‘They will not stop us’: MoCo elected officials denounce ‘racist attack’ on upcounty delegate

Two Republican colleagues of Del. Chao Wu made video mocking his accent, accusing of spying for Chinese government

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May 13, 2026 3:30 p.m.

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Montgomery County officials this week publicly defended Chinese-born Del. Chao Wu (D-Dist. 9A) against a “racist attack” from two of his Republican colleagues in the Maryland General Assembly.  

Wu, whose district includes Clarksburg and Damascus, has been in the news this week after Dels. Mark Fisher (R-Calvert) and Brian Chisholm (R-Anne Arundel) made a 13-minute video podcast mocking Wu’s accent and accusing him of being a spy for the Chinese government. The video, posted to Fisher’s X account on April 30, was still online as of Wednesday afternoon.  

 
In a Monday statement from the legislature’s Asian American and Pacific Islander Caucus, Wu described himself as a “proud new American and public servant.” He said he would not allow “false accusations and far-right conspiracy theories” to distract from his work. 

Ahead of an Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month commemoration at the Stella B. Werner Council Office Building in Rockville on Tuesday, Councilmember Kristin Mink (D-Dist. 5) said she felt “a responsibility to speak to the racist attack” on Wu. 

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“The racist trope of the Asian as a perpetual foreigner in this country is not only alive. It is here. It is right here in Maryland,” Mink said.  

Mink, a first-generation Chinese American, made history in 2022 when she became the first Asian American elected to the Montgomery County Council. She said when she hears Wu’s accent, she feels “proud” — not just of Wu, but of “who we are here in Montgomery County.” 

“They will not stop us. They will not slow us down,” Mink said of the Republican delegates’ remarks. “They are efforts to demean, to disempower, to divide, and we will not allow that here.” 

Council President Natali Fani‑González (D-Dist. 6), who was born in Venezuela, said she is routinely attacked for her accent and her status as an immigrant. Fani‑González said she received an influx of hateful messages following her election as council president in December, which forced her to shut down her account on X, formerly Twitter. 

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“We need to watch our words and how we say things, because our children are watching and we’re damaging the next generation,” Fani‑González said during Tuesday’s meeting. 

County Executive Marc Elrich (D) also addressed the Republican delegates’ remarks during his virtual weekly media briefing on Wednesday, saying “they have no proof of anything.” He called on Fisher and Chisholm to apologize to Wu for their behavior. 

“Delegate Wu has served the people of Howard and Montgomery County with seriousness and integrity since taking office, and he deserves better than this garbage,” Elrich said. “The idea that someone can never fully belong here because of their background [or] their accent is damaging, and public officials ought to know better than to encourage it.” 

In a Tuesday statement to The Banner, Chisholm defended the video, saying he and Fisher were asking “basic questions” about Wu’s motivations in pursuit of “accountability and transparency.” 

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Originally published at Bethesdamagazine