Daily Kos84%
Meet the wildest House primary of 2026 77%
By Emily Singer83%
7/3/2026, 6:00:00 AM
Topics: US Politics, Elections
Keywords: Congress, Florida, Elections, Madison Cawthorn, Chris Collins, Jim Oberweis, John Strand, Byron Donalds
BS Summary: This article contains 29 faulty reasoning types, including Negativity Bias, Appeal to Emotion, and Hasty Generalization, with Biased Writer Voice as the most egregious example at 70% saturation with 446 hits. Analysis detected 2,469 faulty-reasoning hits from 637 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 68.2% and a BS Rank of 77% (5,202 of 21,887 articles). This article is worse (more manipulative) than 76.20% of the article peer group.
This midterm election cycle has delivered us a number of unhinged primaries.
There was the Texas barnburner between Republican Sen.
John Cornyn and corrupt state Attorney General Ken Paxton.
In South Carolina, Rep.
Nancy Mace’s erratic behavior dragged down her bid to become governor.
And California’s gubernatorial primary was upended by a horrific sexual misconduct scandal involving now-former Rep.
Eric Swalwell, leading Xavier Becerra, a former secretary of health and human services, to appear from nowhere and become the presumptive next leader of the state.
But while those contests were wild, the wildest is happening in an otherwise uncompetitive district in Florida—because of course that’s where it is.
The primary in Florida’s 19th District—a heavily Republican seat soon to be vacated by Rep.
Byron Donalds, who is running for governor—is a clown car of washed-up Republicans.
Two of the top contenders in the race are former members of Congress—from other states.
One is Chris Collins, the former New York representative who revels in his title of being the first member of Congress to endorse Trump’s 2016 presidential bid.
Collins’ political career went up in flames in 2018, after he was arrested on charges of insider trading, which he ultimately pleaded guilty to.
Collins was sentenced to 26 months in prison but served just two before Trump pardoned him in December 2020.
Turns out, that early endorsement paid dividends.
The other ex-representative running in Florida’s 19th District is Madison Cawthorn, the North Carolina Republican who was ousted from his seat in a 2022 primary after his constituents grew tired of his multiple scandals, including allegations of insider trading (I guess that’s a theme here), attempting to bring a loaded gun through airport security, and driving with a revoked license.
He also bizarrely claimed he’d been invited to cocaine-fueled orgies with other members of Congress.
(Ironically, the GOP lawmaker who ousted Cawthorn in North Carolina is also now embroiled in controversy and facing a surprisingly competitive race.
He is under investigation for allegedly sexually harassing staff in his office.
Something must be in the water.)
Illinois residents will recognize the third candidate in this strange race in Florida: Jim Oberweis, the octogenarian dairy magnate who has lost a half-dozen races in the Land of Lincoln.
Oberweis has lost two House races, in 2008 and 2020; U.S.
Senate contests in 2002, 2004, and 2014; and a 2006 gubernatorial bid.
His apparent fetish for losing elections earned him the nickname the “Milk Dud.”
Will this 2026 primary score Oberweis a hat trick of House losses?
Somehow, though, these whack-jobs may not be the absurd people in the contest.
Also in the field is John Strand, an underwear model who was found guilty on charges stemming from his storming of the U.S.
Capitol on Jan.
6, 2021.
Strand was pardoned for his traitorous behavior by Trump in 2025, and now he wants to return to the Capitol he attacked—but as a lawmaker this time.
So that makes two pardoned felons in this shit show of a race.
There are other, currently less scandal-ridden candidates in this race as well.
And whoever emerges from this primary will almost certainly be the next member of Congress from this Fort Meyers-based seat, which is 14 percentage points more Republican-leaning than the nation as a whole, according to the Cook Political Report.
The only recent public poll in the race, which was released on Tuesday, found the race is wide open, with no candidate receiving more than 13% of the vote and more than half of voters undecided.
Florida has one of the latest primaries in the country, with voters heading to the polls on Aug. 18 to select their nominees.
We’ll find out then what mess of a human Florida Republicans will sic on Congress.
Lord help us.
Speakers
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Analysis
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