Rep. Rashida Tlaib is set to rally in Fort Lauderdale alongside socialist primary challengers trying to unseat two Jewish House Democrats, a move one Republican lawmaker says is "no coincidence."
The Michigan congresswoman, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America and the first Palestinian American woman elected to Congress, plans to appear at a get-out-the-vote event called "Chomp the Oligarchy" in Fort Lauderdale on Friday. The rally targets Reps. Jared Moskowitz and Debbie Wasserman Schultz, both Jewish Florida Democrats facing primary challenges from DSA-linked opponents, the Washington Examiner reported.
Oliver Larkin, described as a fellow socialist, is challenging Moskowitz. Elijah Manley is running against Wasserman Schultz. Both challengers are listed on a social media flyer promoting the Fort Lauderdale rally, alongside state Rep. Angie Nixon, who is running in a Democratic Senate primary. Miami DSA, Broward County DSA, Gen Z for Change, and the Florida Youth Justice Coalition are co-hosting the event.
Tlaib has been a frequent presence on the campaign trail this cycle, backing socialist candidates in Democratic primaries across the country. But her decision to campaign directly against two Jewish colleagues in her own party drew immediate criticism.
Rep. Randy Fine, a Florida Republican, did not hold back. Fine told Fox News:
"I think that it's no coincidence that she's coming to target two of the remaining Jewish Democrats."
Fine went further in separate remarks, framing the broader pattern as a sign of ideological rot within the Democratic Party. He told the New York Post:
"The Democrats are lost. But I'm going to hope that Florida Democrats are smarter than national Democrats because the Jew hatred side of the Democratic Party is not good for America."
Fine also said of DSA-aligned candidates: "They hate it. They are here to destroy it, and no one embodies that better than Rashida Tlaib."
Tlaib carries a record that makes Fine's accusation difficult to dismiss as partisan overreach. The House censured her in 2023 for statements she made about the war in Gaza after she failed to immediately condemn the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel. In a 2019 interview, she said that thinking of the Holocaust gives her a "calming feeling", a remark that drew widespread backlash at the time.
The tension between Tlaib and at least one of the incumbents she is now working to defeat is not new. Wasserman Schultz previously condemned Tlaib on social media after Tlaib posted the phrase "from the river to the sea" on X. Wasserman Schultz's response was blunt:
"means eradicating Israel and Jews. Period. Dressing it up in a new PR ploy won't change that."
Tlaib defended herself in a separate post, calling the phrase "an aspirational call for freedom, human rights, and peaceful coexistence, not death, destruction, or hate." She added: "My work and advocacy is always centered in justice and dignity for all people no matter faith or ethnicity."
Critics see those words as a public-relations repackaging of a slogan that, for many Jewish Americans and supporters of Israel, carries an eliminationist meaning. That Tlaib is now actively campaigning to replace the Jewish colleague who called her out sharpens the conflict considerably.
Both targeted incumbents are running in districts reshaped by Florida's updated electoral map. Moskowitz, who currently represents the state's 23rd District, is running this cycle in the redrawn 25th District, which stretches from Boca Raton to Miami. Wasserman Schultz is seeking office in the redrawn 20th District, a Fort Lauderdale-area seat described as a majority-Black district that leans heavily Democratic. Her decision to run there reportedly sparked internal debate within the party.
Redistricting scrambled both members' political footing. Wasserman Schultz's prior seat was effectively eliminated under the new map, forcing her into unfamiliar territory. That kind of disruption creates exactly the conditions in which insurgent primary challengers, especially those backed by national activist organizations, can gain traction.
And Tlaib's involvement is not an isolated case. DSA-linked candidates have already defeated incumbent House Democrats in primaries in New York, Colorado, and Michigan this cycle. In Michigan, socialist Abdul El-Sayed, with Tlaib's backing, defeated establishment-supported Rep. Haley Stevens for the Democratic Senate nomination. The pattern is clear: the far-left wing of the party is not content to push policy from the margins. It is systematically trying to replace the people who hold the seats.
That socialist primary sweep in New York already deepened the divide within the Democratic caucus and put House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries in a difficult position.
The DSA surge has not gone unanswered everywhere. In Missouri, former Squad member Cori Bush lost decisively to Wesley Bell, a result that dealt a clear blow to the democratic socialist wing. But the losses have not slowed the movement's broader campaign.
Tlaib's willingness to campaign against members of her own caucus is not a new development, but the Florida rally crystallizes the dynamic. She is not simply endorsing outsiders in open-seat races. She is actively working to remove sitting Democratic members of Congress, and in this case, two who happen to be Jewish, in a state with one of the largest Jewish populations in the country.
The Washington Examiner reported that it reached out to Tlaib, Moskowitz, and Wasserman Schultz for comment. No responses were noted.
Meanwhile, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has publicly defended the Democratic Socialists as "fundamentally pro-democracy", even as the House voted to condemn socialism. That defense grows harder to sustain when the movement's most prominent member is barnstorming the country to purge her own party's incumbents.
And where Squad-aligned candidates do win, the results are mixed at best. Some, like Justin Pearson in Tennessee, have held ground in favorable districts. Others have flamed out. The question for Democratic voters in South Florida is which outcome they prefer.
The "Chomp the Oligarchy" rally is, on its face, a get-out-the-vote event. But the lineup tells a different story. A censured congresswoman with a documented history of inflammatory remarks about Israel and the Holocaust is headlining an effort to defeat two Jewish Democrats, one of whom publicly rebuked her for using a phrase widely understood as a call for Israel's elimination.
Tlaib insists her advocacy is "centered in justice and dignity for all people no matter faith or ethnicity." Her opponents can judge that claim against the pattern: the censure, the delayed condemnation of the October 7 attack, the Holocaust remarks, and now a trip to Fort Lauderdale to campaign against two Jewish colleagues who crossed her.
Actions have a way of clarifying what words try to obscure. Florida voters will decide whether Tlaib's version of "justice and dignity" extends to the people she is working to replace.
