for The Guardian, and rode on an ACLU float in the NYC Pride Parade in June.
She is also an outspoken, and often divisive figure, on social media. On Law Enforcement Appreciation Day this week, she tweeted, “F- – k the police.”
Manning would face-off with incumbent Democrat Ben Cardin, who has served two terms and is up for re-election in November.
https://nypost.com/2018/01/13/chelsea-manning-is-running-for-us-senate/
