Representative Robert Wexler

Robert Ira Wexler (born January 2, 1961) is an American politician and lawyer from Florida who served as a Democratic Representative in the United States House of Representatives from 1997 until his resignation on January 3, 2010. Representing Florida’s 19th congressional district for seven consecutive terms, he participated actively in the legislative process during a significant period in American history and became known for his outspoken positions on foreign policy, civil liberties, and executive power. After leaving Congress, he became president of the Washington-based S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace, continuing his involvement in international affairs and diplomacy.

Wexler was born in Queens, New York, to Ben and Sandra Wexler. When he was ten years old, his family moved to South Florida, where he was raised and would later build his political career. He attended Hollywood Hills High School in Hollywood, Florida, graduating before beginning his college studies at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. After a year at Emory, he transferred to the University of Florida in Gainesville, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science in 1982. He then moved to Washington, D.C., to study law, receiving his Juris Doctor from The George Washington University Law School in 1985.

Following law school, Wexler returned to Florida and entered private legal practice. He joined the firm of Shutts & Bowen, where he worked as an attorney before seeking elected office. His early legal career provided experience in complex legal and regulatory matters and helped establish his professional reputation in South Florida. This background in law would later inform his work on the House Judiciary Committee, where he focused on constitutional issues, civil liberties, and oversight of the executive branch.

Wexler’s formal political career began in the Florida Legislature. He was elected to the Florida Senate in 1990 and served there until 1996. During his tenure in the state senate, he represented a South Florida district and built a record as a Democratic legislator, gaining experience in state-level policymaking and constituent service. His service in the Florida Senate from 1990 to 1996 positioned him as a prominent local figure and set the stage for his subsequent election to Congress.

In the 1996 election, Wexler ran for the U.S. House of Representatives to fill the open seat in Florida’s 19th congressional district vacated by fellow Democrat Harry Johnston. He won the election and took office in January 1997. Over the course of his congressional career, he was reelected six times, never facing serious opposition in what was considered one of the most strongly Democratic districts in Florida. As a member of the House of Representatives, Wexler represented the interests of his South Florida constituents while engaging in national debates on foreign policy, the Middle East, and the limits of executive authority.

Wexler’s committee assignments reflected his focus on both foreign affairs and legal-constitutional issues. He served on the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, where he chaired the Subcommittee on Europe and also sat on the Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights, and Oversight and the Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia. He also served on the House Committee on the Judiciary, including the Subcommittee on Courts and Competition Policy. Through these roles he became a visible advocate on issues involving U.S. relations with Europe and the Middle East, human rights, and judicial and antitrust policy.

Within Congress, Wexler was active in numerous caucuses, often as a founder or co-chair. He co-founded and co-chaired the Congressional Caucus on Global Road Safety and was a co-founder of the Caucus on U.S.-Turkish Relations and the Taiwan Caucus. He also co-founded and co-chaired the Caucus on Intellectual Property Promotion and Piracy Prevention and the Indonesia Caucus, and served as co-chair of the Congressional Study Group on Turkey. In addition, he was a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, the India Caucus, and the Serbia Caucus. These affiliations underscored his interest in international engagement, trade, intellectual property, and progressive domestic policy.

Wexler occasionally drew public attention for his advocacy on specific constituent and cultural issues. In April 1997, early in his congressional tenure, he requested an investigation into why the price of matzoh, the unleavened bread central to Jewish Passover observances, varied widely across the United States. Calling it “the biggest thing since the Jewish people escaped from Pharaoh and Egypt,” he urged constituents to help one another by purchasing matzoh where it was cheaper, even suggesting that family and friends “buy five-pound boxes in the Bronx and FedEx it down here.” The episode highlighted both his responsiveness to his district’s large Jewish population and his willingness to use humor in public life.

During the George W. Bush administration, Wexler emerged as a prominent critic of what he viewed as abuses of executive power. As a member of the House Judiciary Committee, he supported efforts to investigate and, if warranted, impeach Vice President Dick Cheney. In an email to supporters on November 7, 2007, referring to House Resolution 333, he pledged to urge the Judiciary Committee to schedule impeachment hearings immediately, arguing that only through hearings could Congress begin to correct what he described as abuses by Cheney and the administration. In mid-December 2007, he launched the website Wexlerwantshearings.com, which featured a YouTube video explaining his position and a petition calling for impeachment hearings. He set a goal of 50,000 signatures; within two weeks, more than 200,000 people had signed the petition and over 70,000 had viewed the video.

Wexler continued this line of oversight in 2008. After the publication of former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan’s memoir “What Happened” in June of that year, Wexler publicly called for McClellan to testify under oath about what he characterized as possible crimes committed by the Bush administration. He argued that Congress had a responsibility to investigate the allegations, and McClellan ultimately testified before the House Judiciary Committee on June 20, 2008. On June 10, 2008, Wexler also co-sponsored and signed Representative Dennis Kucinich’s articles of impeachment against President George W. Bush. Citing the congressional oath of office, he stated that it was Congress’s duty to act and accused the president of having “deliberately created a massive propaganda campaign to sell the war in Iraq to the American people,” describing the charges as evidence of an unprecedented abuse of executive power. Although the House voted 251 to 166 on July 25, 2008, to refer the impeachment resolution to the Judiciary Committee, no further action was taken, and Democratic Speaker Nancy Pelosi repeatedly stated she would not support impeachment proceedings against Bush, arguing they would be divisive and unlikely to succeed.

In 2008, Wexler’s residency arrangements became the subject of political controversy. In July of that year, Fox News host Bill O’Reilly reported that Wexler claimed his mother-in-law’s home in Delray Beach, Florida, as his official residence, even though he was listed on the House roll as “D–Boca Raton” and reportedly lived most of the year in a Maryland suburb of Washington, D.C. Edward J. Lynch, a Republican challenging Wexler for his congressional seat, publicized that the Delray Beach address was in a gated, age-restricted 55-and-older community, arguing that Wexler could not legally move there with children under 18. Confronted with these allegations, Wexler stated that his mother-in-law did own the Delray Beach house and that he stayed there when in Florida, which his office said was on average about twice a month. As a Florida resident, he did not pay personal income tax and registered his vehicles in Florida, despite spending most of his time in the Washington metropolitan area.

On January 3, 2010, Wexler resigned from Congress to take a leadership role in Middle East peace efforts. He became executive director of the Center for Middle East Peace and Economic Cooperation, a Washington-based think tank, and later served as president of the S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace. In these positions, he has continued to work on issues central to his congressional career, including U.S. policy in the Middle East, Arab–Israeli peace negotiations, and broader questions of international diplomacy and regional security.