• May 2, 2024May 9, 2024
• Policy Highlights

“We have an immigration policy that’s in disarray.’

A former Palm Beach County Mayor Robert Weinroth states that America has many issues in addition, Democrats — and in particular U.S. Rep. Jared Moskowitz — don’t do much to address them.

Weinroth recently qualified as one of the Republican candidates who want to replace Moskowitz during the current election cycle in the 23rd Congressional District. Weinroth believes he’s the best candidate to the job.

Up until 2022, when Weinroth was sacked from the Palm Beach Commission seat to an unrelated Republican Newcomer Weinroth had been a Democrat at the time, though according to his own admission the truth, it was by name. His beliefs were in line with the current. He was pro-development and pro-business. He was opposed to plans to increase benefits as well as “handouts,” favoring policies which facilitated people to live better lives and be more self-sufficient. He was a believer in equal opportunity and not the outcome.

He changed parties shortly after the loss, which did not rely on the political skills of his opponent and more on the growing perception by voters, not just those from traditionally blue South Florida, that the Democratic Party had “veered off course.”

“The Democratic Party sort of did not mind me but I wasn’t enthusiastic about its platform in many ways. My eyes would kind of swell as certain policies were outlined,” he told Florida Politics.

“I put my lips closed, but I felt as a square peg in an oval hole when I was an Democrat. The majority of people stared at me with a smile at me, as if to say, ‘Yeah we’re sure that you’re an actual Republican in the flesh.'”

But, Weinroth endorsed Moskowitz for CD 23 in 2022. He also has endorsed Nikki Fried as the Democratic Party’s candidate for governor, even though Weinroth said he had was a voter for Governor. Ron DeSantis in the General Election the year before and in support of Donald Trump in 2020.

Weinroth’s website for his campaign features photos of him with the former president who has not acknowledged that he lost fairly the election four years earlier. In an interview with an article in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel in February, Weinroth said there were “problems with the election, but I’m certainly not going to question the process.”

He awarded DeSantis his “A” rating as a Governor, mainly in his response to the pandemic. It was also the Governor’s faith in Moskowitz who was an ex- House lawmaker who was appointed by DeSantis in the year 2019 to serve as Florida’s Emergency Management Director and then in 2021 as Broward County Commissioner Broward County Commissioner which earned him Weinroth’s approval two years ago.

“I hoped he’d be able to work against what I’ve seen as a very leftward march in the Democratic Party,” he stated. “Unfortunately I’ve seen how he’s worked alongside the ‘Squad’ radicals as well as radicals within the party to prevent any advancement like that impossible. I don’t believe that within the party that Jared will make a significant impact.”

Weinroth has also criticized Moskowitz’s use the “inappropriate” meme on X of Joe Biden ogling actress Sydney Sweeny’s naked cleavage as well as news that Moskowitz is contemplating running for governor in 2026, as evidence that the new Congressman isn’t able to maintain the discipline and focus required to work in Washington.

He pointed to CD 23’s six-candidate GOP field as a sign that he’s not all on the same page.

“I think they smell blood in the water,” said the man.

Priorities, policies, and probabilities

A 71-year-old lawyer who was the director of an medical equipment business, Weinroth grew up in New York City and lived in Boston and New Jersey before relocating to South Florida in the mid-1980s.

He was elected to the Boca Raton City Council in 2014 and was there for four years before his appointment as a member of the Palm Beach Commission. He was a specialist on transportation and land use issues. He also served as the commission’s elected Mayor.

The voter records indicate that Weinroth changed parties in the early part of 2023, a month after he was defeated in a re-election candidacy in the County Commission. Weinroth briefly thought about being a candidate for Palm Beach School Board but applied this past January to run for CD 23.

The website of his campaign outlines plans to cut taxes should he be elected, and to keep “woke Democrats” from turning America into the “Socialist nightmare” — an agenda, according to, “Moskowitz refuses to confront.”

However, in an interview in an interview with Florida Politics, Weinroth pointed at immigration reform and security at the border as his main priorities.

He said he agrees “100%” with DeSantis and Texas Governor. Greg Abbott’s tax-payer-funded programs that help illegally crossing across Mexico to Texas to “sanctuary cities” like Martha’s Vineyard and Sacramento.

“Illegal immigration is the most important issue on the table right now, more important than pocketbook issues,” he stated. “We have a policy on immigration which is in disarray. Millions of people are walking around with no form of document to gain employment and earn a decent living within this nation. It’s a catastrophe.”

He listed the national defense as well as the economy as well as reducing the size of the nation’s debt as his second and third priorities, respectively.

Regarding guns, he said he was in support of the right of individuals who are mentally competent and skilled to possess firearms. However, he was not a fan of Florida’s fairly new law that allows legally-owned firearm owners the right to conceal firearms without a permit or any training.

Weinroth was also a former participant in the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) which lobby the government on behalf Israel. He as well as Moskowitz also happen to be Jewish.

He said he’s disturbed by the anti-Israel sentiment of young people particularly college-aged students and blamed a long-standing failure of Israel to effectively communicate its message, its history, and the story to the general public.

“Even while I was negotiating with members of Congress and the House of Representatives, I was informed back then that Israel did not do well in public relations. Many of the Arab nations were endowing chairs at universities, and they were finding students who came in with pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel views. Today, we’ve reaped the fruits of the fruits of what we’ve sow,” he said.

“A large number of these students are now of the belief they believe that Israel is an apartheid nation and that Palestinians are somehow victimized by this horrible Israel. It’s a sad fact. In the months since October. 7 I believe everyone has recognized that appeasements did not have any effect. The reality that we’re not speaking about the heinous acts that took place during the attack but concerning Israel’s attempt to take advantage of their superior weapons is a joke.”

AIPAC has been a supporter of Moskowitz the who is a major voice in the fight for assistance to the country as well as the right of Israel to defend its own rights.

CD 23 covers Boca Raton, West Boca, northwest Broward County and the coastal Broward south up to Fort Lauderdale. The 2022 election saw Moskowitz won 51.6 percentage of voters in order to defeat Palm Beach GOP Committeeman Joe Budd in the race to succeed fellow Democrat U.S. Rep. Ted Deutch who quit office to become the head of his own organization, the American Jewish Council.

Based on Florida Atlantic University political scientist Kevin Wagner, any Republican who is running for office in the district faces a difficult task ahead. Wagner said to the Sun-Sentinel that it’s not a difficult scenario, “but challenging.”

Cook Political Report, meanwhile the report provided CD 23 a score of D+5 which means that the district voted 5 points better Democratic than the national average during the last two presidential elections. This makes it one of the most swingy district in Texas.

Moskowitz was the winner of the district with an 4.8-percentage-point margin in the past in the same year, when DeSantis took it by just 1 point. Moskowitz was the winner of the state by more than 19 percentage points.

For fundraising purposes, Moskowitz can be described as a monster. In the last quarter the president added $474,000 his re-election fund via donations from progressive organizations and a plethora of personal checks that were primarily collected by Democratic crowdfunding platforms ActBlue as well as AIPAC.

On April 1 the bank had left him with $614,000 to spend.

Weinroth’s gains in the first quarter were greater than the total fundraising of of his GOP opponents. In addition, of the $223,000 that his campaign raised since he joined the race in January. 2 of this year, $100,000 was a self-loaned loan.

Based on the Division of Elections, other GOP candidates who were able to run in this CD 23 race include businessman Steven Chess, counterterrorism expert and non-profit Executive Joe Kaufman, Navy veteran Carla Spalding, insurance executive Darlene Swaffer and the pastor Joe Thelusca, and Gary Barve who the Sun-Sentinel announced had withdrawn of the running in February.

Seventh GOP Candidate, Army vet Rafael Ortiz has filed for candidacy in November, but did not file any campaign finance reports, and he didn’t meet the requirements to be a candidate.

This year’s Primary Election is on Aug. 20 and will be followed by the General Election on Nov. 5.