Chelsea Manning will run for the U.S. Senate in Maryland.
The transgender former soldier who was convicted of leaking classified documents filed her statement of candidacy with the Federal Election Commission on Thursday.
The Washington Post reported Saturday that Manning will challenge Democrat Ben Cardin. He has served two terms and is an overwhelming favorite to win.
The 30-year-old Manning listed a North Bethesda address in her FEC filing. She is running as a Democrat.
Manning was convicted of leaking classified information and spent more than six years behind bars.
She has been lauded as a whistleblower by some and condemned as a traitor by others for leaking hundreds of thousands of classified government documents to WikiLeaks in 2010 while still known as Pte. 1st Class Bradley Manning, a U.S. military intelligence analyst.
Manning came out publicly as transgender in 2013, shortly after being convicted on 20 charges including violations of the Espionage Act, theft and computer fraud.
President Barack Obama granted clemency to Manning before leaving office.
At the time she said she wanted to expose what she considered to be the U.S. military's disregard for how the Iraq War was affecting civilians.
