A former high energy Democratic fundraiser, failed congressional candidate and social media influencer is now raising money for President-elect Donald Trump’s inaugural committee.
Lindy Li made the shocking 180 after an extraordinary journey though a crazy year in Democratic politics culminating in Kamala Harris’ historic loss to Donald Trump.
‘It’s been one of the most painful and rewarding moments of my life,’ Li told DailyMail.com in an exclusive interview.
During the 2024 election, Lindy was considered a consummate Democratic influencer combined with her ability to fundraise for the Democratic Party.
She was invited to join events with President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and First Lady Jill Biden and she championed all of them on her social media platform.
Named by WIRED magazine as one of the top influencers of the 2024 election, Li was invited to the Democratic National Committee last August as an official credentialed influencer and given access to events.
On TV she celebrated Biden’s vitality, Kamala Harris’ political strengths and condemned Trump’s racism and the overall toxicity of the MAGA movement.
At the last Kamala Harris campaign rally in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Li was there in the front row with prominent figures and Biden’s daughter Ashley and others to cheer on Harris as the historic first female president on the United States.
But that all came crashing down on Election Day, when Harris lost badly and it was clear that Democrats had seriously oversold their chances at beating Donald Trump.
That infuriated Li, who had invested a great deal of personal time and energy in the campaign.
She was outraged that for months, Democrats had told her and others that Harris would easily sweep the election and encouraged them to raise more money and work harder. Crestfallen, she explained that she realized that top leaders in the Democratic Party were just ‘lying’ to her the entire time.
That inspired her to go public to criticize the campaign for their obvious failures and outrage at the way Democrats spent her and her fellow donors money.
She was angry, but still a Democrat who wanted to voice her criticism and frustration for the party.
‘It was just startling how there was no sense of responsibility. They essentially set $2 billion on fire in 100 days,’ she said in an interview after the election with NewsNation.
For Li to criticize the party post-election was a massive shift in her life, but one she did not expect would change her political identity.
Born in China, she moved to America at the age of four and went to Princeton. She self-described herself as a ‘book worm’ and a ‘wallflower’ who majored in philosophy, championing issues of climate change and even ran and won and unlikely campaign for class president.
After college, she took a job at Morgan Stanley, but continued pursuing a dream of running for political office. She worked enthusiastically to boost Democrats for decades, interning with former congressman Joe Sestak, and even unsuccessfully running for Congress herself at the age of 25.
In many ways Lindy Li could have been the next rising political star in the Democratic Party. A Chinese immigrant, whose great-grandfather was murdered by communists, ran as an inspirational figure who believed in the promise of America. But every attempt at running for office ended in the establishment figures in Pennsylvania crushing her political aspirations.
She continued on as a fundraiser and a media personality, trashing Trump and his MAGA movement at every opportunity.
In March 2013, Li described Trump as a ‘serial rapist’ and that the Conservative Political Action Conference was ‘a gathering of sexual predators.’ Any criticism of the ‘woke’ Democratic Party, she insisted, was just an excuse for Republicans to be ‘anti-black.’
But when Kamala Harris lost, Li turned her criticism to the failed political consultants within the Democratic Party.
Her criticism was not received well by the wounded Democratic influencer community who had sat with her in the same events with Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and White House officials.
“All I did is tell the truth I literally that’s all I did, all I did is tell it like it was,’ she reflected.
Predictably, Li found her social media accounts swamped with accusations of being a Chinese spy, a traitor and a flood of the usual racist and sexist slurs from angry followers.
‘The Chinese communist party killed my great grandfather and that’s why we left the country, like give me a f***ing break ….. for someone to say something that heinous it just shows that the racism of the Democratic Party was there all along,’ she said.
Despite her love for the Democratic party, Li was no socialist, as she had participated in a Fox News documentary in 2020 revealing her loathing for communist China and a warning to supporters of committed Democratic socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Republicans took notice, spotting an opportunity to recruit a disaffected Democrat to the Trump team.
Prominent Republicans put Li in touch with Trump’s son Eric who directed her to RNC officials and Trump transition organizers.
Now she is doing the unthinkable, raising money for the president-elect she fought against for nearly a decade.
Li estimated to DailyMail.com that she had raised funds within six-figure range for the Trump transition team in the short time she started soliciting donations. The Trump transition team did not respond to a request for comment.
Republicans, Li said, accepted her with open arms, even inviting her to Trump’s club Mar-a-Lago for the year-end fundraisers and festivities. She did not go to Mar-a-Lago but was touched by the warm welcome that Trump supporters were willing to give her.
With Democrats, Li said she ‘fought tooth and nail’ just to get recognized. Republicans, she said, were far more welcoming.
‘It’s like night and day,’ she said, citing daily communications from Republicans on the committee.
Many Democrats are furious at her betrayal, but Li argued they made a mistake by failing to recognize their failures and accept criticism.
‘They’d rather destroy the critics rather than than accept that the party might have done something wrong, it’s more convenient to blame me,’ she said.
Li says her family and lose friends are accepting of her identity flip, but the influencers she spent time with during the election are now out to destroy her.
‘My real friends are all supportive, but my political friends, it’s just been really bad. It’s a cult. The way that they’ve treated me is difficult,’ she said.
She is also quietly recruiting former DNC donors on Trump’s behalf, as many in her community are already looking beyond the Democratic Party.
‘I’m not the only donor, I’m just the only one who is a public figure and willing to speak out, everyone else is afraid for their own necks,’ she said.
Trump’s reelection represented a shift, she argued, as more Americans were ready to give him a chance.
‘I think people have had enough of the “Oh Trump is really bad we’re going to pre-hate everything he does,” she explained. ‘I think it’s dead.’
Once a prominent Democratic guest, Li is preparing to attend the inauguration of the man she worked for months to defeat.
At the moment, she’s grateful that Trump-supporting Republicans welcomed her into their party.
‘They are so much more human with me,’ she explained. ‘With the DNC it was so mercenary it felt that everyone had dollar signs in their eyes, they treated me like a wallet it was just so disgusting and gross.’
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