WILTON MANORS, Fla. — Organizers of a rally in support of progressive Democratic Congressional candidates ahead of Tuesday’s primary say a new event location has been secured following public outcry that prompted a Broward business to cancel.
The event, organized by the Florida Youth Justice Coalition and Gen-Z For Change, had been scheduled for Friday night at The Venue Fort Lauderdale, which is located in Wilton Manors.
It featured U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Michigan, a Palestinian American, who on her campaign website describes herself as a “proud member of the Democratic Socialists of America.”
“I heard whispers that Rashida Tlaib was coming,” said Democratic State Rep. Michael Gottlieb, a lawyer who represents District 102, “then I saw that flyer.”
A reference to the group’s “Chomp the Oligarchy: Get out the Vote Rally” promotional flyer, he said.
Taking to social media, Gottlieb expressed his dismay that The Venue would be hosting a gathering of what he describes as a “coalition of candidates and organizations who are on the strongly pro-Palestinian/anti-Israel left, several of whom have been involved in disputes over where anti-Zionism crosses into antisemitism.”
Gottlieb told Local 10 News he believes his post “struck a nerve because this community, which has a high population of Jews and many of which have been to The Venue were also offended, as well as the non-Jews who are sympathetic to and understand what the DSA (Democratic Socialists of America) movement is about.”
After the public outcry, The Venue canceled. In a public statement on social media, it said that the event “would not proceed” due in part to “increased security concerns.”
“The Venue Fort Lauderdale is a Jewish-owned and operated and our values and commitment to the Jewish community are deeply important to us,” it states.
The post goes on to say that they are reviewing their vetting procedures while adding they want to be “unequivocally clear that the acceptance of a venue booking should never be interpreted as an endorsement of the political views, organizations, speakers, messaging, or causes associated with an event.”
“I think what’s important to understand what happened here is my client accepted this booking and it was not disclosed to my client the full extent of who’s gonna be appearing at the booking,” Russell Cormican, the attorney representing The Venue, said. “Particularly Congresswoman Tlaib. It was never disclosed that she was going to be there.”
Cormican said that The Venue became aware of Tlaib’s presence thanks to social media posts less than 24 hours before the scheduled event. He said police showed up at the venue and addressed security concerns.
“And because it was so close to the time that this event was going to happen, they did not have time to put in place adequate security measures in response to the presence of a very controversial person at this event,” he said.
Cormican said his client’s statement was “not a political statement in any way” and said it had nothing to do with the business being Jewish-owned.
“This is the result of a organizer who booked the venue and didn’t disclose all of the people who were gonna be there,” Cormican said. “And one of those people then became a security concern for my client.”
He said his client is “in the business of allowing people to have events” and “not checking people’s political affiliation when they walk in the door.”
“They’re not asking if you’re a Republican or a Democrat or whether you back Israel or Palestine. They’re open to everyone,” he said. “But if you’re gonna have an event there and you’re gonna invite somebody to that event that is a controversial person that’s going to cause a need for added security, then you have to tell them that in advance. You’ve got give them enough time to get ready for that.”
Gottlieb said, “I don’t see race or religion in my job in any way, shape or form, nor do I in my personal life. I want to make that clear. I don’t care that Rashida Tlaib is Palestinian. I care that she’s antisemitic and I understand that some people are going to say she’s not antisemitic.”
One of the candidates Congresswoman Tlaib is in town to support is the DSA-endorsed Oliver Larkin, a digital marketing consultant looking to beat establishment Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Florida, who is now running in Florida’s newly redrawn Congressional District 25.
“This is not a hate rally. This is a rally to motivate young voters against the billionaire class and the corporate interests that are increasingly in control of both political parties,” said Larkin, who described the public outcry and original venue cancellation as “very unfortunate,” adding that they are “moving forward regardless.”
He said they are planning to stage the event at a new “private” location that will only be sent to RSVPs in light of what he feels is “a very hate-fueled public pressure campaign to try to intimidate.”
“So if they wanted to get the youth vote out, number one, then you do a ‘Democrat Youth to the Polls’ event, OK?,” said Gottlieb. “You don’t invite Rashida Tlaib who is the head of the DSA movement essentially in terms of figureheads, right? It was a fundraiser for DSA candidates. They handpicked who they wanted because as I said, they’re pivoting to the left.”
Fighting for ‘the soul of the Democratic Party’?
The incident playing out in Broward may be a microcosm of the partisan in-fighting happening in primary races nationwide as some of the Democratic Party’s more progressive members seek to unseat establishment candidates.
“Representative Rashida Tlaib has represented our country in the United States Congress and we’re very proud to have her coming to to visit our state,” said Larkin. “I think this is case in point of why the Florida Democratic Party has failed to really stand up to Donald Trump and the Republican Party because they seem to be more concerned with quashing any kind of youth participation or progressive momentum to organize in our state.”
“I think it’s hurting the Democratic Party,” said Gottlieb. “I think you’re going to see that if the DSA candidates get elected, you are not going to see a cohesive party platform anymore. I think if you look at some of the commentators in my post, many of them come from socialist or communist countries, or their families do, whether it was in Europe or in South and Latin America, and they said, ‘No, no, no, we don’t want this.’ That’s not what Broward stands for. Broward is blue-collar, Blue Dog Democrats.”
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