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.

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.

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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 outlets reported 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 separate instances 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 that politicians invited him to a drug-fueled orgy.

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.