The state of the stampede in Florida’s 19th Congressional District. (Illustration: AI for TPP/ChatGPT)
March 6, 2026 by David Silverberg
For an ordinarily quiet corner of Florida, the 19th Congressional District certainly generates a lot of ferment when a seat is open—and the stampede to succeed Rep. Byron Donalds (R-19-Fla.) reflects it.
The 19th covers the coastal area from Cape Coral to Marco Island.
Last October when the race was last covered by The Paradise Progressive, there were nine Republicans competing for the Republican Party nomination for Congress and one Democrat.
As of this writing, there are still nine Republicans but one has dropped out, one seems to have disappeared and there’s a new entrant. On the Democratic side, there are now two candidates seeking their party’s nomination.
Where’s Chris?
Chris Collins (center) leaves a New York courthouse following his conviction for insider trading in 2019. (Photo: AP/Seth Wenig)
By far the most active Republican congressional campaigner is Christopher “Chris” Collins, 75, who has been sending campaign mailings to Republican voters and running numerous television advertisements, including a pricey one during the Super Bowl.
But despite the significant amounts of cash this campaign is already spending, there are no records of it or of his candidacy on the Federal Election Commission (FEC) website tracking federal candidate expenditures for the 2026 election.
Under the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 candidates for federal office are obligated to file quarterly reports of their fundraising and contributors, including the specific names of individuals and organizations contributing and the amounts. Collins filed as a candidate with the Florida Department of State in June 2025. If he started raising and spending campaign money last year he should have begun filing reports then.
The Federal Election Commission’s spreadsheet of candidate finances as of March 4, 2026. Chris Collins’ campaign is missing. (Chart: FEC)
The Paradise Progressive reached out to the Collins campaign to ask directly about its absence from FEC records but received no response. A similar query to the FEC also failed to receive a response.
If Collins or his campaign failed to file their required reports they could be subject to investigation, audits, fines and other penalties.
It wouldn’t be the first time Collins has been in hot water.
Unsurprisingly, in his campaign literature and advertising Collins never mentions his 2019 guilty plea to insider trading—and his conviction and imprisonment.
Instead, Collins is touting his record as the first congressman to endorse Trump in 2016—and that’s pretty much it. All the issues and policy positions listed on his website are national and his positions are pro-Trump. He pounds the message home with every communication, whether print or broadcast. His TV ad features a clip of Trump saying: “Chris Collins, right from the beginning, he said, ‘Trump is gonna win.’ Now, I love him.” Collins’ mailing touts a “100% pro-Trump voting record” and he calls himself a “successful businessman & job creator.”
The label “successful businessman” might not quite stand up to scrutiny, in light of his prior history.
As previously recounted, Collins is a convicted inside trader who was tried and sentenced to 26 months in prison in 2020. He only served two months and nine days of the sentence—in federal prison in Pensacola—before being pardoned by Trump.
It’s also worth mentioning the exact nature of the crime, the trial and the punishment. (The full press release with the detailed story from the US Department of Justice (DoJ) is available for reading and download at the conclusion of this article.)
From 2013 to 2019, Collins represented New York’s 27th Congressional District, the area around Buffalo, NY.
While in office he recruited investors for an Australian company called Innate Immunotherapeutics, which was developing a drug to treat multiple sclerosis. It was the company’s only product and its entire fortune was based on it.
On June 22, 2017 Collins was attending the Congressional Picnic on the White House lawn when he received an e-mail that the drug had failed its trials.
As the DoJ press release stated: “The negative Drug Trial results were highly confidential, and, as an insider who owed duties of trust and confidence to Innate, CHRISTOPHER COLLINS was obligated to keep the Drug Trial results secret until Innate publicly released them.”
Instead, 16 minutes after he received the e-mail, Collins called his son from the White House lawn and told him to sell their stock. The son passed on the inside information to relatives and other parties, saving around $800,000 in losses when the stock plummeted 92 percent the next day.
Insider trading this blatant did not go unnoticed and Collins was charged while he was campaigning for re-election in 2018. He won that race, took office in January 2019 and mounted a combative, Trump-like defense against the charges. However, in September he resigned the day before he pleaded guilty. As part of his punishment the Security and Exchange Commission barred him from serving as an officer or director of any public company.
Collins purchased a home on Marco Island and told a judge in 2019: “I’m now a Florida resident and will be FL for a while as the press settles down and moves on.”
Apparently Collins decided the press had settled down and moved on or that Southwest Florida Republicans were too ignorant or indifferent to a criminal record for it to matter. Perhaps taking a cue from a presidential felon, he decided that jail time was no impediment to election.
Beyond his past, it bears mentioning that nowhere in his literature, ads or website does Collins focus on or mention issues specific to the 19th District and Southwest Florida. There’s no mention of water, or insurance, or—most notably—affordability, the difficulty of Southwest Floridians to keep up with constantly rising prices.
Collins is attempting to coast to victory solely on his loyalty to Trump. Obviously, he is hoping that takes him over the finish line in the Republican primary election on Aug. 18.
Fratto falls
Johnny Fratto from his 2024 campaign video in District 26. (Image: Campaign)
John “Johnny” Fratto, 46, is the first candidate to officially call it quits.
In 2024 Fratto sought the seat of incumbent Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-26-Fla.) in the neighboring district but was crushed in the primary. His chief moment of fame came with the release of an energetic but barely coherent rap video touting him as a “bloodline mafioso.”
Last year he declared his intention to run in the 19th. According to the FEC, he raised $630.51 and spent $1,168.90 as of the end of 2025.
However, this candidacy didn’t last long.
On Wednesday, Feb. 25th, Fratto announced that he was suspending his campaign and endorsing fellow Republican Madison Cawthorn, 30, a former representative from North Carolina. Fratto said that Cawthorn, who has a criminal record, crushed his competitors in a debate in Naples, sponsored by the Women’s Republican Club of Naples, according to Jacob Ogles, writing for the news site, Florida Politics.
Fratto is instead going to concentrate on his latest entrepreneurial startup: MAGA Beer.
The beer is noteworthy not only for its political promotional approach but for what it reveals about the Make America Great Again mindset. As it states on its website: “MAGA Beer isn’t just a drink, it’s a time machine back to America’s golden era.”
And when was that “golden era?” According to MAGA Beer, “In the 1980s, America was bold, proud, and full of ambition. It was the era of muscle cars, blue jeans, backyard barbecues, small-town diners, and Friday night football games. The beer industry was at its peak, with brands like Budweiser and Coors defining the working-class American experience. That’s the spirit we’re bringing back.”
It does indicate somewhat where MAGAs want to go but those who actually lived through the 1980s might have a different view. Survivors of the decade might also remember a recession, 14 percent inflation, Federal Reserve prime rates of 20 percent, a savings and loan crisis followed by a market bubble and a stock market crash.
That’s a lot to get into the taste of a beer. But who knows what ingredients can be thrown into a vat these days?
The loss of Lady Liquid Death?
Catalina Lauf at a natural foods exhibition in 2023. (Photo: Campaign)
Catalina Lauf, 32, is no longer on the Florida Department of State’s list of congressional candidates for the 19th District, creating uncertainty about the viability and continuation of her candidacy. However, there has been no formal announcement of suspension of her campaign.
Lauf gained some attention on Jan. 11 when she accused the “liberal leadership” of WINK-TV of firing popular meteorologist Matt Devitt at the behest of “RINO hack, possibly a closet DEM” Jim Schwartzel, a competing Republican candidate. She stated Schwartzel owned WINK, which he adamantly denied.
While her website is online it appears inactive and lacks any policy positions on any subject. Nonetheless, she has posted on Facebook, where she announced endorsements from Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-13-Fla.) on Feb. 11, Rep. Burgess Owens (R-4-Utah) on Feb. 6 (he subsequently announced his retirement), and Sen. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) on Jan. 22. FEC figures show her raising $433,749.57 and spending $218,005.45 as of the end of 2025.
Attempts to reach the Lauf campaign for clarification of the campaign’s status by this author were unsuccessful.
The nuclear entrant
Richard Youschak. (Photo: LinkedIn)
As though to fill the gap created by the withdrawal of Fratto, on Jan. 29, Richard “Ricky” Stephen Youschak III, of Fort Myers, filed to run.
There’s no campaign website, policy positions or public statements from Youschak. A LinkedIn profile and Facebook postings mention a Richard Youschak III who graduated from the University of Florida in Gainesville last May with an advanced degree in nuclear engineering. While he’s listed as a candidate in the Florida Department of State website and there is a candidate by that name in the FEC, there are no campaign contribution filings.
“Growing up, I lived in the Sanibel – Fort Myers area and attended Canterbury School,” states the LinkedIn profile. He earned a private pilot’s license and is an avid flyer. “When I’m not building hours in my Texas Aircraft Colt, I enjoy hiking, diving, and exploring Florida’s forests and coasts.”
A Democratic duo
While District 19 Republicans will have nine candidates to choose from in the Aug. 18 primary, as of this writing, Democrats will have two.
Howard Sapp (Photo: Campaign)
Howard Sapp, 60, is a lifelong Fort Myers native with a distinguished local lineage: the nephew of activist Fort Myers Councilwoman Veronica Shoemaker and son-in-law of former Lee County Commissioner Melvin Morgan.
A retired air traffic controller, Sapp graduated from Fort Myers High School and then earned a bachelor of science degree in biology and chemistry from Edward Waters College in Jacksonville. He then went on get a second bachelor degree in theological studies from Northwestern University and is a credentialed minister.
Sapp is currently chief executive officer for the Source of Light and Hope Development Center, a non-profit support center for at-risk youth in foster care, and he’s long worked on community building and improvement. He ran for the Florida House District 78 covering Fort Myers in 2024 and was defeated by Republican Jenna Persons-Mulicka, 59.9 percent to his own 40.1 percent. As of the end of last year he had raised $35,700 for his campaign, according to the FEC.
Remarkably, of all the candidates and certainly in contrast to all the Republicans, Sapp is putting his campaign’s focus on local issues: cost of living, affordable housing, clean water, quality education, reasonable insurance and effective healthcare. He wants to restore the integrity of federal agencies like the Department of Education, the Federal Reserve, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. He supports unions and opposes workplace immigration raids.
He’s the only candidate to explicitly take a stand in favor of women’s right to choose abortion and have access to low or no-cost contraception.
Victor Arias (Photo: Author)
Victor Arias, 65, is an attorney in Fort Myers.
He was born in the Dominican Republic and raised in the Douglas Housing Projects in Manhattan, New York. Rising from the projects, he earned his bachelor of arts degree from Hamilton College in Clinton, NY and his law degree in the State University of New York Buffalo Law School. He moved to Florida and was admitted to the state bar in 1991.
For seven years he served as school board staff attorney in Lee County and also in St. Lucie County.
Given his familiarity with school issues, in 2024 Arias ran for Superintendent of Lee County Schools after that was made a partisan, elected position in 2022. He was defeated by Republican Denise Carlin by 68 percent to 32 percent. He has not filed any campaign finance reports in 2025.
On his campaign website, Arias states that he’s running “to cut the red tape for veterans, protect Medicare for seniors, defend the water quality that drives our economy, and bring real representation to Florida's 19th District.”
A forum featuring Howard Sapp and Victor Arias, moderated by this author, is scheduled on Tuesday, April 7, at 5:30 pm, at the Bonita Springs Public Library, 10560 Reynolds St, Bonita Springs, Fla.
To read and download the Department of Justice release:
“Former Congressman Christopher Collins Sentenced For Insider Trading Scheme And Lying To Federal Law Enforcement Agents”
Click here.
Liberty lives in light
© 2026 by David Silverberg