In her oral history, Lambert characterized her parents as free thinkers who encouraged lively discussion, debate, and exchange of ideas in the home.
Her first experience with political persecution came in 1915, when her father, a San Francisco baker, was investigated for potential ties to the Preparedness Day Bombing.
Lambert also participated in local politics, running for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1931 and 1933 as the official Communist Party candidate, and winning 10,815 votes in the 1933 election.
[7][8][9][10] In 1934, Lambert was active in successful efforts to qualify the Communist Party to participate in state elections for the first time in California history.
[16][17] Lambert was paroled on December 19, 1936, and resumed her work for the Communist Party in California, organizing training schools for leadership, serving as an instructor at the San Francisco Workers' School, participating in elections, supporting the Communist Party's newspaper, the People's World, and serving on the state executive committee.
The national Communist Party responded by implementing an underground organization and removing hundreds of the most committed activists, including Lambert, from public life.
[22][23][24] In her oral history, Lambert recalled that: "the analysis of the leadership was that McCarthyism, compounded by this decision of the Supreme Court, represented the eleventh hour before fascism in the United States.