Whistleblower Chelsea Manning seeks US senate seat

Chelsea Manning, the whistleblower jailed for leaking classified information in the US, is seeking election in the state of Maryland.

A federal election commission document filed on Thursday lists Chelsea Elizabeth Manning of North Bethesda, Maryland, as a Democrat candidate for the US senate.

Ms Manning, now 30, was an army intelligence analyst sentenced to 35 years in prison in 2013 for leaking more than 700,000 classified documents related to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Her revelations exposed covered-up misdeeds and possible crimes by US troops and allies.

Her actions made Ms Manning a hero to anti-war and anti-secrecy activists but US establishment figures branded her a traitor.

She yesterday confirmed she was running and posted a campaign video on her Twitter account.

The video features a voice over from the whistleblower. Running over images of protests, rallies, and US president Donald Trump, Ms Manning says: “We live in trying times, times of fear, of suppression, hate. We don’t need more or better leaders, we need someone willing to fight.

“We need to stop asking them to give us our rights. They won’t support us, they won’t compromise. We need to stop expecting that our systems will some how fix themselves.”

The voiceover continues: “We need to actually take the reins of power from them. We need to challenge them at every level. We need to fix this. We don’t need them any more. We can do better. You’re damned right we got this.”

The video then highlights the hashtag Ms Manning is tying to her campaign: #wegotthis. She also posted a link to a website where supporters could donate to her campaign.

Barack Obama, when he was still the US president, commuted Ms Manning’s sentence, leading to her release from prison in May. The constitution does allow US citizens who have a criminal record to run for Congress.

The only qualifications to run for US Senate in Maryland is to be at least 30 years old, to have held US citizenship for at least nine years and the candidate is required to live in the state at the time of the election.

The Democratic senate incumbent is Ben Cardin, who was first elected in 2006 and is the senior Democrat on the senate foreign relations Committee.

Ms Manning is a transgender woman, and was known as Bradley Manning at the time of the leaks.

President Donald Trump said that Ms Manning is a traitor.

Barack Obama, when US president, commuted Chelsea Manning’s sentence, leading to her release in May