This Just May Be The Craziest House Race. Barely Anyone Is Talking About It.
The wide open Aug. 18 GOP primary for a deep red Florida House seat features two scandal-plagued former members of Congress — and half of its ten candidates previously ran for Congress in other states.
The wide open Aug. 18 GOP primary for a deep red Florida House seat features two scandal-plagued former members of Congress — and half of its ten candidates previously ran for Congress in other states.
One of these candidates, entrepreneur and former Commerce Department official Catalina Lauf, 33, ran in a crowded 2020 Illinois House primary, losing by single digits to a man who also happens to be vying in the Sunshine State’s August contest. Lauf told the Daily Caller News Foundation during an interview that while there are many hotly-contested midterm races, none are as “juicy” as the Republican primary for Florida’s 19th Congressional District.
An October 2025 Axios report referred to the race as “the GOP’s carpetbagger primary,” while CNN on Sunday called the diverse field a “clown show.” It also notably features a male underwear model who spent three years in jail after taking part in the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol.
An observer from Washington D.C. described the chaotic race “as an island of misfit toys,” Lauf told the DCNF. “And unfortunately, what we’re seeing is that you have two former members of Congress who left in disgrace and they were shopping around to find a seat.”
Former Republican North Carolina Rep. Madison Cawthorn and former Republican New York Rep. Chris Collins are running against Lauf and seven others in the primary to succeed incumbent Republican Rep. Byron Donalds. Donalds is not seeking reelection to the seat — which President Donald Trump won by 30 points in the 2024 presidential election — and is instead running for governor of Florida. (RELATED: GOP Candidate Seeking To Become First Rep Born In 2000s Vies To Notch Another MAHA Win In Heartland)
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Cawthorn, now 31, served a single House term from 2021 to 2023, and was the youngest member of Congress at the time. News outletsreported he bought a house in Florida’s 19th District just days after he lost his 2022 GOP primary to Chuck Edwards. During his term, Cawthorn was caught on two separateinstances bringing a loaded gun to an airport, was cited for driving with a revoked license and made headlines after Politico published old photographs of him wearing lingerie. He also claimed on a 2022 podcast
Meanwhile, Collins served in Congress from 2013 to 2019, first winning his seat unseating future New York Gov. Kathy Hochul. He resigned from office one year after the FBI arrested him on charges of insider trading, wire fraud and lying to the Bureau. Collins was sent to federal prison — ironically in Florida — but Trump pardoned him just two months into his sentence.
“Those two in particular have made it really clear that this race for them is a redemption tour. And that angers a candidate like myself, who moved down here because my family moved down here,” Lauf told the DCNF. She noted that southwestern Florida contains a large population of her fellow Midwesterners, in particular transplants from the Chicago area.
The candidate, after mentioning Cawthorn and Collins, stated that she thinks Americans “are so fed up with an elitist political class that is not worried about their constituents.”
“A lot of people moved post-COVID down to Southwest Florida in particular. So, it’s a natural fit for somebody like myself ,” she continued. “My husband was also transferred for work, and I also decided that I didn’t want to raise my future family in a in a blue state.”
The Illinois native pushed back against claims that she is a “carpetbagger,” telling the DCNF that she prefers the term “blue state refugee.”
“I couldn’t control where I was born, but I can control where I choose to live my life and settle roots,” Lauf said. “We’re the party of merit. And so, when you have a candidate that’s trying to just sell themselves as ‘I’m just the hometown person,’ well, you’re completely taking away what makes them qualified to actually be a representative for that area.”
A Victory Insights poll released Friday found Lauf tied for first place in the crowded primary with Jim Schwartzel, the owner of a conservative talk radio station. Both candidates had 19% of support.
Schwartzel is one of the 50% of of the 19th District’s candidates who did not previously seek office in another state. His campaign website states that he is a “proud native of Southwest Florida.”
Lauf slammed her opponent’s tenure leading 92.5 FOX News arguing that he pushed the COVID-19 vaccine on his staff.
A 2021 email Schwartzel sent to his employees told them to provide proof of receiving a COVID shot or be forced to wear a mask on the job.
“This is a very Republican seat. So, how could we trust that somebody like that, just because they happen to be born in this district, is actually going to fight for their values?” Lauf told the DCNF, emphasizing that Florida is a “free state.”
The Victory Insights poll also found former Illinois State Sen. Jim Oberweis — the now-80-year-old former dairy mogul and perennial candidate who defeated Lauf in a 2020 Illinois House primary — in third place with 12% of support. Oberweis went on to narrowly lose the general election to incumbent Democratic Illinois Rep. Lauren Underwood, despite initially declaring victory and claiming he “prevailed.”
Collins was in fourth place with 8% of support, Cawthorn in fifth place with 6% and former 2020 New York House candidate Ola Hawatmeh in sixth with 4%., according to the poll. John Strand, an underwear model originally from California who was one of the Jan. 6 defendants Trump pardoned after beginning his second term, was in seventh place with 3%. The other three candidates — businessman Tex Bukowski, Marine veteran Mike Pedersen and former National Institutes of Health (NIH) researcher Linda Sawyer — combined for 5% of the vote. A quarter of respondents were undecided.
Lauf also told the DCNF about her experience as an entrepreneur starting Begin Health, a children’s nutrition company, with her sister.
“I’m really passionate about this space,” she said. “We originally had the intention of getting into the baby formula business. This was during the time prior to the big baby formula blackout crisis that happened.”
Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Action cited Lauf’s experience in building the company “from the ground up” in its endorsement of her campaign.
“We’re hoping to meet moms some someday soon. And so, we were looking at the ingredients on the shelves of baby formula, and we saw that it was all filled with fillers, corn syrup, all the stuff that’s very harmful to kids, especially their gut microbiome,” the candidate said. “And so, unfortunately at the time, we had to pivot.”
She noted that the company’s flagship product is a “gut microbiome, prebiotic-friendly ingredient” in the form of a powder that kids take.
“We’re so passionate about it because ultimately, the kids are the future,” Lauf said. “And so, we’re living in a time now where people are really awakening when it comes to their health.”
President Donald Trump, who Lauf served under for several months in 2018, has yet to endorse a candidate in the crowded race to succeed Donalds.
She told the DCNF that she would be honored to receive Trump’s backing adding that who the president decides to endorse would “make or break” the race, considering how strongly the district backed him in 2024.
In addition to MAHA Action, Lauf does boast endorsements from Florida Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna and Indiana Republican Sen. Jim Banks, two high-profile conservative members of Congress.
In addition to her 2020 primary run against Oberweis, Lauf was also the Republican nominee for another Illinois House district in 2022. She lost by 13 points to incumbent Democratic Rep. Bill Foster, improving on President Joe Biden’s margin in the solidly blue district by two points.
Lauf challenged Foster after previously mounting a primary challenge to prominent anti-Trump Republican then-Rep. Adam Kinzinger — which ended after Illinois Democrats eliminated Kinzinger’s seat in redistricting and he opted to retire.
During her campaign against Kinzinger, Lauf received the endorsement of a then-sitting member of Congress who she would not know would eventually go on to become her opponent four years later: Madison Cawthorn.
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