A Democratic congressional candidate in Michigan built his campaign around bringing manufacturing back to America. His business résumé tells a more complicated story, one involving denim mills in Italy, garment factories in Guatemala, and a shipping container of samples from China.
Matt Maasdam, a Navy SEAL-turned-businessman running in Michigan's 7th District, has made domestic manufacturing a centerpiece of his pitch to voters. One of his top priorities, his campaign says, would be "making more essential goods here in America, ensuring jobs pay fair wages, and keeping our manufacturing and food supply chains strong so we're not dependent on countries like China."
But as Fox News Digital reported, Maasdam's career in the private sector included stints at companies that relied heavily on overseas production, and a shipping record that undercuts the "Made in America" brand he's selling on the trail.
After serving as a military aide to former President Barack Obama, a role in which he was often spotted carrying the nuclear football, Maasdam moved into the private sector and went to work for Under Armour. That company, as Maasdam himself acknowledged at a recent candidate forum, "made a lot of their stuff overseas."
He later co-founded Revtown, an apparel company that produced jeans branded as podcast giant Joe Rogan's favorite. But Revtown also relied on foreign sourcing and manufacturing. Maasdam explained the reality of the denim business at the forum.
As he told the audience:
"There were two good denim mills in the world, one is in Italy, one is in Japan. There are none in America. So when you talk about how to get denim to America, we don't make it."
The denim was brought to Guatemala, Maasdam said, where it was cut and sewn before being shipped to the United States for sale. "We don't actually make the material, right?" he told the forum audience. "And so we would bring that to Guatemala, then it got cut and sewn, and we brought it here to sell it."
Then came PECOS Outdoor, a Texas-based portable work table company that Maasdam co-founded and now leads as CEO. PECOS touts a commitment to making and sourcing its products in the U.S., a selling point that aligns neatly with Maasdam's campaign message.
But a 2022 shipping record obtained by Fox News Digital showed that PECOS received a container of samples from the Nanjing Tuchun Import and Export Co. in China. The record indicates the company was at least exploring products from a Chinese vendor, even as it marketed itself on American-made credentials.
At the candidate forum earlier this month, an audience member pressed Maasdam on his private-sector record after he highlighted endorsements from local labor unions. Maasdam drew a distinction between his role at Under Armour, where he said he wasn't in charge of sourcing decisions, and his later work at PECOS.
He told the forum:
"I got poached from that company to start another company, and everything in that company was made in America and assembled in America."
He added: "And so, from the perspective of like where is my heart and mind in terms of that stuff, it's here, in the United States. So, that's what we did."
His campaign manager, Emma Grundhauser, defended the record in a statement to Fox News Digital. She dismissed the Chinese shipment as insignificant, calling it "a one-off shipment of samples" that "doesn't change that record." She said Maasdam built a company that makes things in America "because it's the right thing to do, not because it's easy."
Grundhauser also pivoted to offense, targeting Maasdam's Republican opponent. She said Rep. Tom Barrett "voted for Trump's reckless tariffs that have killed nearly 100,000 American manufacturing jobs," and argued that Michigan's labor unions are backing Maasdam because "they know he'll fight to bring jobs home."
Democrats across the country are searching for candidates who can win back working-class voters in competitive districts, a challenge made harder by the party's weak standing heading into the 2026 midterms.
Neither PECOS Outdoor nor Revtown immediately responded to Fox News Digital's request for comment.
The National Republican Congressional Committee wasted no time framing the story as a character issue. NRCC spokesman Zach Bannon told Fox News:
"Millionaire Matt Maasdam lined his own pockets by shipping jobs overseas. Maasdam has proven he will put his own bank account ahead of hardworking Michiganders."
The attack line fits a familiar Republican playbook: paint the Democratic challenger as a wealthy hypocrite who talks populist economics while profiting from the very global supply chains he claims to oppose. Whether the charge sticks will depend on how Michigan voters weigh Maasdam's PECOS record against his earlier work at companies with heavy overseas footprints.
The seat matters. Rep. Barrett, a Republican, flipped Michigan's 7th District in 2024 after Democratic Sen. Elissa Slotkin vacated it to run for the Senate. Republicans are fighting to hold the seat and preserve their narrow majority in Congress, while Democrats see the district as a prime pickup opportunity.
The broader fight for House control has tilted toward Republicans in fundraising, adding pressure on Democrats to field candidates who can survive opposition research without handing the GOP easy lines of attack.
Michigan has already produced its share of Democratic candidate controversies. The state party saw another Michigan Democrat face backlash over racially charged remarks in a separate episode, underscoring the turbulence inside the party's bench in the state.
The core tension in Maasdam's candidacy is the distance between his campaign rhetoric and his documented business history. He wants voters to see a man who chose to build American-made products. His opponents want voters to see a man who profited from overseas labor and is now repackaging himself for a Democratic primary.
Maasdam's own words at the forum reveal the tension. He acknowledged that Under Armour manufactured overseas and that he wasn't in charge. He explained that Revtown sourced denim from Italy and Japan and had it sewn in Guatemala because there were no American denim mills. He then claimed PECOS was different, everything made and assembled in the U.S.
The 2022 shipping record complicates that clean narrative. A container of samples from a Chinese vendor may not amount to full-scale offshoring, but it suggests PECOS was at minimum exploring foreign sourcing during the same period its founder was building a political identity around domestic manufacturing.
Democrats are still wrestling with how to present themselves to working-class voters who feel abandoned by a party increasingly associated with coastal elites and globalist economics. The internal debates over the party's direction only sharpen the stakes for candidates like Maasdam who need blue-collar credibility to survive.
Grundhauser framed her candidate's record as proof of commitment. "Matt has been clear since day one: as a congressman, he'll fight to keep the Michigan dream alive by making more things here in America so we're not dependent on countries like China," she said.
But "clear since day one" is a hard sell when the paper trail includes denim from Italy, stitching from Guatemala, and a shipping container from Nanjing.
Voters in Michigan's 7th District will decide whether Maasdam's "Made in America" message is a genuine conviction or a campaign slogan stitched together from foreign parts. In politics, as in manufacturing, the label only means something if it matches what's inside.
