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Peter Deutsch
Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromFlorida's20th district
In office January 3, 1993 – January 3, 2005
Preceded by	Dante Fascell (Redistricting)
Succeeded by	Debbie Wasserman Schultz
Member of theFlorida House of Representatives from the 90th district
In office November 2, 1982 – November 3, 1992
Preceded by	Franklin B. Mann[1]
Succeeded by	John Rayson[2]
Personal details
Born	(1957-04-01)April 1, 1957 (age 67) New York City,New York, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Lori Deutsch
Children	2
Education	Swarthmore College (BA) Yale University (JD)

Peter Russell Deutsch^[3][4] (born April 1, 1957) is anAmerican politician from theU.S. state ofFlorida. Deutsch was aDemocraticRepresentative fromFlorida's 20th congressional district from 1993 until 2005.^[5]

Deutsch was born in theborough ofthe Bronx in New York City in 1957.

He graduated from theHorace Mann School in 1975 and attendedSwarthmore College, graduating with aBachelor of Artsdegree in 1979. In college, he worked as anintern for theSenate Judiciary Committee. Deutsch graduated fromYale Law School with aJuris Doctor in 1982.^[6]

After graduating from Yale, Deutsch moved toBroward County, Florida, where he was a lawyer in private practice. He founded thenonprofit Medicare Information Program of Broward County, while working to helpMedicare recipients in the area, and served as the group's director during 1982.

In 1982, Deutsch was elected for the first of five two-year terms in theFlorida House of Representatives, where he wrote legislation protecting seniors from illegalnursing home evictions.

In the1992 House election Deutsch was elected to the United States House of Representatives. He was reelected in1994,1996,1998,2000, and2002. Several times, including in 2000 and 2002, he ran for reelection unopposed. In the House he became theranking member of theSubcommittee on Oversight and Investigations of theEnergy and Commerce Committee, which investigated amongst other things theEnron scandal, theFirestone Tire issue,NIH Conflicts andMartha Stewart’sImClone stock trading case. Deutsch served from January 3, 1993, to January 3, 2005.

During theFlorida election recount after the2000 presidential election, Deutsch led many of the recount efforts in Broward County and brought the motion to the floor of the Senate to contest the results of the 2000 election, an effort that had been seconded byAlcee Hastings.

In 2004, Deutsch declared his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for the Senate seat being vacated in 2005 by retiring Democratic SenatorBob Graham. Although Deutsch consistently ledopinion polls in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale metropolitan area, and had the largest amount of cash on hand for most of the race, he lagged in statewide opinion polls behind rivalBetty Castor, whose fundraising dramatically accelerated during the summer of 2004 with the help ofEMILY's List, which contributed close to $4.5 million in television and advertising dollars. The Castor campaign was accused of inappropriate coordination with EMILY's List, and a lawsuit was filed with theFederal Election Commission.

In May 2004, Deutsch hired Roy Teicher, a former television writer, newspaper reporter and editor, as his communications director. In June 2004, he hired Sanford Dickert, CTO for theJohn Kerry for President Campaign, as his Director of Internet Strategy.^[7] In June, he came under heavy criticism from the Castor campaign afterAmerican Democracy Project, a527 group run byBernie Friedman, began attacking Castor's handling of theSami al-Arian incident. On March 2, 2006, Al-Arian entered a guilty plea to a charge of conspiracy to help thePalestinian Islamic Jihad, a "specially designated terrorist" organization.^[8] He was sentenced to 57 months in prison, and ordered deported following his prison term.^[9] Deutsch denied any involvement in the ADP efforts and denounced their tactics in public.

Later in the campaign, Senator Bob Graham and Florida’s other senatorBill Nelson proposed a pledge between Castor, Deutsch, andAlex Penelas to refrain fromnegative campaigning; Deutsch agreed to the pledge, but added a clause allowing him to raise "legitimate" electability issues. Deutsch released an ad questioning the veracity of Castor's statements on the investigation and suspension of al-Arian.

Deutsch was defeated by Castor in the Democratic primary on August 31, winning only three counties (Miami-Dade,Broward, andMonroe). Castor went on to lose the Senate election toRepublican nomineeMel Martinez. Deutsch was unable to run for reelection to the House because of his Senate campaign, and was succeeded by the new Democratic candidate,Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

In the2024 Presidential election, Deutsch endorsed former President and RepublicanDonald Trump. The announcement was made during a call by the Trump campaign marking the one year anniversary of theOctober 7 Hamas attack onIsrael. Deutsch said the former president's stance on foreign affairs was the deciding issue for him, along with his stance on immigration and school choice.^[10]

Deutsch currently resides inRa'anana,Israel, with his family. However, he has not taken Israeli citizenship, does not speakHebrew, and frequently visits Florida.^[11]He also founded Ben Gamla Charter School inHollywood, Florida. Deutsch and his wife Lori have two children, Jonathan and Danielle.

• List of Jewish members of the United States Congress

• Profile from theBiographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Profile from theJewish Virtual Library
• U.S. Senate campaign official website–archive from theInternet Archive
• Appearances onC-SPAN

• 1957 births
• Living people
• Democratic Party members of the Florida House of Representatives
• Politicians from the Bronx
• Swarthmore College alumni
• Yale Law School alumni
• Horace Mann School alumni
• Jewish members of the United States House of Representatives
• American expatriates in Israel
• Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Florida
• 21st-century American Jews
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• 21st-century members of the United States House of Representatives
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