Jesse Scheckner
Democratic U.S. Rep. Jared Moskowitz is keeping his seat representing Florida’s 23rd Congressional District.
With early votes fully tallied, mail-in ballots partially counted and all 184 precincts between Broward and Palm Beach counties reporting Tuesday, Moskowitz had 52% of the vote to defeat Republican counterterrorism expert Joe Kaufman, a persistent congressional candidate for whom victory remains elusive.
It was a long-shot bid for Kaufman. Moskowitz is well-known to voters, has a deep history of public service, has a knack for going viral online and carried a far larger war chest.
Then there was the district’s composition, which shifted redder in recent years but still leaned Democratic by 6.5 percentage points despite a GOP advantage of more than 1 million voters statewide.
Moskowitz, a 43-year-old Broward native, had more than a decade’s worth of elected experience and a messaging savvy developed through it to lean. He served for six years on the Parkland City Commission until 2012, when he won a seat in the Florida House and successfully sponsored measures to prohibit contracts with companies that boycott Israel and crack down on SLAPP lawsuits.
Until his election to Congress in 2022, he was arguably best known for an emotional speech on the House floor after the 2018 massacre at his high school in support of Florida’s first gun control law in years.
Moskowitz’s legislative and political successes can be attributed to his cross-aisle approach to policymaking. He worked for nearly a decade at Ashbritt Inc., a Deerfield Beach-headquartered emergency management company, before accepting Gov. Ron DeSantis’ appointment as Director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management in January 2019.
He held the job for two and a half years before leaving and, after a short spell, accepting another DeSantis appointment to the Broward County Commission, where he served before seeking federal office.
For Kaufman, 54, this was his seventh electoral push, following unsuccessful attempts at unseating Democratic U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz in 2012, 2014, 2016 and 2018, and a pair of Florida House runs in 1990 and 2000 that didn’t go his way.
He beat five Republican Primary opponents with 35.5% of the vote to get on the General Election ballot.
Kaufman runs Kaufman Security, a nonprofit that provides education services on matters of national security, antiterrorism and anti-bigotry. He’s also a conservative journalist, writing as the Shillman Fellow for FrontPage Magazine and appearing on various multimedia programs.
He vowed, if elected, to bring back more funding for CD 23, revive the district’s manufacturing industry, lower taxes on businesses and workers, and strengthen U.S. border control. Addressing inflation, advocating for school vouchers, increasing domestic energy production, supporting gun rights and congressional term limits were also high on his to-do list.
Through Oct. 15, Kaufman raised close to $167,000 and spent $102,000 on winning the CD 23 seat.
Moskowitz raised $2.16 million this cycle and spent close to $1.7 million to stop him.
Since winning the CD 23 seat, Moskowitz filed 17 bills. Three received committee consideration. None passed.
He prioritized replenishing FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund and, following Hurricane Helene, joined U.S. Sen. Rick Scott in urging congressional leaders to call Senators and Representatives back to Washington to ensure disaster funding was available.
After the July assassination attempt on Donald Trump, he filed a resolution with Republican U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz to honor a former volunteer Fire Chief who was killed by a stray bullet. Another bipartisan measure he co-introduced would sanction organizations that implement so-called “martyrdom payments” to anti-Israel terrorists.
But Moskowitz’ profile less because of his legislative activity than his humorous confrontations with far-right lawmakers like Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Greene.
CD 23 runs from Broward County to Palm Beach County, stretching from Fort Lauderdale to Boca Raton. It has typically been a safe Democratic district. But after Republican Joe Budd came within 5 points of defeating Moskowitz last cycle, Republicans believed the seat might be in play, considering that Budd’s performance came with little institutional support.
