{"id":151699,"date":"2026-02-11T15:32:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T15:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/151699\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T15:32:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T15:32:09","slug":"anna-paulina-luna-backs-catalina-lauf-in-open-cd-19-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/151699\/","title":{"rendered":"Anna Paulina Luna backs Catalina Lauf in open CD 19 race"},"content":{"rendered":"

U.S. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna wants to see another millennial woman from the MAGA movement in Florida\u2019s congressional delegation. The Pinellas Republican is endorsing Catalina Lauf<\/a> for an open seat in Southwest Florida.<\/p>\n

\u201cCongress is a swamp,\u201d Luna posted, \u201cand we need more people willing to buck the status quo.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCatalina Lauf is a friend and a fierce America First fighter. She\u2019s a proven Trump ally who will stand up for Southwest Florida and never back down from a fight. I\u2019m proud to endorse her, Southwest Florida vote Catalina Lauf in!\u201d<\/p>\n

Lauf filed in October<\/a> to succeed U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds in Florida\u2019s 19th Congressional District. Donalds is running for Governor<\/a> instead of seeking re-election.<\/p>\n

Lauf is part of a wide field of candidates running for the seat. The Bonita Springs Republican raised about $444,000 last year for her run.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

She served as a\u00a0special adviser<\/a>\u00a0to the U.S. Department of Commerce from December 2018 to July 2019. That\u2019s around when she founded the\u00a0Defense of Freedom PAC<\/a>, where she still serves as Executive Director.<\/p>\n

Lauf notably ran for Congress in 2020 in Illinois\u2019 14th Congressional District, but lost in a Republican Primary<\/a>\u00a0to\u00a0Jim Oberweis. As it happens, she faces Oberweis again this year, as he was the\u00a0first Republican<\/a>\u00a0to file in CD 19 after Donalds announced he was running for Governor instead of seeking re-election.<\/p>\n

The 33-year-old Lauf would be among the youngest members of Congress if elected.<\/p>\n

Luna, who first won election in 2022, is 35. During two terms in Congress, she has been a close ally of President Donald Trump while frequently defying House leadership.<\/p>\n

Lauf this year has picked up endorsements from multiple sitting members of Congress. U.S. Rep. Burgess Owens, a Utah Republican, endorsed her earlier this month<\/a>. In January, U.S. Sen. Jim Banks, an Indiana Republican, also endorsed her<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"U.S. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna wants to see another millennial woman from the MAGA movement in Florida\u2019s congressional…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":151700,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[8861,73209,73210,73211,28,30,29,73212],"class_list":["post-151699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-anna-paulina-luna","tag-burgess-ownes-jim-banks","tag-catalina-lauf","tag-cd-19","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-floridas-19th-congressional-district"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151699"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151699\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}