Lindy Li, a former Democratic fundraiser who broke with the party after her warnings about Joe Biden’s decline were ignored during the 2024 campaign, says the Democratic Socialists of America’s 2026 election wins are the direct result of a leadership vacuum at the top of the Democratic Party.
“They’re a metastasizing cancer,” Li told Fox News Digital.
“I had a bird’s-eye view from the beginning, you know, [to] the ascent of the DSA — power abhors a vacuum. They’re simply filling a vacuum. There’s no one there.”
Li said the DSA has spent years pushing Democratic candidates further left, a tactic she experienced herself in 2018 when she ran for Congress in Pennsylvania’s 5th Congressional District. She is publishing a book titled “Unburdened” later this year.
A Questionnaire as a Loyalty Test
Li described how the DSA forced candidates in her race to fill out a questionnaire locking them into its platform.
“These over-educated bums, which populated the DSA — that’s what they are — 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 said she felt she had no choice but to complete the form in 2018, and never expected it to follow her permanently. It did.
“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.”
She said other candidates in the same Pennsylvania race filled out identical questionnaires.
No Bench, No Leader
Asked whether she was surprised DSA-aligned candidates have beaten established incumbents, Li pointed to a Democratic Party with no obvious leader and no momentum.
“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. 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 singled out Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin, arguing the socialist wing looks stronger only because the party’s own leadership is so weak.
“We need a Democratic leader who is unforgettable, dynamic, vigorous, who can launch a compelling argument to the American people. Instead, we have this milquetoast man, who nobody remembers.”
“Keep in mind that the Democratic Party right now is so broke they put up their own headquarters up as collateral because they took out a loan. They’re broke. They have no money. Ken Martin is a joke.”
Fox News Digital reported in July that the DNC used its own headquarters building to secure a $15 million loan, according to public records, with the building’s inclusion allowing the party to draw an additional $5 million. Campaign finance records show the DNC had accumulated almost $18.5 million in debt as of June 30.
Li, who now identifies as a conservative, said she warned about the DSA’s rise even while still a Democrat.
“I did a Fox News documentary in 2020 warning against the DSA; I kid you not. I kid you not, these people have been poisonous for a very long time.”
