Dear Friends and Fellow Republicans, 

About a month ago, I wrote to you to let you know that my Republican opponent had become desperate and had begun to make baseless attacks against me. 

Dan Franzese and his team know we are winning. We are already running TV ads, have direct mail out in the district, and are walking doors. We continue to raise big money and my story of being one of the first people in the country to stand up against woke insanity strongly resonates with voters. 

As our momentum in this race has soared, the Franzese campaign has doubled down on its pathetic attacks over the past few weeks in a last-ditch effort to sabotage our campaign. They’ve been sending anonymous emails to our donors and to key Republicans, with subjects such as, “Palm Beach Scandal Worsens for Grifter Fraud Republican Candidate.”  

Franzese has stooped as low as to attack some of our Jewish donors by name, some of whom are among the most sophisticated, significant, and loyal Republican donors in the country, with thinly veiled tropes of antisemitism. This would be despicable at any time but is especially repulsive given the exploding amount of antisemitism we are currently witnessing at our nation’s college campuses. 

But as I’ve stated to you before, I have absolutely nothing to hide. Once again, I will respond to all the lies and distortions and every single line of attack coming from Franzese and his campaign team. I have faith in you - the voter - to judge for yourself who is the honorable, truthful and courageous Republican candidate in this race. 

Why are you running for Congress? 

I agreed to run for Congress for one reason. I believe we are losing our great country. The same far-left progressive ideology that I saw take over my daughter’s former school in New York City has taken over nearly every institution of America. We must not allow this to continue. My mission is to fight for our shared Judeo-Christian values and to reclaim our institutions from the radical left. 

Weren’t you a Democrat? 

No, I was never once a registered Democrat nor have I ever voted for a Democrat. I grew up as a non-conformist, attended public schools in a liberal town in New Jersey, and rejected left-wing ideology since the time I was a kid. I used to listen to Rush Limbaugh in high school and penned a letter to my local paper objecting to political correctness. I’ve been ideologically conservative for my entire life. 

But didn’t you financially support a Democrat? 

Yes, I gave $250 to a good friend of mine, Maud Maron, who ran for U.S. Congress in 2022. The Franzese campaign claims her district was a “Republican district in New Jersey,” but this is a blatant lie. Maud ran in New York City’s 10th congressional district, one of the most Democratic districts in the country (a D+35 district).

Maud ran as the only non-woke Democrat in the primary. She is a fellow parent activist who has fought for meritocracy, and against radical gender ideology and covid restrictions. She was the head of an anti-woke organization and is on the NYC school board where she has been attacked for her anti-woke views.  

Here’s what our mutual friend, Megyn Kelly Tweeted about Maud (and me): “Literally everything @MaudMaron said in these texts is correct. She is standing up for kids! These psychos trying to force her out of office for her truth-telling are pushing for the abuse of children. STAND TALL MAUD! @AndrewGutmann 2!” 

Didn’t your father support Democrats?
 
Yes, he did. He’s given small amounts of money to mainstream Democrats he viewed as pro-business and pro-Israel. My Dad and I have argued over politics since I was a kid. I love and respect my Dad, but this is my campaign, not his.
  
Why are you running as a Republican?
 
My values align with the Republican party. The Republican party stands for free speech, capitalism, individual rights, meritocracy, family, community and faith. The Democratic party rejects each of these values and has adopted a Marxist based ideology which seeks to destroy our country and tear down Western Civilization.

Do you support Donald Trump for President?
 
Yes, I 100% support and enthusiastically endorse Donald Trump for President. 

Have you always supported Donald Trump?

Like many, I was skeptical when he took office in 2016. But it quickly became apparent that Donald Trump’s polices were good for our country. Under President Trump, the economy was better, inflation was lower, the border was more secure, we were energy independent, and foreign leaders respected America’s strength. Moreover, Donald Trump has been without question, the most pro-Israel president of my lifetime. Given the post October 7th world, and the war between Israel and Hamas, this is especially meaningful to me as an American Jew. 

Simply put, America was far better off under Donald Trump than we are under Joe Biden.

Doesn’t your family do business in China? 

My family’s business, Basstech International, is an international chemical distributor. I am very proud that my parents started this business from scratch when I was in college, and I have been involved in various capacities from the beginning.  

Like nearly every chemical distributor in the world, Basstech must purchase some chemicals from China because the U.S. regulatory regime doesn’t allow them to be made domestically or makes producing them prohibitively expensive. The chemicals Basstech sells are vital for U.S. manufacturing industries, including U.S. military applications. Without these raw materials, production in the U.S. would shut down.

Will you support China in Congress in order to help your family business?

America first. Period. Our policy regarding China and the CCP must revolve around two basic tenets. We must strengthen our military to counter the growing threat of China’s global ambitions, and we must eliminate economic and regulatory policies that make U.S. industries non-competitive and end our dependence on Chinese manufacturing.

Why did you register your family’s business in Florida?
 
In order to get a Florida license plate for a leased company car, the business must be registered in the state of Florida. Nothing more nefarious than that. 

What else is the Franzese campaign lying about?
 
In addition to calling me a Democrat, a Trump hater, and a China lover, Franzese lies about where I’ve lived and where I’ve worked. Before we moved to Florida, I lived nearly my entire adult life in New York City, not New Jersey. My first job out of college was at the Federal Reserve in Washington, D.C. This was a full-time position, part of a two-year program, not a summer internship as Franzese has claimed. 

These are all very strange and desperate things for Dan Franzese to lie about. He seems to be counting on voters to blindly believe his lies, and that says a lot more about Dan than our friends and neighbors here in Palm Beach County.

But enough about me. Unlike Dan Franzese, I’m not a coward. I will never hide behind anonymous emails and bogus publications. Let’s talk about my Republican competitor. 

Franzese claims to be a “successful businessman” 

According to his own LinkedIn profile, Franzese spent his entire 34 year professional career working at large financial institutions, the last 25 as a salesman selling private placements (stocks and bonds of private companies) to wealthy individuals and institutional investors. Interestingly, he hides the name of his most recent employer of nearly 11 years, which just happens to be the National Bank of Canada. His oft-spoken claim of “making payroll” and being a “Chief Financial Officer” stems solely from his time volunteering for a local church, not from his “business” career. 

Franzese claims to be a political outsider 

In a recent debate we had at the Valencia Conservative Club, Franzese commented on how he’s wanted to be in politics his entire life, ever since he was a Congressional intern in college. He certainly sounds like a politician, acts like one, and lies like one. Like a typical politician, he gives vacuous and vague answers to questions, embellishes his professional experience, and has been busted for fake endorsements.

Why did Dan scrub his entire Twitter account prior to April 2023?

You’ll have to ask Dan about that one, but we all know why politicians “scrub” their social media.

Franzese claims to have been competitive with Lois Frankel 

Dan Franzese likes to brag about how we won a competitive Republican primary in 2022, but let’s be clear about that. He won the primary by a paltry 130 votes over a woman he outspent approximately 4 to 1, almost all of which was his own money.

Then Franzese proceeded to lose the general election by over 10 percentage points to Lois Frankel in an election where Governor DeSantis decisively won Palm Beach County. Franzese underperformed DeSantis by nearly 15 percentage points with the all-important Independent voters. In fact, of all 20 Republicans who ran in CD-22 in the 2022 election, Dan did second worst with Independent voters.

Given the historic red wave election in Florida, Dan’s performance was simply embarrassing.

Franzese claims to have always supported Donald Trump 

For the last 3 years, Dan has desperately begged for a Trump endorsement and has never gotten one (probably because Donald Trump doesn’t endorse losers). Adding to this air of desperation, Franzese’s campaign speeches all tend to revolve around his “long-time” support for Donald Trump. But did Franzese even support Trump in 2016 or 2020? We’ll probably never know because he scrubbed his social media. But his political contributions are quite telling. 

Franzese did not contribute to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign in 2016 or in 2020. But interestingly, Franzese did contribute to Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign in 2012. Why would someone who pretends to be ultra-MAGA support Mitt Romney but not Donald Trump? See for yourself, and draw your own conclusions about what kind of Republican Party Dan favors. 

Here’s the bottom line. Like most Republicans, Franzese and I hold similar views on most issues and policies. We both endorse Donald Trump. We both want to secure the border, increase domestic energy production, reduce inflation and get government spending under control. We both back the police and believe in the Second Amendment. We both support allies like Israel and Ukraine. We both want woke indoctrination out of our schools and want to protect girls’ and women’s sports. 

But there’s two main differences between us. I can beat Lois Frankel. Franzese can’t. 

Winning the general election in our district in 2024 requires doing three things: winning 60+ percent of the Independent vote, resonating with Jews, and raising a substantial amount of money. I can do all of those things. Franzese can’t do any of them. In fact, sending antisemitic emails mocking big Republican Jewish donors isn’t exactly the way to get support in our district, likely the most Jewish congressional district in the country.  

Second, I’ve proven my willingness and ability to fearlessly fight for America’s founding values, having helped ignite the national parent’s movement three years ago, and being on the front lines of the culture war ever since. Franzese, on the other hand, is a coward, a liar and a proven loser, who does nothing more than weakly parrot Republican talking points.  

Friends, the choice is yours.

Thank you for reading, and please don’t hesitate to contact me anytime if you have any questions about me or my candidacy at [email protected].