Li was born in Chengdu, Sichuan, China, moved to Sheffield, England at age three, and immigrated with her family to the United States when she was five years old.[2] She spent much of her childhood in Malvern, Pennsylvania.[3] Li attended the Agnes Irwin School, a private college-preparatory day school for girls, graduating in 2008.[4] Her father is a real estate executive. Li has a younger brother named Jeffrey.[5] In high school, Li interned for Pennsylvania Congressman and 2020 Presidential Candidate, Joe Sestak.
Li attended Princeton University and was elected class president at age 17. She became the first woman at Princeton to hold the position of class president for all four years. At Princeton, she started the "Do It In the Dark" campaign, which encouraged students around the country to reduce their carbon footprint.[5] She wrote her senior thesis on the ethics of climate change legislation and graduated in 2012 with a philosophy degree.[6] At Commencement, Li addressed Princeton's graduating Class of 2012 as their four-time Class President.[7]
In 2016, at age 25, Li became a candidate for Pennsylvania's 7th congressional district. She was the youngest female congressional candidate in U.S. history.[8][10] Three months before the Democratic primary, she transferred her candidacy to the 6th congressional district, citing advice from party leaders.[8] Li withdrew her candidacy in April 2016, after a court challenge that she did not have enough signatures from registered Democrats in her own district.[11]
Li serves as a political contributor for NBC News and MSNBC.[15] Li also hosted a weekly TV series, Listening with Lindy Li, which aired on cable television in the Philadelphia area. On her show she interviewed various figures including members of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, the former CEO of Comcast, David L. Cohen, and others. Li was featured in a 2020 Fox News documentary titled My Socialism Nightmare.[16]
Li previously served as the Treasurer for the Pennsylvania Young Democrats from 2017 to 2020. Li resigned the post after conflict with group leaders over her Twitter posts critical of Bernie Sanders and his supporters.[17] Li alleged her resignation was a real-life example of bullying by Bernie Bros; the club president denied this, saying that her resignation was voluntary.[18][19]
Alongside Aftab Pureval, the Mayor of Cincinnati, Ohio, Li co-chairs the Justice Unites Us Super PAC, a multi-million dollar political action committee that focuses specifically on increasing Asian-American turnout across the country, particularly in battleground states.[22] In 2022, she was named by City & State Pennsylvania as one of the rising stars of Philadelphia.[23] In both 2022 and 2023, she was named by City & State Pennsylvania as one of the 100 most powerful women in the state and was both times one of the youngest to make the list.[24]
In August 2023, Li was appointed by Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro as a Commissioner of Pennsylvania, serving on the Governor's Advisory Commission on Asian American and Pacific Islander Affairs. She also serves on the DNC's National Finance Committee.
^Tamari, Jonathan (January 6, 2016). "Congressional candidate makes district switch". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Archived from the original on March 10, 2016. Retrieved March 14, 2020. Democrat Lindy Li now plans to run in the Chester County-based Sixth District, after beginning her campaign last summer for the seat in the Delaware County-based Seventh.
^"News Post". The Agnes Irwin School. Retrieved March 8, 2020.
^ abLoftus, Lauren (August 14, 2015). "The congressional kid: How a millennial plans to make it to the Capitol". Washington Post. Retrieved March 14, 2020. She started a campus-wide initiative to curb excessive energy use called Do It in the Dark. She thought about going to law school — a means to an eventual end in politics — but landed a high-paying job in finance instead.
^"Lindy Li". American Association for Cancer Research (AACR). Retrieved April 13, 2022.
^"An Exclusive Interview with Lindy Li, The Youngest Female Congressional Candidate in U.S. History". Cornell Business Review. December 22, 2019. Retrieved March 8, 2020. In high school, I interned for my Congressman, and right now I'm a political contributor for MSNBC and NBC News. MSNBC is a TV channel, and NBC News publishes news articles online and is also one of the nation's foremost broadcasting networks. I also help lead Asian-American political and fundraising efforts for the Biden campaign.
^Otterbein, Holly (May 4, 2018). "A Q&A with Lindy Li, an ex-wealth manager running for Congress PA#5". Philadelphia Inquirer. Retrieved March 14, 2020. Li, 27, supports Medicare-for-All, debt-free college and a ban on assault weapons. She is one of 10 Democrats in the primary for Pennsylvania's Fifth District, which is largely based in Delaware County but also includes part of Philadelphia and Montgomery County.
^"The New Pennsylvania Congressional Map, District by District". New York Times. February 19, 2018. Retrieved March 14, 2020. The old moose-and-antlers-like Seventh District might have been the most gerrymandered district in the nation...The new Fifth...includes all of Delaware County. It represents a natural political community: the Philadelphia suburbs.
^"And then there were two: Bernie Sanders vs Joe Biden". Al Jazeera. March 6, 2020. Retrieved March 12, 2020. I think the American people are speaking and they are saying we don't want a candidate whose staff and supporters are rife with toxic individuals
