Moskowitz worked as an intern for Vice President Al Gore, served as an assistant on Joe Lieberman's2004 presidential campaign, and was a Florida delegate pledged to Barack Obama at the 2008 Democratic National Convention. While attending law school, he was elected to the Parkland City Commission in 2006 and reelected in 2010, serving until he resigned to run for the legislature in 2012. While serving as a city commissioner, Moskowitz supported efforts to make the city more eco-friendly by providing subsidies to households that purchase low-flow toilets and showerheads, energy-efficient air conditioners, and hybrid cars.[5] After graduating, he worked for AshBritt Environmental as director of government relations and general counsel.
Florida House of Representatives
When the state legislative districts were redrawn in 2012, Moskowitz opted to run in the newly drawn 97th house district, which consisted of northern Broward County. He won the Democratic primary unopposed and advanced to the general election, where he faced Republican nominee James Gleason, a business owner who had been an unsuccessful candidate for mayor of Coral Springs. The Sun-Sentinel praised both candidates as "good choices for an open seat" but endorsed Moskowitz, declaring that his "good grasp of statewide and local issues" made him the better candidate.[6] He defeated Gleason with 69% of the vote.[7]
During his first term in the legislature, Moskowitz sponsored a memorial for Robert Levinson, who has been held as a hostage in Iran since 2007, calling on "Congress, the Obama administration and the Secretary of State's office to work to get Levinson home." Moskowitz's proposed memorial passed both houses of the legislature and was signed by Governor Rick Scott.[8]
In 2014 and 2016, Moskowitz was reelected to the legislature without opposition.
In 2018, after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Moskowitz helped draft the bipartisan Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Safety Act, the first comprehensive mental health, school safety, and gun control bill of its kind in over 20 years. This bill increased the age to purchase a firearm to 21, implemented a red-flag law, created a three-day waiting period to purchase firearms, increased security requirements for public schools, funded centralized school safety surveillance programs, and improved mental health services for students.[9]
Division of Emergency Management
On December 6, 2018, Governor-elect Ron DeSantis announced that he would appoint Moskowitz as director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management.[10] Moskowitz resigned from the Florida House of Representatives and took office as DEM director on January 15, 2019.[11]
Moskowitz took over Florida's Division of Emergency Management during the recovery of Hurricane Michael, a category-5 storm that made landfall in Florida in October 2018. Recovery efforts were notably slow during early recovery, and Moskowitz is credited with speeding up the recovery process and securing historic 90% reimbursement from the federal government for all disaster-assistance efforts.[12]
In early April 2020, Moskowitz made headlines when he complained that foreign countries were paying the American company 3M to reroute millions of N95 masks destined for Florida during the COVID-19 pandemic. He said, "For the last several weeks, we have had a boiler room chasing down 3M authorized distributors [and] brokers representing that they sell the N95 masks, only get to warehouses that are completely empty." He then said that the 3M-authorized U.S. distributors later told him that the masks for which Florida contracted never showed up because the company instead prioritized orders that came in later, for higher prices, from foreign countries, including Germany, Russia, and France. As a result, Moskowitz highlighted the issue on Twitter, saying that he decided to "troll" 3M.[13][14][15]
Moskowitz led the department during the early distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine, creating an administrative network for all 67 Florida counties. He is credited with working with community organizations, including black and Hispanic churches, HUD housing, and senior assisted-living facilities, to vaccinate at-risk populations efficiently.[16] He criticized 60 Minutes for running a story that claimed that Governor Ron DeSantis engaged in a pay-to-play scheme with supermarket chain Publix over distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine, writing that "[n]o one" from DeSantis's "office suggested Publix" to distribute the vaccines.[17][18]
Moskowitz was called the "Master of Disaster" by several news publications for his handling of the pandemic.[19]
On February 15, 2021, Moskowitz announced his resignation from the Division of Emergency Management, citing his desire to spend time with his father, who was battling pancreatic cancer. He officially left the Division in May 2021.
On August 5, 2021, Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine-Cava appointed Moskowitz to advise Miami-Dade's COVID-19 response.[20]
U.S. House of Representatives
Tenure
Moskowitz (right) with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel, November 12, 2023
Moskowitz assumed office on January 3, 2023, succeeding Democrat Ted Deutch.
