Marianne Williamson has more than capitalized on the limited speaking time she received during the first round of Democratic presidential primary debates.
The best-selling spiritual author and philanthropist has become a political-cultural phenomenon of sorts since her Miami debut a week ago. Her charismatic and unconventional performance -- including a platform of "love" and a rejection of pesky things like policy details -- was a smash on social media. According to Google Trends, she also was the most-searched candidate during the second night of back-to-back debates.
And a top Williamson political adviser told Fox News that traffic skyrocketed on her campaign website, boasting of a “substantial increase” in online donations following her Thursday night debate performance.
SNL'S KATE MCKINNON DEBUTS MARIANNE WILLIAMSON IMITATION
Best yet – and a true sign she’s grabbing recognition – the long-shot contender for the nomination was imitated soon after the debate by Saturday Night Live’s Kate McKinnon.
Does it all mean America's political mood ring will change in her favor?
Maybe not. Post-debate polling show she's still barely registering, as heavyweights like Sens. Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren rise out of their debate performances.
But at least people know who she is now. Technically, Williamson had the third-least speaking time of the 10 candidates at Thursday night’s debate – and she didn’t get a word in until nearly 30 minutes into the two-hour showdown that also featured former Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg.
What she did say went viral, however.
“You have harnessed fear for political purposes and only love can cast that out,” Williamson declared on the debate stage as she targeted President Trump. “So I, sir, I have a feeling you know what you're doing. I'm going to harness love for political purposes. I will meet you on that field. And, sir, love will win.”
And taking a shot at her rivals for the nomination, Williamson countered that “it's really nice if we've got all these plans, but if you think we're going to beat Donald Trump by just having all these plans, you've got another thing coming, because he didn't win by saying he had a plan. He won by simply saying make America great again.”
WILLIAMSON'S BIZARRE PLEDGE TO CALL NEW ZEALAND'S LEADER
Williamson also had people scratching their heads after the moderators asked her and the other candidates what their first priority would be in the Oval Office.
"My first call would be to the Prime Minister of New Zealand, who said that her goal is to make New Zealand the place where it's the best place in the world for a child to grow up," Williamson said. "And I'm going to tell her, 'girlfriend, you are so on', because the United States of America is going to be the best place in the world for a child to grow up."
Each time she spoke, Google says search interest surged online.
The attention, though, also has Williamson pushing back on the caricature of her that swiftly formed.
“I actually don't loathe plans,” the candidate tweeted about 24 hours after the debate ended as she linked to a Rolling Stone article headlined "Marianne Williamson is the Cosmic Sorceress we need now."
And she spotlighted that “for those who might think I want fairy dust to replace public policy, here is the Issues page from my campaign site. Please peruse for any signs of extra-terrestrial influence.”
Campaigning in Iowa this past weekend, she acknowledged that "I know I sounded silly saying plans don't matter.”
"I'm a practical woman,” she added. “I understand there are practical things that must be done."
Noting the jokes ribbing her on social media, Williamson highlighted her issues, saying “I want that $15 an hour minimum wage, I want to have a Medicare available, I want to have free college and state universities, and I want to have an eradication of that college loan debt. But to me, that’s not where it ends, that’s where it begins.”
WILLIAMSON CLAIMS HER MIC WAS TURNED OFF
And she continues to fight for attention, recently sounding off at Vogue magazine for a photo shoot of female candidates that excluded her.
Williamson, meanwhile, claims that one of the reasons she was silent much of the debate was that her microphone was silenced at times.
“As much fun as I've had laughing at all the understandable hilarious tweets about me today, the mic issue is not funny and yes it did happen," Williamson tweeted. "I tried a couple of times to jump in and my mic was not on. Particularly wanted in on the subject of race."
Entrepreneur Andrew Yang, who grabbed even less speaking time than Williamson, also argued that his mic was silenced at times.
NBC, which produced and televised the debate, said that “at no point during the debate was any candidate's microphone turned off or muted."
With or without mic issues, Williamson got attention. Senior campaign adviser and former congressman from New Hampshire Paul Hodes told Fox News that “we saw an enormous increase in our website traffic after Miami, something like an 850 percent increase in website traffic. So the buzz was both all around the Internet but it was also on our website.”
And Hodes – who also serves as New Hampshire state director – also pointed to the “very concrete policy proposals set out on her website” where he noted that “people can understand there’s a lot of substance behind everything Marianne says.”
He highlighted that “there appeared a substantial increase in traffic to our website and also for online contributions,” and predicted she’ll probably have more screen time in the second debate.
While the increase in web traffic is crucial to the campaign, a Kate McKinnon imitation is priceless.
“She was a shining comet,” McKinnon noted during an appearance on ‘Late Night with Seth Meyers.’
“Gosh, I wish there was an SNL show this week,” she lamented.
And breaking into an imitation, McKinnon said “my plan is to gather all the sage in America and burn it. My plan is to harness the energy of babies to finally put a man on the moon. And I said to the president of New Zealand, I said ‘girlfriend you’re so on.’ And I will say to Donald Trump ‘boyfriend, you chill.’”