If two different breeds of dog can come together to fix their beloved dog park, so can Congress.
That’s the message behind a new self-published children’s book, “Shmoo & Ozzie Go to Washington,” written by Ellie Gottheimer and Larra Mullin — the teenage daughters of Representative Josh Gottheimer, Democrat of New Jersey, and Markwayne Mullin, the former Republican senator from Oklahoma who was recently sworn in as homeland security secretary.
The book is inspired by their fathers’ friendship across party lines, and is dedicated to them “for teaching us how to listen, to find common ground and to meet in the middle, even when things get hard.”
Shmoo, a goldendoodle, and Ozzie, a Dalmatian, move to Washington because their fathers have been elected to Dog Congress. (Shmoo is based on the Gottheimers’ goldendoodle, Rosie, named after the Bruce Springsteen song “Rosalita.” Ozzie is inspired by a ranch dog who belonged to the Mullins family and who died shortly before the book project started.)
Their meeting is awkward, since Shmoo and Ozzie have nothing in common. Instead, they choose to hang out with like-minded dogs. But their lives are upended when their favorite dog park is threatened with closure. They work together to convince canine representatives on both sides of the aisle to restore funding.
“Being young, we all saw what was happening on social media, a bunch of left versus right, and we wanted to show that we see our dads working together,” Larra Mullin explained last week. “We want to show left and right versus the problem.”
Mullin, who will turn 18 next month, was at the dining table of her father’s Capitol Hill townhouse for a joint interview with Ellie Gottheimer, who is 17. Their fathers sat nearby.
The dads met shortly after Gottheimer was sworn into Congress in 2017. (Mullin had been in the House since 2013, and became a senator in 2023.)
They got to know each other in a workout class at the House gym that Mullin still organizes. On average, about 10 members of both parties show up.
“You forge relationships sometimes,” Mullin said. “Because we work out hard. My goal is to smoke you at the end of it.”
The camaraderie set a “great example,” Larra Mullin said.
“They’re both very different, but we get to watch them literally work together side by side every day to solve the problem, versus hating each other and just arguing all the time,” she added. “I’ve never seen them argue. I’ve always seen them sit down and solve the problems.”
Ellie Gottheimer added: “It is like they are like the same person, just in very different fonts.”
But in the real Washington, if not Dog Washington, political differences don’t disappear just like that.
Mullin, who has long supported President Trump, runs a department loathed by the left, especially because of tensions regarding the administration’s deportation policies and the actions of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. (During traffic stops by ICE agents, immigrants in Texas and Maine were shot and killed this month, cases still under investigation.)
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Democrats deemed too friendly to Trump, particularly in liberal states, have suffered in recent primary elections, including Gottheimer, who finished fourth in the New Jersey gubernatorial primary last year.
Gottheimer won re-election in his blue-leaning district in northern New Jersey. But he raised eyebrows when he appeared behind Mullin during his tense March confirmation hearings to run the Department of Homeland Security.
Their daughters, who are entering their senior year of high school in their home states, have known each other for about a decade.
Ellie described meeting Larra as “nerve wracking,” given their different backgrounds. But as young people they found common ground and became, like their fathers, close friends. Ellie and Larra have visited each other in their respective states, and spent time together in Washington.
Last year, Ellie came up with the idea of a book, and pitched Larra on collaborating. She immediately said yes. Using babysitting money, Ellie created an imprint called Voice of Tomorrow Press, to boost “young writers who want this message of hope and working together.”
“We want to be able to show kids before they get on social media, before they experience extremism and polarization and false information, that you can work together with those that are different from you,” Ellie said.
The girls crowdsourced online to find their illustrator, Kiran Akram. Proceeds from book sales will benefit Project Night Night, a charity aimed at helping homeless children.
The closeness of their families has built trust between the fathers, Gottheimer said. But that’s not the same as agreement.
“There’s some basic things, like abortion, we’re going to have a different view on them,” Gottheimer said. “That’s kind of common stuff that Democrats and Republicans disagree on.”
The New York Times recently published an investigation detailing unsafe conditions at an ICE facility in Gottheimer’s home state. The congressman had earlier released a statement after visiting the facility, pledging to work with the Homeland Security department to make sure that conditions improve.
In the interview, Mullin declined to comment on Gottheimer’s statement.
“I’m not going to talk about the differences in that, because this is a friendly relationship,” Mullin said.
Gottheimer said, “We’re here talking about our dogs.”
Will their daughters follow in their political footsteps? Ellie said she would “definitely be honored to work in politics,” but Larra said she expects to focus on religious mission work.
They’re in agreement on one hope: that the book can inspire future generations.
“We wanted to do something that would get the message across in a very nonpolitical way, and that’s why we focused on dogs,” Larra said. “Because we think everyone loves dogs.”
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