By Gabriel Perry-The Laconia Daily Sun
Lily Tang Williams, a Republican with strong libertarian leanings, is running against Democrat Maggie Goodlander for the congressional seat in District 2. She lives in Weare and runs Middle Kingdom Estates, a real estate and property management firm. She obtained a law degree in China, her home country, and serves in court as an expert witness on Chinese affairs. She’s also a professional speaker.
Q: What is your position on abortion policy?
Lily Tang Williams: I truly believe this is a state issue, I would not vote at the federal level either for, against or in between. I want the federal government not to get involved in lots of state issues, and I trust the people in New Hampshire to vote and decide on this issue through their representative government. Right now we have legal abortion access up to six months in the pregnancy.
I always wanted to empower women to make well-informed decisions when it comes to this critical, crisis time in their lives, and I want the private charities to help them out. There are lots of crisis pregnancy centers that will help the young ladies and women who need financial assistance and counseling, but, fundamentally, it’s not a federal issue.”
We need to have more compassion for both sides involved on this issue, which is a woman, mother and unborn child which has no voice. So let’s, this country come together to reach common ground and not to make a federal issue at all because it’s very divisive.
Q: Is there any climate change legislation that you would support in Congress?
Lily Tang Williams: Climate change is real because it is actually constantly changing. I believe Americans are the most friendly environmental-loving people in the world — it’s not China.
I would like to see the environment to be clean, to be protected. But we also do not want to have lots of mandates to destroy jobs creation and the economy, and the government mandates sometimes will jack up prices and make inflation even more horrible when the young people, right now, already cannot afford lots of things — that’s the No. 1 issue right now on the minds of lots of people in [the 2nd Congressional District].
Lily Tang Williams photo by Jennifer Hauck/Valley News
At the federal level, of course, I have to see exactly what comes up. The devil is always in the details, so I have to read individual bills. Young people might not realize there are lots of bills in Congress — they do not give you enough time to read it, and it’s drafted by special interests and lobbyists with leadership. Doesn’t matter which party; I always tell people the truth.
Q: How do you think you’d be able to increase available housing stock in New Hampshire and across the country and keep costs affordable for middle- and low-income earners?
Lily Tang Williams: Many of my volunteers live in the basement with their mom and dad or rent a cheap room from their family. They feel like they cannot afford to rent or buy to move out and they have no shot at the American dream, which is very sad because I have lived the American dream. When you have a very limited supply but you have a huge demand in New Hampshire, then you have a problem.
Now, with all of the illegal immigrants in our country, it will drive up even more demand for housing. You have suddenly many people here — we don’t know how many. In Massachusetts next door, they are running out of housing for them and they ship them north and as they go north, this is draining our community resources.
At the federal level, the inflation is high because the government is printing money. When they print money, flooding the market with lots of U.S. dollars, it naturally would devalue our purchasing power, so the inflation is the taxation without legislation.
Q: Would you support high tariffs on Chinese imports and, if so, do you worry that could have an inflationary effect?
Lily Tang Williams: I normally support free trade. When it comes to my native country of China, because I know what’s going on there, I know how they operate in terms of dumping stuff all over the Western countries by subsidizing their products. Most of those companies are state enterprises, so they are connected to the CCP [Chinese Community Party], and they all have to comply with CCP requirements and also provide all of the consumers' data to the government. I think it’s only justified when it comes to tariffs on Chinese products, because actually it’s involved with our national security. Our national security is at stake.
We can negotiate a lot of free trade deals with our allies. China claims to be the No. 2 largest economy in the world, but whenever their numbers come out — I always look at their numbers with some kind of caution and perspective. Their young people right now — unemployment is very high. The leader of the CCP, Xi Jingping, has a “China dream.” This is supposed to be accomplished by 2049 and it is to become the No. 1 dominant power of the global stage militarily, economically, diplomatically and technologically. They’re using the “one belt one road” initiative; it’s already all over in Africa, all over in Europe, and they infiltrate into our country very deeply, too. And they don’t like me to speak out against it; that’s why I’m on their blacklist.”
Q: What’s your view on current federal policy vis-a-vis the war between Israel and Palestine?
Lily Tang Williiams: Innocent people are the biggest victims of any wars, and under the Biden-Harris administration, I think they’ve shown the world they’re weak. I condemn the Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel, and I would like to offer the Israeli people emotional, diplomatic and moral support. At the same time, I always like to promote peace — my foreign policy is peace through strength.
Emotionally and morally, we need to support our allies and stand with them and offer cooperation, but my heart goes to all of the innocent people who are involved. We do have a role to provide humanitarian aid.
Q: What is your position on the legalization of cannabis at the federal level?
Lily Tang Williiams: Philosophically, I believe people can put some medicine, herbs, into their body — to choose that. We should not treat them as criminals, so decriminalization in our state is a good thing. At the federal level, I just don’t get why it’s been a Schedule [1] drug for years and years. It’s really caused a lot of problems between the federal government and the state governments. The federal government should actually stay out of the way of marijuana, but I do support descheduling.
These articles are being shared by partners in the Granite State News Collaborative and the Know Your Vote youth voter guide. The Know Your Vote youth voter guide project was designed, reported and produced by student and young professional journalists from The Clock, Concord Monitor, The Equinox, Granite State News Collaborative, Keene State College, Laconia Daily Sun, Monadnock Ledger-Transcript, Nashua Ink Link, and The Presidency and the Press program at Franklin Pierce University. You can see the full guide at www.collaborativenh.org/know-your-vote.