There is no one who can question my lifelong loyalty to the Democratic Party but on November 5, 2024, I will vote for Donald Trump for president of the United States. This is not a decision I take lightly but it is a decision I am 100% convinced is the correct decision for the United States, my children, my grandchildren, and the world.
I registered to vote as a Democrat when I was 18 years old and served my state and country as an elected official for 22 years, 12 of which I spent in the US House of Representatives from Florida, only the third Jew ever elected to the House from the Sunshine State in its history, and several years of which I spent as the youngest Jewish member in Congress.
In Congress, I was a loyal ally to former House speaker Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Chuck Schumer, rarely/never bucked my party or the leadership, and served as a delegate to two Democratic National Conventions. In 2000, I wrote checks for more money to the Al Gore presidential campaign than anyone else in the United States. On January 6, 2001, I made the motion on the floor of the Congress to challenge the certification of the election of George W. Bush.
As ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, I helped lead inquiries into malfeasance at corporate giants like Enron, Imclone, and Firestone.
Over the course of my career, I had the distinction of hiring and mentoring two future leaders of today’s Democratic Party. Congresswoman and former DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz was my chief of staff in the Florida State Legislature and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro was an aide in my congressional office.
Somewhere along the way, however, my Democratic Party – the party I served faithfully for nearly half a century – left me. I oppose illegal immigration and transgender students competing in high school girls’ sports, and just as Democrat Bill Clinton supported as president, I favor school choice.
But there is one policy that is the driving force behind my endorsement of former president Donald Trump and that is his position on how we engage Iran. I vehemently opposed president Barack Obama’s Iran nuclear deal in 2015. The Trump administration abandoned the Obama posture toward Iran and instead enforced tougher policies on that terrorist state.
Trump implemented sanctions against Iran that constrained the Iranian economy to the extent that Iran could not finance its terrorist proxies including Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis. The Biden-Harris administration, however, completely reversed the successful Trump containment policy.
A credible record
As president, Trump had a credible and defined position to use force to contain Iran, including the elimination of IRGC commander Qasem Soleimani. The Biden-Harris administration has had the exact opposite position on the use of force to contain Iran.
The tragic, horrific results of the changes in policy from the Trump administration to the Biden-Harris administration are the events from October 7 to today in Israel and throughout the Middle East, including the deaths of American servicemen in Jordan.
Iran’s terror-like aggression is also aimed at the United States including plots to assassinate former national security advisor and UN ambassador John Bolton, former secretary of state Mike Pompeo, and Trump. Iran’s ambitions also include ballistic missiles with nuclear weapons that can reach the US homeland.
The world is a very dangerous place, a result in part due to the Biden-Harris foreign policy. I fear it will become far more dangerous if Kamala Harris takes the wheel and is elected the 47th president. Under president Trump, the United States experienced four years of peace and prosperity. We can expect the same in the next four and a second Trump administration.
The writer is a former member of the US House of Representatives (1993-2005), a Democrat from Florida.