At an Oct. 14 event hosted by the Rockefeller Center for Public Policy in its 2026 Midterms series, Republican nominee for New Hampshire’s 2nd Congressional district Lily Tang Williams spoke about her campaign priorities.
Tang Williams defeated Victor Orlando and Dan Nicholson in the Republican primary on Sept. 8, receiving 64.9% of the vote. She will face incumbent Rep. Maggie Goodlander, D-N.H., in the general election on Nov. 3, a rematch of their 2024 contest in which Goodlander defeated Tang Williams with 52.9% of the vote to 47.0%.
The event was moderated by Rockefeller Center director and government professor Jason Barabas ’93 and Dartmouth Turning Point USA founder and president Vittorio Bloyer ’28. Approximately 50 people attended in person, while the livestreamed recording of the event had about 350 views, according to Rockefeller Center director for public programs and special events Dvora Greenberg Koelling.
At the event, Tang Williams said balancing the federal budget is one of her “biggest priorities” because it is an issue of affordability.
“It’ll bring down the interest rates, mortgage rates, and you can start a business and you can afford to buy a house,” she said.
Tang Williams said she supports a “six-penny” approach to balancing the budget, similar to a plan introduced by Sen. Rand Paul, R-K.Y., to cut 6% of federal spending per year for five years.
Tang Williams said these budget cuts would occur “across the board” and include reductions in entitlement programs — including Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid — whose funding is set by law rather than through annual appropriations. These programs make up about 60% of the federal budget, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center.
In addition, Tang Williams pointed to the “waste, fraud and abuse” in the annual Congressional budget appropriations process. Tang Williams said she supports a “zero-based” budgeting process, where all spending must be justified from a baseline of zero dollars, not from the previous year’s spending.
Tang Williams criticized the “spend it or lose it” practice in which federal agencies rush to use up their remaining funds at the end of a budget cycle to avoid losing them the following year.
“That’s crazy,” she said. “It’s our money.”
Tang Williams also discussed several ethics reforms she supports, including a ban on individual stock trading, term limits for members of Congress and restrictions on “revolving door” lobbying practices, in which former public employees transition to private consulting firms and can potentially use internal government information. In an interview with The Dartmouth before the event, Tang Williams said she believes there is widespread corruption in Congress that requires legislation to reform.
“If they trade individual stocks, they are serving themselves, not serving the people,” she said. “When they work with lobbyists on their bills to give special interest goodies, they’re not serving us.”
Tang Williams, a strong supporter of gun rights who has expressed support for nationwide “constitutional carry” — the right to carry a concealed handgun without a permit — in a previous interview with The Dartmouth, told the audience on Oct. 14 that she was “very scared” when she first shot a gun but now feels “empowered.”
“When you feel empowered, you feel like you are no longer a slave, and you can defend yourself and your family,” Tang Williams said at the event.
When asked if she would support legislation that requires President Donald Trump to halt military action in Iran, Tang Williams said that while she believes Iran “should not have” nuclear weapons, she would support a war powers resolution forcing the president to seek congressional approval to continue the Iran War.
“War is a last resort for us to go to after we exhaust all other diplomatic and economic means and work with our allies in the world,” she said. “Congressional authority to declare war is absolutely needed if we’re going to continue this way.”
In response to an audience question about her past involvement with the Libertarian Party— including a 2016 run for U.S. Senate in Colorado — Tang Williams emphasized her political independence and commitment to New Hampshire voters.
Tang Williams was a member of the Republican Party until 2008, when she became “upset” over the government’s response to the financial crisis and the passage of Patriot Act, the post-9/11 law that expanded government surveillance powers. She later returned to the Republican Party in 2019 after struggling to get her message out as a Libertarian, she said.
“I’m an independent voice for you,” Tang Williams told the audience. “I don’t put my party over principles; I put my principles over party.”
Mary Sherrard ’28, who asked Tang Williams whether the federal government should regulate prediction markets — open financial platforms where users make bets on real-world events — told The Dartmouth in an interview after the event that she “really liked how she responded to my question when she didn’t know what prediction markets [were].”
“She said she would look into it, that she would check it out, and offered to come back with an answer at some other time which is, I think, the right way to do it,” she said.
Audience member Jeremiah Watson of Merrimack, N.H., told The Dartmouth he has been a supporter of Tang Williams since a “viral debate moment” in her 2024 campaign, in which Tang Williams told Goodlander to “go back to your $2 million home in Portsmouth.”
“I’m a big supporter of firearm freedom, and I also really like her stance on low taxes — she wants to let us keep as much of our money as we possibly can,” he said.
In the interview with The Dartmouth before the event, Tang Williams presented herself as a self-made alternative to Goodlander who understands “regular people.”
“She repeats her party talking points, and I am a plain speaker. I don't use fancy language.” Tang Williams said. She went on to say that Goodlander “was born on third base and thinks she hit a triple.”
Tang Williams, an immigrant from China, said Goodlander has “never suffered poverty and hunger like me.” She said her story, from arriving in America “$1,200 in debt” to her sponsor to becoming a “successful entrepreneur,” is “inspirational to young people.”
“If I can do that, anyone can do that — anyone can live their American dream,” she said.
Goodlander’s office did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication.
Teo Steverlynck-Horne is a reporter from Maine studying economics and government.
