• Source: Lily Tang Williams

Lily Tang Williams (born July 30, 1964) is an American activist and perennial candidate who chaired the Colorado Libertarian Party from 2015 to 2016. She unsuccessfully ran for the U.S. House of Representatives in New Hampshire's 2nd congressional district as a Republican in 2022 and 2024, losing the Republican primary in 2022 and then winning the Republican primary but losing the general election to Democratic nominee Maggie Goodlander in 2024. She was also the Libertarian nominee for the U.S. Senate in Colorado in 2016 and unsuccessfully ran for the Colorado House of Representatives as a Libertarian in 2014.




Early life and education


Lily Tang Williams was born on July 30, 1964, in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province in central China. Born to illiterate working-class parents, she grew up under the rule of Mao Zedong and her early childhood coincided with the Cultural Revolution, which lasted until Mao's death in 1976. She grew up in poverty and excelled in school, graduating at the top of her high school class and placing near the top of China's national exams.
Tang Williams studied law at Fudan University in Shanghai. While in college, she met a foreign exchange student from the United States who showed her a pocket version of the United States Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, sparking her interest in immigrating to the United States. She received a bachelor's degree in 1985 and subsequently joined the law school faculty at Fudan University and practiced corporate law while China began rebuilding its economy. She came to the United States in 1988 to study at the University of Texas at Austin, and was subsequently granted asylum. In 1991, she received a Master of Social Work from the University of Texas at Austin. She became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1994.




Business career


Tang Williams was a research assistant at the University of Texas at Austin and got a minimum wage job at a telemarketing company to improve her English skills. After finishing graduate school, she became a social worker in Laramie, Wyoming, working with troubled youth as well as seniors in Wyoming home health care business. In the late 1990s, she moved to Hong Kong with her family as an expatriate to work as a corporate executive for PREL, Inc., helping to manage Walmart's operations in China. In 1999, she moved to Parker, Colorado, to work for a telecommunications company. When the company went bankrupt in 2000, Tang Williams started a consulting firm to help American companies conduct business in China and provide expert witness services on China-related matters. She and her husband took advantage of the housing market crash and in 2008 launched a rental property management company that operates in Colorado and Nevada. She is also a public speaker for the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation and travels around the United States to give speeches about her experiences growing up in communist China.




Political career






= Colorado politics

=
Upon becoming a U.S. citizen in 1995, Tang Williams registered as a Republican after being drawn to the party's positions on limited government. However, she became disillusioned with the party due to surveillance provisions in the Patriot Act and the passage of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act and ultimately left the Republican Party to become a Libertarian in 2008.
Tang Williams served on the board of her neighborhood's homeowner association from 2000 to 2002 and chaired the board of her children's charter school in Douglas County from 2005 to 2008. She first became involved in politics during an internship for Colorado State Representative Brad Young in 2002. She was motivated to become a political activist following the election of Barack Obama. Initially speaking out against Common Core and gun control laws, she testified against new state-level gun control laws at the Colorado State Capitol in 2013.
Tang Williams was a regional coordinator for former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson's 2012 presidential campaign and supported Johnson's candidacy in 2016 after he won the Libertarian nomination. Tang Williams and her husband were both national delegates to the Libertarian National Convention in 2012 and 2016. She first ran for office in 2014 as the Libertarian candidate for the Colorado House of Representatives in House District 44, winning 6.4% of the vote.
On April 26, 2015, Tang Williams was elected chair of the Colorado Libertarian Party. She announced on January 12, 2016, that she would run for the United States Senate as a Libertarian.



2016 U.S. Senate campaign

On January 12, 2016, after resigning as chair of the Colorado Libertarian Party, Tang Williams announced her candidacy for the United States Senate in the 2016 election to unseat incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator Michael Bennet. She participated in a general election debate against Bennet and Republican nominee Darryl Glenn, becoming the first third-party candidate in recent memory to participate in such a debate in Colorado. She won 3.6% of the vote in the general election, underperforming Johnson, who won 5.2% of the vote in Colorado on the same ballot, but improving on the 2.6% Gaylon Kent won as a Libertarian in 2014.




= New Hampshire politics

=
Tang Williams, previously elected as Supervisor of Checklists in her town of Weare, New Hampshire is a co-founder and chair of the New Hampshire Asian American Coalition and sits on the advisory board of U.S. Parents Involved in Education. As a supporter of parental rights, Tang Williams argues that parents have the right to refuse mask mandates and compulsory vaccines. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she founded a women's social group in Weare, New Hampshire, to connect local women during quarantine. She endorsed Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election and has expressed questions about the results of the 2020 presidential election.



2022 congressional campaign


Tang Williams ran for the U.S. House of Representatives in New Hampshire's 2nd congressional district in the 2022 elections to unseat incumbent Democratic U.S. Representative Annie Kuster. She faced former Hillsborough County Treasurer Bob Burns and Keene Mayor George Hansel in the Republican primary. She was endorsed by Tea Party Express, a Tea Party movement organization that supports conservative candidates for state and federal office. She placed third in the primary, winning 24.9% of the vote and losing to Burns, who went on to be defeated by Kuster in the general election.



2024 congressional campaign


After the 2022 midterms, Tang Williams announced she would run again for the U.S. House of Representatives in New Hampshire's 2nd congressional district in 2024 to replace Kuster, who is retiring instead of seeking reelection. She faced Lincoln businessman Vikram Mansharamani and Hanover businessman Bill Hamlen in the Republican primary and defeated them and 10 other candidates with 35.8% of the vote. As the Republican nominee in this district, Tang Williams lost to Democratic nominee Maggie Goodlander, a former Biden White House advisor, in the general election 53.5%-46.5%.
On October 31, Williams received national attention for a remark to her opponent at a debate. In response to Goodlander’s statement about Trump’s tax policy, Williams said in part, “You are wealthy. You’re worth $20 million to $30 million. How do you know about regular people's suffering? Do you go shopping? Go to Walmart? Buy food? I talk to those people. And you pretend to be a renter in Nashua a few months ago, move back to run for this open seat with millions of dollars from Washington, D.C., insiders...I don’t have money to run a TV ad, and you pretend you are poor, complain rent is so high.” This statement made national waves and was widely circulated on social media. Williams herself is estimated to be worth between $3.8 million and $8.6 million.



Involvement with the Free State Project

In 2016, Tang Williams visited New Hampshire for the first time and signed the Free State Project pledge to move to New Hampshire and “advance liberty”. In 2019, after re-registering as a Republican, she and her husband moved to Weare, New Hampshire. Though she is not an active member of the Free State Project, she spoke at the organization's Porcupine Freedom Festival as a congressional candidate in 2024.




Personal life


Tang Williams met her husband, John Williams, on the day she arrived in the United States in 1988. They married in 1990 and have three children together. They live in Weare, New Hampshire.




References

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• Lily Tang Williams
• 2024 United States House of Representatives elections in New Hampshire
• 2022 United States House of Representatives elections in New Hampshire
• Maggie Goodlander
• 2016 United States Senate election in Colorado
• 2016 United States Senate elections
• List of Donald Trump 2024 presidential campaign political endorsements
• Libertarian Party of Colorado
• New Hampshire's 2nd congressional district
• 2024 United States House of Representatives elections