Janelle Stelson is the Democratic nominee in Pennsylvania's 10th Congressional District. Her top campaign donor is her uncle — a New York businessman who, according to a new Washington Free Beacon investigation, has spent his career advancing Chinese interests and has routinely rubbed elbows with members of the Chinese Communist Party.
He didn't even bother to be subtle about it. He's publicly called on the United States to "join forces" with Beijing.
Stelson's uncle has funneled money into her congressional campaign while simultaneously maintaining significant ties to the CCP's influence networks, including connections to the Belt and Road Initiative — Beijing's signature global infrastructure program that doubles as a geopolitical expansion strategy.
The investigation also reveals ties between the uncle and liberal megadonor George Soros and the Open Society Foundations. So we're looking at a Democratic congressional candidate whose top donor is a family member with one foot in Beijing's political orbit and the other in the Soros funding ecosystem. That's not a red flag. That's a parade of red flags.
Stelson, a former television news anchor from central Pennsylvania, won the Democratic nomination for PA-10 and has positioned herself as a moderate alternative for the district. The DCCC has already tagged her as a "Red to Blue" candidate, meaning national Democrats are pouring resources into flipping this seat. Governor Josh Shapiro has endorsed her.
When your top donor is your uncle, and your uncle has spent a career building relationships with CCP members and publicly advocating that America should "join forces" with the Chinese Communist Party, what exactly is the voter purchasing with that ballot?
The usual defense in these situations is that the candidate has no control over their relatives' business dealings. Which might hold up if the relative in question were a distant cousin who sent a $50 check. This is her uncle. He's her top donor. The money isn't incidental to the campaign — it's foundational.
CCP-linked donors have funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars into Democratic campaigns across the country during the 2026 cycle. Pin Ni, an electric vehicle executive identified as an active CCP member, has given $450,400 to Democrats this campaign season alone. Twenty-eight Democratic congressional candidates have collectively accepted nearly $200,000 from a single China-linked hedge fund executive since January 2025.
Stelson's case is different, though, because the money isn't coming from a stranger with a shared political interest. It's coming from family. And the family member in question hasn't just done business adjacent to Beijing — he's told America to join up with the regime.
Former TV anchors are supposed to be good at reading the room. The room says "foreign influence" in neon letters. Whether Stelson can read it is one question. Whether Pennsylvania voters can is the one that matters.