Both County Clerk candidates J.J. Clemence and Tamara McFarlane have purchased campaign advertising on CoveringKaty.com at the same rate, with ads running in identical locations on the website for the same duration. Advertising with us doesn't shield candidates from scrutiny.
By Dennis Spellman, Founder, Publisher and Owner, Covering Katy News
There is a long and ugly tradition in American politics of turning the routine into the sinister. The McFarlane campaign has apparently decided that tradition is worth reviving in Fort Bend County.
The campaign has been circulating claims suggesting that Fort Bend County Clerk candidate JJ Clemence who was born in China, has suspicious ties to Chinese Communist Party-affiliated figures. The evidence offered in support of this charge consists of photographs, digitally altered photographs, social media tags, and the fact that Clemence appeared at events alongside far-left state Rep. Gene Wu. I have reviewed these claims carefully. They do not hold up.
It strains credibility for McFarlane to be a supporter of the Donald Trump America First movement when she has never voted in a March Republican primary. Since registering to vote in Fort Bend County she's only voted in one runoff election.
The Accusations Don't Hold Up
Here is what is actually true. Clemence worked for two congressmen, Pete Olsen and Troy Nehls. Part of her job was outreach to the Asian community on their behalf. When those congressmen could not attend formal governmental or diplomatic events, Clemence stood in for them. This is standard congressional staff practice. It is not exotic. It is not suspicious. It is the job.
Seating and positioning at governmental and diplomatic events follows established protocol based on rank of representation — federal, then state, then county, then city. Because Clemence was representing a member of Congress, she was positioned where the congressman would have stood. That placed her closer to high-ranking officials than a state representative would be. The McFarlane campaign is apparently treating the rules of diplomatic protocol as a smoking gun. They are not.
Guilt by Association Is Not Evidence
The campaign also raises the specter of Clemence's association with state Rep. Wu as though proximity to him at an event constitutes evidence of foreign entanglement. This argument falls apart the moment you apply it consistently. At commissioners court, twice a month, Republican commissioners Vincent Morales and Andy Meyers appear in photographs alongside Democrats Dexter McCoy and Grady Prestage. No one suggests that makes Morales and Meyers secret Democrats. The logic the McFarlane campaign is selling to voters would make every elected official in Fort Bend County suspect. McFarlane knows that and she's selling it anyway.
Then there is the matter of social media. The campaign has pointed to instances where Clemence was tagged in posts by individuals with alleged questionable affiliations. Let me be direct: being tagged in a social media post by another person does not establish that you attended the event depicted, endorsed the subject being celebrated, or had any knowledge the post would be made. People do not control who tags them. This is not a complicated concept. Treating a tag as evidence of wrongdoing is not an investigation. It is a smear.
McFarlane was also willing to drop out of the race, letting Clemence have the GOP nomination if she was allowed to become the county's election administrator. If she truly believes Clemence is a threat to national security, why would she do that? Those concerns apparently are not so alarming that McFarlane would not trade them away for a different job. Now, faced with that contradiction, she is rewriting history with posts on social media. We covered this issue earlier this week and you can read more here.
Additional stories about Tamara
A So-Called Expert Who Got It Badly Wrong
The campaign's credibility on this issue was further damaged when it enlisted a self-described China expert who identified a Hispanic county employee and long-time Fort Bend County resident as a high-ranking member of the Chinese Communist Party. When confronted with the absurdity of that claim, the campaign did not retract it. They doubled down. That is not opposition research. That is recklessness, and voters deserve to know it.
I Know Gene Wu's Wife. Does That Make Me a Spy?
I will note something personal here, because it is relevant. I have covered the Houston news market for 25 years. In that time, I have crossed paths with state Rep. Gene Wu numerous times while on the job. I know Wu's wife, Miya Shay, a reporter for Houston's Channel 13. We are not friends, we are acquaintances because of what we do for a living, cover news. But when I covered Houston City Council meetings, assigned seating placed my station's seat directly next to Channel 13's seat. When Shay was sent to cover the council, we sat side by side — not by choice, but because that was where our respective stations were assigned to sit. Our paths have crossed at media events many times beyond that, and there may well be photographs of us together sharing a laugh. By the standard the McFarlane campaign is applying to JJ Clemence, that makes me a spy too.
Do we really want to live like that? Is that the new standard?
Texas Law Distinguishes Courtesy Visits From Sister City Agreements
McFarlane claims Clemence and others violated state law by meeting with a Chinese delegation that was on a North American tour. She claims it was evidence of an illegal sister city agreement. However, under Texas law, sister city agreements are distinct from one-time meetings, courtesy visits or cultural exchanges, which do not create an ongoing partnership and do not constitute a sister city relationship.
McCarthyism Has No Place in Fort Bend County in 2026
What the McFarlane campaign is practicing is guilt by association. It has a name: McCarthyism. Younger voters may not recognize the term, so it is worth explaining. In the early 1950s, U.S. Sen. Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin launched a years-long campaign of accusation, insinuation, and fear, claiming that communists had infiltrated the U.S. government, the military, Hollywood, and American institutions at every level. He rarely produced evidence. He did not need to. The accusation alone was enough. Careers were destroyed. Reputations were ruined. Lives were upended. Innocent people lost their jobs, their standing, and in some cases their will to live — not because they had done anything wrong, but because someone with a microphone and a willingness to lie pointed a finger at them. It took years before the country found the courage to say enough. A lawyer named Joseph Welch finally confronted McCarthy during a televised Senate hearing in 1954 with words that ended his reign: "Have you no sense of decency?" McCarthy was censured by the Senate shortly after. He died in disgrace.
The McFarlane campaign is using the same playbook. It manufactures suspicion where none exists. Ironically, that is precisely the tactic employed by authoritarian governments — including the Chinese Communist Party — to suppress dissent and destroy reputations. The campaign claims to be concerned about CCP influence. It has adopted the CCP playbook. McFarlane grew up in Soviet republic state. Perhaps this is how she think elections are run.
Show Us the Evidence. Or Stop.
I have a direct challenge for the McFarlane campaign: name your sources, produce your evidence, and put it on the record. Not innuendo. Not photographs of people doing their jobs. Not social media tags. Actual evidence. If you have it, show it. If you do not, stop.
When a campaign cannot win on qualifications or policy, some turn to fear and smear. That is what is happening here. Voters should ask themselves a straightforward question: Is someone willing to peddle this kind of politics the person they want serving as Fort Bend County Clerk? Is this the judgment, the integrity, and the character they want in that office?
Covering Katy News does not traffic in innuendo. We report facts and let readers draw their own conclusions from evidence. I have found no credible evidence that JJ Clemence is a Chinese spy, a communist sympathizer, or anything other than a former congressional staffer who did her job — attending events and representing the members of Congress she worked for.
Republican Voters: Staying Home Is a Vote for McFarlane
Republican voter turnout is down. According to early voting data, Republicans have cast 14 percent fewer ballots than Democrats in this race. I suspect GOP voters are tired of the negativity and the mud-slinging. That frustration is understandable. But staying home is not a protest — it is a concession. If you sit out this election, you are in effect casting a vote for Tamara McFarlane. Fort Bend County deserves better than that, and so do you.
Voters in this race for Fort Bend County Clerk deserve a debate about qualifications, experience, and vision for the office. They are instead being fed a diet of insinuation and fear. That is a disservice to the democratic process, and I will not pretend otherwise. McCarthyism destroyed innocent people in the 1950s. It has no place in Fort Bend County in 2026. And if voters do not reject it at the ballot box, do not be surprised when it comes for someone you know — or for you.
Get out and vote.