Inside the GOP's carpetbagger primary
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Illustration: Allie Carl/Axios
Try this on for size: Five (5!) of the candidates in the GOP primary to replace Rep. Byron Donalds have previously run for Congress ... in a different state.
Why it matters: President Trump turned Florida into the GOP's power center. Now, ambitious Republican politicians are flocking there to reboot their careers and grab a safe seat.
- "Virtually everyone here is from somewhere else," Travis Horn, a Florida Republican consultant, told Axios. "But we're not a state where everyone should think they can just come and run for office and rehab their image."
The comeback kids: For some Republicans, Florida's 19th District is a fresh start.
- Former North Carolina Rep. Madison Cawthorn formally filed to run in the district Wednesday. Axios previously reported that Cawthorn, who accused his GOP colleagues of orgies and drug use and lost his seat after just one term, was plotting his return to Congress.
- Former New York Rep. Chris Collins, who resigned from Congress the day he pled guilty to insider trading, announced his candidacy in early June. He served just two months of his 26-month sentence before he was pardoned by Trump.
- Ola Hawatmeh, a senior policy adviser for Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.) and a failed New York congressional candidate, posted a photo with Trump touting her $100,000 fundraising haul. Her FEC quarterly reports haven't been posted.
Midwesterners: Others are flocking south from Illinois, hoping the Gulf Coast offers better political fortune.
- Former Illinois state senator Jim Oberweis, whose dairy business collapsed after years of failed bids for higher office, was the first Republican to formally file.
- Catalina Lauf, who challenged former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) but fell short in the general election, announced her bid Thursday.
The Florida men: Still, not everyone is a transplant. A handful of local hopefuls are jumping in, too.
- Jim Schwartzel, president of Sun Broadcasting, has received the most donations to date of any candidate, according to FEC filings.
- Johnny Fratto challenged Rep. Mario Diaz Balart (R-Fla.) last cycle.
- Mike Pedersen, a retired Marine, is also running.
Donalds, who is running for governor in Florida, told Axios in early September:
- "People up on the 19th, I mean, they can get in, follow, start talking to the voters at home, and see where it goes. I'm not prepared to get engaged in it right now, but I will at some point."
The bottom line: It's a safe seat for Republicans. Whoever claws their way through the circus-like primary is almost guaranteed a ticket to Washington.
