A FORMER Haverfordwest school pupil, who spent seven years in military prison after passing classified information to website Wikileaks, has announced she is running for a seat in US politics.

Chelsea Manning - formerly known as Bradley - has shared the news that she is running for the US Senate in Maryland.

"We live in trying times, times of fear— of suppression— of hate," says Chelsea in her first campaign video.

"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 somehow fix themselves.

"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 anymore. We can do better."

Chelsea was released from prison in May 2017, after outgoing president Barack Obama cut short her 35-year sentence.

The 30-year-old spent four years at Tasker Milward School in Haverfordwest, and still has family in Pembrokeshire.