Republican Andrew Gutmann fighting ‘woke education’ in bid for Congress

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (FLV) – Republican Andrew Gutmann is running for Florida’s 22nd Congressional District, a seat that has been held by Democratic U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel since 2013.

Gutmann’s policy positions include parental rights in education and the protection of girls’ sports.

He is campaigning on the free market and opposes regulations that hurt the middle class, as well as maintaining energy independence and a foreign policy based on American interests.

Gutmann gained national attention when he wrote a letter penned to parents of The Brearley School, an all-girls private school in Manhattan, about the “woke” takeover of schools.

His “viral moment” received substantial feedback and interviews on television programs such as Tucker Carlson Tonight and the Megyn Kelly Show.

Gutmann, who lives in West Palm Beach with his wife and daughter, received his undergraduate degree in economics from Johns Hopkins University and an MBA from Columbia University.

His professional career began as a research assistant at the Federal Reserve Board of Governors in Washington, D.C. where he analyzed economic data for use in monetary policy decisions. He also worked as an investment banker, executing mergers and acquisitions for clients across a widespread of sectors.

Gutmann spoke about the letter, as well as other topics related to his campaign, in an exclusive interview with Florida’s Voice.

Q: You gained some national attention for your letter to the Brearley School. For those that don’t know, tell us about that? Its premise has in a way foreshadowed and become one of the pillars of your campaign.

Gutmann: My daughter had attended since kindergarten a very prestigious all-girls private school in Manhattan called the Brearley School, considered to be one of the top K-12 schools in the country.

After the George Floyd and BLM summer of 2020, Brearley completely changed their mission, abandoning academic excellence and free speech in the classroom and adopted a political education of indoctrinating girls in progressive activism. They went so far as to try to force us to sign a pledge (which we refused) that we would not only support the school’s anti-racism initiatives in school but also in the home, and mandated antiracism training for all parents.

After spending the school year trying and failing to get other parents to speak up, even though I believe the majority of parents were unhappy with the school’s new mission, I said someone has to do something. I wrote and mailed a letter to all of the families of Brearley expressing my objection to the school’s obsession with race and identity, never expecting it to be read by any other than Brearley parents.

It immediately went viral, received enormous media attention (Tucker Carlson read it on his show) and was read by millions of people across American and around the world. The letter – in the spring of 2021 – helped ignite what became the national parent’s movement and the fight against woke education.

Q: What are some other positions and policies of your campaign that you believe can help voters in the district?

Gutmann: I have spent the past two and half years fighting to return our schools to their traditional, classical liberal values and to rid them of progressive indoctrination, to safeguard parental rights and promote educational freedom, to protect girls’ and women’s sports, and for America’s founding Enlightenment principles including free speech and free markets. I will continue to advocate for those policies in Congress.

I oppose the out-of-control spending by our federal government that has resulted in ruinous inflation and has crushed the middle class. I favor policies that benefit the working class and the small business community and am opposed to burdensome regulations that benefit only large corporations.

I am critical of the power of big-tech and am staunchly opposed to the unholy marriage of government and big-tech that has resulted in unprecedented censorship and the stifling of free speech. I am in favor of sane energy policy and energy independence and a realist foreign policy based on American, not globalist interests.

I am also resolute in my support for America’s most important ally, Israel, a country with which my family has been involved with and supported my entire adult life.

Q: What is your plan to win your primary? You have another Republican candidate running with experience and this is your first time seeking political office.

Gutmann: Since declaring my candidacy at the end of April, I have received enormous enthusiasm for my campaign. My story of having shown the courage to stand up and fight for my own daughter and for all of the children of this country has really resonated both with voters and with donors.

Voters aren’t stupid – they can sense when a political candidate is running for office out of vanity or for personal benefit, and when a political candidate is running for office for the right reasons. They can sense when a candidate is just telling them what they want to hear, and when a candidate has passionate convictions and is willing to fight for those convictions.

I am running for office because I fear that the fundamental values that made our country the freest and most prosperous country in the world are being lost. Most voters in this district express that same fear, thus I have been able to develop a strong connection with almost everyone with whom I’ve had the opportunity to speak.

I will be working tirelessly over the next year to introduce myself, and to listen to every voter and every resident of the district, including the many Democrats who are fed up with Democratic party’s embrace of far-left progressive extremism and wish for a return to sane and smart political leadership.

On the fundraising front, we will continue our outreach to the donor community, both locally and nationally. We had a very good first fundraising quarter, raising over $300,000 which significantly exceeded both our primary opponents and incumbent, Lois Frankel. We continue to receive very strong support from the donor community.

Q: Why do you believe Lois Frankel is wrong candidate right now and why are you the right candidate to defeat her?

Gutmann: Lois Frankel is not simply a Democrat but a proud member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, a group that includes other far-left members of the House, including Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Frankel is fully representative of a Democratic party that has been completely captured and co-opted by anti-American sentiment and socialist economic policies.

Frankel is against protecting girls’ sport and space, has called parental rights “idiotic” and has fully embraced the Biden administration’s economic policies that have resulted in trillion dollar deficits and ruinous inflation for the middle class.

This congressional district was previously considered by most pundits to be a safe Democratic district and is listed as a D+7 district by Cook Political Report. However, that figure is based on the last two presidential elections in 2020 and 2016.

The voter demographics of the district and Palm Beach County have changed dramatically since the last presidential election in November 2020. This was clearly demonstrated by Governor’s DeSantis’s gubernatorial election where he won Palm Beach County, the first time a Republican governor had won the county in nearly 40 years.

Our analysis of voter registration data shows that new Republican voter registrations in CD-22 have exceeded Democratic voter registrations in 15 of the past 16 months. And since 2021, voters in the district have switched from Democrat to Republican by a nearly 3 to 1 margin as have switched from Republican to Democrat. The number of NPA and Independent voters have also increased dramatically since 2020.

Of course, being an entrenched incumbent is still difficult. To win this race, a candidate must be able to raise a significant amount of money and win approximately 2/3 of the NPA/Independent votes. I am the only Republican candidate in this race that can do those two things, with a message of sanity and freedom, and on a campaign based on honesty and courage.

Gutmann’s banking and finance background also opened up an opportunity for him to teach MBA students at Columbia University, as well as author a book entitled How to Be an Investment Banker.

Florida’s 22nd Congressional District incorporates West Palm Beach, Palm Beach, Palm Springs, Wellington, Greenacres, Lake Worth, Lake Worth Beach, Lantana, Boynton Beach, Delray Beach, Highland Beach and parts of Boca Raton.

Dan Franzese is reportedly the other Republican running to serve in the district.

Florida’s 22nd Congressional District’s Republican primary is Aug. 20, 2024.

The general election will occur on Nov. 5, 2024.