Democrat Guido Weiss of Wellington, a former legislative advisor to U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii), is challenging incumbent U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel for Florida’s 21st Congressional District seat in the Democratic primary on Tuesday, Aug. 18.
“I think I can bring a different approach, being from the western communities, whereas [Frankel] spends most of her time in downtown West Palm Beach, downtown Delray Beach,” Weiss told the Town-Crier. “The western communities don’t always have that amount of input.”
The district includes all of Wellington, as well as large portions of central Palm Beach County, extending from coastal West Palm Beach and Delray Beach to the Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge.
Previously the mayor of West Palm Beach, Frankel has represented the area in the U.S. House of Representatives since 2013. The winner of the Aug. 18 primary will face one of several Republicans vying in a primary. However, the seat tends to favor the Democrat. Frankel won her current term in 2018 unopposed.
Weiss, 30, a U.S. Navy Reserve officer, said that Frankel has been in public office of some form longer than he has been alive and tends to focus on coastal areas, as well as funding sources, such as big agriculture.
“The district stops in Wellington and West Boca, in terms of the western communities of Palm Beach County, but you don’t have a representative who has spent a lot of time in these communities engaging with them,” Weiss said. “That is part of the reason why I am running. You can’t have a representative who only spends time in certain communities.”
Weiss charged that Frankel is funded in large part by big agricultural companies and other deep-pocket donors.
“I’m not against agriculture in Florida,” he said. “It’s one of the most beautiful parts of Florida. It has some of the best agriculture in the world, but you do need representatives who can make policy that’s even handed.”
Weiss admitted that he is far out funded by Frankel, but he hopes to overcome that disadvantage in the primary by appealing directly to voters.
“She has over $1.3 million in her campaign account, and we are running a campaign that at the end of this will be in the $10,000 range,” he said.
He hopes to overcome that disadvantage by appealing to voters in the primary, which is usually a low-turnout event. “We’re looking to increase that amount, because this is the first primary in Palm Beach County for Lois Frankel in eight years,” Weiss said.
Since 2016, Weiss worked in the U.S. House of Representatives as a foreign affairs and defense advisor, including to Gabbard, before leaving D.C. to concentrate on his congressional campaign. During his time in Congress, he worked on U.S.-Israel cooperation, national security initiatives related to North Korea, indigenous rights, veterans’ healthcare and environmental protection.
Weiss enlisted in the U.S. Navy Reserve in 2015 from Delray Beach and spent his first few years as an enlisted sailor, where he was trained in radar and navigation as an operations specialist and in military law enforcement. He was later commissioned as an officer, where he has served with the naval security force.
Weiss graduated from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem with a master’s degree in Middle Eastern studies, and from American University with a bachelor’s degree in international studies. Recently married, he has also spent time studying in Russia, Jordan and Israel to learn Russian, Arabic and Hebrew.
To learn more about Weiss and his congressional campaign, visit www.voteguido.com.
