Broward’s members of Congress, who represent the most Democratic territory in the state, are facing a strategic and moral quandary as they try to figure out how to operate in a political environment dominated by President Donald Trump and a Republican-controlled national government.

Their choice: make nice and cooperate — or fight like hell?

Or, possibly, some combination of both, an approach some think allows them to temper what they regard as the most egregious policies emanating from Trump, maybe get a few of their own ideas enacted, resurrect their party’s reputation with the electorate, and secure their own reelections in coming years.

It’s tricky to navigate.

U.S. Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick and Jared Moskowitz don’t want voters to see them as unreasonable obstructionists — and they don’t want voters to think they’re capitulating to Trump and violating principles Democrats hold dear.

Further complicating their challenge, success or failure could depend less on the substance of what they do or don’t do, and more on messaging and how voters perceive their performance. That is, if voters are paying attention at all.

Wasserman Schultz, Cherfilus-McCormick and Moskowitz, who collectively represent most of Broward and Palm Beach counties, say they’re in sync. But in interviews, speeches and formal statements, they’re showing somewhat different approaches and priorities.

Retired Broward Circuit Judge Ilona Holmes, said the Democratic House members need to do it all. “You can’t compromise integrity. Get along when you can, but when you can’t — resist.”

Different approach

Moskowitz, South Florida’s junior member of Congress, said his party needs a different approach to dealing with Trump and presenting itself to voters.

What it’s been offering recently hasn’t worked. As proof, Moskowitz pointed to election results.

“I can tell you this: I think in the first term of the Trump administration, Democrats got it wrong. We were constantly outraged. We fell into all the traps of all of the chaos and trying to respond to everything, and I think this time around, it can’t be constant outrage. It has to be selective resistance.

“We’re going to have to pick our spots. But we can’t be ‘no’ on everything. I can tell you if we vote ‘no’ on everything, if we’re just the ‘no’ party, I think the American people are going to continue to look at us and give us the same result,” Moskowitz said.

Voters, he said, “have looked at Donald Trump — and they’ve looked at what we proposed.” Their conclusion. “We’re going to go with him.”

“It’s a reflection on what we (Democrats) are selling. Because we’re just two corner stores. Democrats are a corner store and the Republicans are a corner store.” Sales — or, in this case, election results — are about “the products you’re selling, but it’s also about your salesmanship, and they’re way better at selling their products.”

Don’t give up

Cherfilus-McCormick, who represents most of the African American and Caribbean American communities in Broward and Palm Beach counties, said she has seen demoralized Democrats around the country.

“People seem to have lost their fight and their resiliency. And the one thing I remind them all the time is, we have never been handed anything a day in our life,” Cherfilus-McCormick said. “This is a moment where we have to be unwavering and make sure we define our country once again for who we are.”

Wasserman Schutz, the longest-serving Democrat in the Florida Congressional Delegation, urged people not to despair even faced with the gusher of Trump administration policies Democrats find abhorrent and said it’s important not to be overwhelmed by the volume of statements that capture attention and prevent people from focusing on what’s most important.

“We will not dive into the daily Trump circus and chase absurd claims, disinformation and lies,” she declared.

“We all have to make sure that we fight our own exhaustion. I know it’s difficult. I know swiping down on your phone in the morning and looking at those notifications about the next extreme thing that he did in the middle of the night is frightening and frustrating and can impact people’s mental health, but we have to stay in the fight,” Wasserman Schultz said.

Immigration

Immigration, and especially the cases of people who are in the country illegally, is politically fraught.

Cherfilus-McCormick said the election season and its aftermath was emotional for her and many of her constituents. Her parents were immigrants from Haiti, “fleeing a dictator,” and she is the first Haitian-American Democrat elected to Congress.

“There’s a narrative that immigrants are somehow all illegal and somehow all have an underlying criminality to them and that they are less than, that they’re not hardworking,” she said.

Cherfilus-McCormick said people in the country illegally who commit crimes should be deported, but the enforcement in the early days of the Trump administration goes far beyond that.

“We must continue to be resolute and ensure that no one feels scared or threatened. We’re hearing more and more stories about these raids and how Americans are being taken,” she said. “We can’t live in a country where just because you have an accent, you’re afraid that someone’s gonna pick you up and deport you. This is not the United States.”

Moskowitz was the only Florida Democrat, among a total of 46 in the House, who voted with the Republican majority in favor of the Laken Riley Act. Signed into law by Trump on Wednesday, it requires detention of undocumented immigrants charged with crimes, including nonviolent burglary, theft or shoplifting. A charge against someone who hasn’t been found guilty, would suffice.

It was named after the Georgia nursing student who was murdered by an undocumented immigrant last year while she was out jogging.

Different approaches

Wasserman Schultz and Cherfilus-McCormick both said cooperation, where possible, is important. And Moskowitz said opposition is necessary at times.

But Wasserman Schultz has been sharper in her condemnation of Trump and Republican policies than Moskowitz.

“We have a fire hose of horrendous policy that is coming at us right now and we, you know, can’t dress that up or put lipstick on it and make it OK,” she said. As a Democrat with Republicans controlling the White House, Senate and House of Representatives, “I consider a good portion of my responsibility in the minority with a trifecta of MAGA extremism in Washington to stand and fight.”

Moskowitz’s tone is different.

After the Trump victory and Republicans retaining control of the House, Moskowitz became the first Democrat to join the DOGE Caucus. That’s a group formed to support the efforts led by billionaire Trump adviser Elon Musk to cut federal spending and make the government more efficient.

“Democrats are constantly getting stuck fighting for the status quo. It’s a trap that Republicans set for us, right? And I can tell you Americans don’t look at government and are like, it’s perfect, don’t change anything. They always think government can be improved. They always think government can spend less money. That’s what Americans think because that’s what businesses think and that’s what families are thinking, right? And so I joined the caucus,” he said.

“I’m going to go to where these conversations are happening, even conversations that I don’t like. You can’t stay in safe spaces. We’re being out-communicated because we don’t want to go into places where there are tough conversations,” he said.

Lourdes Diaz, a Pembroke Pines Hispanic media and branding strategist, who has also been president of the Democratic Hispanic Caucus chapter in Broward and president of the Pembroke Pines Democratic Club, described Moskowitz as “a little bit more in the middle” and Wasserman Schultz as “more of a passionate Democrat.”

There were noticeable differences in tone in the Inauguration Day statements from Wasserman Schultz and Moskowitz.

Wasserman Schultz said she “opposed the man who was sworn in and disagree with many of the despicable things that he said and plans to do” and criticized “the avalanche of lies, disrespect and ugly vengeance he unfurled in his inauguration speech. (She did promise to “seek as much common ground as possible” but said “it may prove difficult.”)

Moskowitz, by contrast, emphasized his view that “it’s critical we work across party lines to solve the pressing issues facing our nation,” called for ending “partisanship and dysfunction” and pledged to “work with his Administration” where possible. (He added that he would “stand up to them to disagree where I must.”

Though they’re Democrats from neighboring districts, they have different perspectives.

Wasserman Schultz is part of party leadership in the House as a co-chair of the Steering & Policy Committee and is a former chair of the Democratic National Committee. She has served the minority party and the majority in Congress and earlier in the state Legislature.

Moskowitz, beginning his second term, has always been in the minority party, including in his previous time in the state Legislature. And he was appointed to two important jobs, state emergency management director and Broward County commissioner, by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.

His district leans Democratic, but he won his two elections by the smallest margins of any congressional victory in the state.

Wasserman Schultz said her approach isn’t so different from Moskowitz’s, describing it as “more a different emphasis in the choice of words.”

Palm Beach County

Palm Beach County, home to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club home and resort, is more friendly toward Trump than Broward. He narrowly lost Palm Beach County.

U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel, a Democrat whose district includes Mar-a-Lago, has selectively commented critically on a several, but not all Trump actions.

And U.S. Rep. Brian Mast, a Republican who represents northern Palm Beach, Martin and St. Lucie counties, is an outspoken supporter, posting on social media on Inauguration Day that Trump “brings a movement of renewal for the values we hold dear: putting America first, securing our borders, and empowering the people.” Five days later, he wrote that Trump “has already done more to restore common sense in this country than his predecessor did in 4 years.”

Strategic assessment

Trump did better nationally, and in Democrat-heavy Broward, than in his previous presidential campaigns, prompting questions of strategy among Democrats across the country.

Many are concentrating on so-called kitchen table issues, things that people constantly see, and were seen as pivotal factors in how the 2024 elections turned out.

Last year, Republicans used the high price of eggs, caused largely by the spread of bird flu, as fodder to criticize former President Joe Biden.

At their ceremonial swearing-in ceremony Monday in Fort Lauderdale, both Wasserman Schultz and Moskowitz brought up the price of eggs to tweak the Republican majority.

“Handing tax breaks to billionaires,” Wasserman Schultz said, “doesn’t make eggs and gas any cheaper.”

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