A Star Is Born: Can a Viral Video Help an Underdog Congressional Candidate Win in New Hampshire?

Chinese immigrant and GOP congressional candidate from New Hampshire, Lily Tang Williams, is hoping her newfound fame and Sunday’s endorsement from Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will propel her to a dark horse win.Ms. Tang Williams went viral on X over the weekend for a video clip that shows her slamming her Democratic opponent, Maggie Goodlander, for calling herself a renter when she owns a $2 million home at Portsmouth. The heated exchange came at a debate Thursday when Ms. Goodlander accused Ms. Tang Williams of favoring tax breaks for the wealthy and corporations at the expense of hardworking Americans.“You are wealthy,” Ms. Tang Williams says in the clip. “You’re worth between $20 million to $30 million, how do you know about regular people 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 DC insiders,” Ms. Tang Williams continues. “I don’t have money to run a TV ad, and you pretend you are poor, complain rent is so high. You could have saved that apartment for other people to rent in Nashua. Just go back to your $2 million home in Portsmouth.”The clip likely caught fire because of Ms. Goodlander’s connections to power. She is from a wealthy New Hampshire family and is the wife of President Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan. Lily Tang Williams as a child in China. Courtesy of Lily Tang WilliamsMs. Goodlander is worth tens of millions of dollars that she inherited, including reportedly millions in real estate holdings. Hillary Clinton did a reading at her wedding. Several members of the Soros family donated the maximum to her campaign.Ms. Tang Williams, by contrast, speaks with a thick Chinese accent and says she fled Communist China in 1988 with only $100 in her pocket. She and her husband are now also millionaires, but Ms. Tang Williams says that she’s self-made and that the criticism of Ms. Goodlander isn’t about her wealth, it’s about the “hypocrisy.”“I’m a capitalist. I’m not against the rich,” Ms. Tang Williams tells The New York Sun. “I love free market capitalism. I respect people who made their money, become successful in this country. I just don’t like hypocrisy.”Ms. Tang Williams says blaming her for inflation or for favoring the wealthy is “just repeating DNC talking points.” A libertarian-leaning Republican and Free Stater, Ms. Tang Williams has had to fend off accusations that she is “extreme” the whole campaign. Her direct, no-nonsense style, though, is now winning her praise.Ms. Tang Williams already had a large social media following for her 2nd Amendment, anti-communist, and free speech advocacy in libertarian and Republican circles, but the video catapulted her to a new stratosphere. She went to nearly 200,000 followers on X from 80,000 in just two days. Mr. Kennedy, Vivek Ramaswamy, Riley Gaines, and others with large social media accounts posted the debate clip with positive commentary about Ms. Tang Williams over the weekend. The surge in interest in her, though, is likely coming too late. Ms. Goodlander is leading in the polls by 11 points, according to the Real Clear Politics average. Thursday’s WMUR debate was one of only two debates in the election cycle, and both occurred last week. Ms. Tang Williams has criticized Ms. Goodlander for refusing to participate in additional debates.The Goodlander campaign declined to speak with the Sun but said by email that they had agreed to “multiple debates scheduled before the General Election.”Ms. Tang Williams says Mr. Kennedy’s endorsement was an unexpected honor. She says he messaged her on X on Sunday to call him. In their phone call, Mr. Kennedy said he was impressed by her debate performance and wanted to endorse her. He released an endorsement video that night that also went viral.In the video, Mr. Kennedy calls Ms. Goodlander the “Queen of the neocons” and chastises her husband as the “architect” of the Ukraine War. “If you want to end foreign wars, if you want to end the surveillance and censorship, if you want to restore our constitutional rights, please vote for Lily Tang Williams,” Mr. Kennedy says.Ms. Tang Williams says all the attention is giving her more name recognition, which she hopes will translate to votes.“I can win tomorrow night,” Ms. Tang Williams says. “But I would tell people I’m already a winner by giving national traction to my debate. I’m going to continue to fight for the regular people and for the American values.”__________Correction: 1988 is the year Ms. Tang Williams fled Communist China. An earlier version misstated the year.

A Star Is Born: Can a Viral Video Help an Underdog Congressional Candidate Win in New Hampshire?

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