Businessman Defeats 2 Felons, A Trump Endorsee, And Madison Cawthorn For GOP House Nomination

A Florida businessman won a chaotic Republican House primary that featured a former Trump adviser, two former congressmen from different states, and a January 6 defendant. 

Media mogul Jim Schwartzel defeated nine other candidates to win the GOP nomination to replace Rep. Byron Donalds in Florida’s 19th Congressional District on Tuesday. Schwartzel defeated the Trump-endorsed Catalina Lauf, earning 29% of the vote to the former Commerce Department adviser’s 22%. 

Other candidates in the race included former Illinois state Senator Jim Oberweis, former North Carolina Rep. Madison Cawthorn, former New York Rep. Chris Collins, and January 6 defendant John Strand. The seat opened up after Donalds decided to run for governor. 

President Donald Trump endorsed Lauf last week, saying she “has proven she has the Courage and Wisdom to deliver strong results for the incredible people of her State and Nation.” Before her run for Donald’s seat, Lauf ran for Congress in Illinois twice, including once in the Republican primary against Oberweis.

Cawthorn represented North Carolina’s 11th district in Congress from 2021 to 2023, and he made national headlines for saying he was invited to cocaine-fueled orgies by fellow lawmakers. He lost in the GOP primary to Rep. Chuck Edwards, who recently announced he would not be running for re-election after the House Ethics Committee found evidence he treated female staffers inappropriately. 

Two of the other candidates in the Florida race previously received pardons from Trump. 

Collins, who represented New York in Congress from 2013 to 2019, was convicted of insider trading and lying to the FBI. He was sentenced to 26 months in prison, but was pardoned by Trump about two months into his prison sentence. 

Strand, who was sentenced to over two years in prison for protesting inside the Capitol on January 6, was pardoned shortly after Trump’s second term began. 

Many of Schwartzel’s campaign ads in the days leading up to the race focused on how the other candidates were recent transplants to Florida.

Schwartzel, who owns and operates a large conservative radio channel in Florida and runs publishing company Gulfshore Life Media, ran a pro-Trump campaign on a platform of fighting for term limits, protecting Florida’s water supply, and opposing DEI and transgender ideology. 

“Southwest Florida sent a clear message: this congressional seat belongs to Southwest Florida. We had a hard-fought, spirited primary but now it is time to unite our party and turn our focus to November and beyond. I am ready to get to work supporting President Trump and his America First agenda and delivering results for Southwest Florida,” Schwartzel said after his win. “This is my home. It always has been and it always will be. I will never forget who I represent or why I ran.”

He is expected to easily win the heavily Republican favorable seat.