Lindy Li, a former Democratic fundraiser who left the party after her warnings about then-President s decline went unheeded during the 2024 campaign, says Democrats leadership vacuum has helped fuel the Democratic Socialists of Americas string of victories in 2026.
“Theyre a metastasizing cancer,” Li told Fox News Digital in an interview.
“I had a birds-eye view from the beginning, you know, [to] the ascent of the DSA â power abhors a vacuum. Theyre simply filling a vacuum. Theres no one there.”
According to Li, the DSA has pressured candidates for years to push their platforms further and further left â a process she said she experienced firsthand when, in 2018, she tried to run for Congress herself. Li, who is publishing a new book titled “Unburdened” later this year, believes its one of the many layers of how the DSA and socialists have emerged as a force to be reckoned with within the Democratic Party in 2026.
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In her own experience, the DSAs pressure came in the form of a questionnaire.
“These over-educated bums, which populated the DSA â that’s what they are â basically forced me to adopt its platform by handing me a questionnaire and saying, everyone in this congressional race must fill out this questionnaire,” Li recalled.
At the time, in 2018, Li said she felt like she didnt have a choice but to fill out the form and didnt expect the answers to stick with her. She was running for Pennsylvanias 5th Congressional District.
“That’s what they do. I don’t know if Americans are familiar with that, but that’s how they enforce compliance. They hand you these candidate questionnaires, you fill it out, and so your name is forever attached. It even made it to my Wikipedia page. So now on my Wikipedia page it has me as some tree-hugging, marijuana-supporting whatever. I said none of that. They just grabbed it from the questionnaire,” Li said.
She recalled that other candidates in the field also filled out the form.
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When asked if she was surprised that more DSA candidates had enjoyed success even against incumbent opponents, Li pointed to the state of the establishment and a clear lack of momentum among its more veteran figures.
“Think about it, at this point in time, in the election cycle, in 2006, we knew who the candidate was likely going to be, Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton,” Li said.
“Barack Obama had already given his There’s no blue state, there’s no red state, there’s only United States of America speech. We knew he was gonna be a presidential candidate. Who’s the candidate this time? We don’t know.”
Li also pointed an accusatory finger at Ken Martin, the chair of the Democratic Party. In her view, the DSA looks stronger in light of
