Lily Williams

Lily Williams was born in Chengdu, China, and in a 2022 Ballotpedia survey she describes growing up in China's Sichuan province during the Cultural Revolution.[2] She earned a bachelor's degree from Fudan University in 1985 and says she then joined the Fudan law faculty as an assistant professor and practiced corporate law in Shanghai.[2] She says she left China in 1988 to study at the University of Texas at Austin, where she earned a graduate degree in 1991; she describes it as a master's in administration and planning from the School of Social Work.[2]

Williams describes working as a medical social worker for Wyoming Home Health, then as an executive for corporations in Hong Kong and the United States, and later as a self-employed consultant and expert witness in China-related business and legal cases. Ballotpedia also lists work as a buyer's agent and business owner, and she and her husband manage residential rental properties they own.[2]

Williams ran as a Libertarian for the Colorado House of Representatives in 2014 and for U.S. Senate in Colorado in 2016. In the 2022 survey she described herself as chair of the New Hampshire Asian American Coalition and an elected Supervisor of the Checklist in Weare, New Hampshire.[2] She finished third (24.6%) in the 2022 Republican primary for New Hampshire's 2nd District, won the Republican nomination in 2024, and lost the November 2024 general election to Maggie Goodlander, 47.0% to 52.9%. She won the September 8, 2026 Republican primary with 64.9% and was on the November 3, 2026 ballot.[2] Her campaign materials described a government-reform platform including congressional term limits.[2] She received 38.8% of the vote to Maggie Goodlander's 58.8%, according to unofficial results reported by NBC News.[1]