Lily Tang Williams
Lily Tang Williams is an American activist, businesswoman, 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 losing the general election as the Republican nominee to 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. She is again running for the U.S. House of Representatives in New Hampshire's 2nd congressional district in 2026.
Early life and education
Lily Tang Williams was born on July 30, 1964, in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province in southwestern 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 but excelled in school, graduating at the top of her high school class and placing near the top of China's national exams.After high school, Tang 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 emigrating 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 earned a Master of Science in Social Work from the University of Texas at Austin. She became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1994.
Business career
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, Williams started a consulting firm to help American companies conduct business in China and provide expert witness services on China-related matters. In 2009 she and her husband launched a rental property investment and management company that operates in New Hampshire, Nevada, Florida, and Colorado. She is also a public speaker for the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. She 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, 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.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.
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. 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, 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.