U.S. House, District 19
Represents Florida's 19th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives; votes on federal laws and spending. Term: 2 years.
Partly verified. Either the November opponent could not be confirmed from available sources, or only a few positions are documented. Confirm the full candidate list on your county sample ballot; unknown positions are shown as such.
How we verified who is on the ballot
Open seat (Rep. Byron Donalds is the Republican nominee for governor). Roster from WINK News, Fort Myers Beach Observer, Ballotpedia News and Florida's Voice post-primary reports naming Jim Schwartzel (R) and Victor Arias (D). No NPA candidate identified; absence unconfirmed.
Candidates
Jim Schwartzel
Jim Schwartzel is a Southwest Florida media executive and president of Sun Broadcasting. He won the ten-candidate Aug. 18, 2026 Republican primary with 29.39% (26,140 votes), finishing more than 6,000 votes ahead of Trump-endorsed Catalina Lauf (about 22%). The seat opened when Rep. Byron Donalds ran for governor.
Victor Arias
Victor Arias was born in the Dominican Republic, raised in New York, and moved to Southwest Florida in 1999 to work for the School District of Lee County; he has run his own law firm in Cape Coral since 2003, handling personal-injury, workers' compensation and school-law cases. He ran for Lee County superintendent of …
Side-by-side on the major issues
Each row is a statement. The chips show how each candidate's stated positions or record relate to that statement. Expand a row to read the evidence and sources. "No public position found" means we could not find a statement or record on the topic, not that the candidate has none.
| Issue | Jim Schwartzel Republican | Victor Arias Democratic |
|---|---|---|
| Taxes & spendingCutting taxes should be a top priority, even if it means less government spending on services. | Strongly agrees· stated position Schwartzel says he would make the tax cuts permanent, keep taxes low, eliminate burdensome regulations, and start with 'an audit of everything Washington spends.' | No public position found |
| Housing affordabilityGovernment should do more to make housing affordable (subsidies, zoning changes, rent measures). | No public position found | No public position found |
| ImmigrationImmigration enforcement should be stricter, including large-scale deportation of people in the country illegally. | Strongly agrees· stated position Says his position is to 'secure the border, finish the wall and deport people who broke the law getting here,' and that he would work to ensure no future president can undo border security 'with a pen.' | No public position found |
| AbortionAbortion should be legal in most cases (Florida's six-week ban should be repealed or loosened). | Strongly disagrees· stated position Describes himself as 'pro-life'; no statement on exceptions or on Florida's six-week law was captured. | No public position found |
| GunsGun laws should be stricter (keep the red-flag law and the age-21 purchase rule; expand background checks) rather than looser (permitless or open carry, lower purchase age). | Strongly disagrees· stated position Describes himself as 'pro-Second Amendment without apology'; no statement on red-flag laws or purchase age was captured. | No public position found |
| Health careGovernment should expand its role in health coverage (expand Medicaid in Florida, extend Affordable Care Act subsidies). | No public position found | Leans agree· stated position Arias proposes expanding Medicare's authority to negotiate drug prices, capping out-of-pocket prescription costs for seniors, ending surprise medical billing and increasing price transparency. No statement on Medicaid expansion in Florida was found. |
| Social Security & MedicareSocial Security and Medicare benefits must be protected from any cuts, even if that requires more revenue. | No public position found | Leans agree· stated position Says he is running to 'protect Medicare for seniors'; no statement on Social Security financing was found. |
| Education & school choicePublic money should follow students to private, charter or home schools (universal school vouchers). | Strongly agrees· stated position Says 'education dollars should follow the child and parents, not Washington bureaucrats.' | No public position found |
| Environment & waterProtecting water quality, conservation land and climate resilience should take priority even if it slows development or raises costs. | Leans agree· stated position Says the federal government's jobs in the region include paying its share of Everglades restoration and reservoir projects on time and funding Army Corps work that protects estuaries and the coast; he also says he will fight 'outside political interest groups that threaten the environment.' He pairs this with cutting regulation on building. | Leans agree· stated position Says he will 'defend the water quality that drives our economy,' secure federal funding for Everglades restoration and combat red tide at its source. |
| Elections & votingVoting should be made easier (mail voting, drop boxes, restoring voting rights) rather than adding new restrictions. | No public position found | No public position found |
| Crime & policingCriminal penalties should be tougher and police funding increased, rather than emphasizing reform and rehabilitation. | No public position found | No public position found |
| Gender identity lawsFlorida's laws restricting gender-affirming care for minors and classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity should remain in place. | Leans agree· stated position Says he will defend every American's rights 'while protecting girls' sports and keeping adult content away from kids'; no statement specifically on Florida's gender-affirming-care or classroom-instruction laws was found. | No public position found |
| Energy & utilitiesGovernment should promote renewable energy and tighten oversight of utility rate increases, even at the expense of fossil-fuel production. | Leans disagree· stated position Says he would 'keep unleashing American energy' and cut regulatory red tape; no statement on renewable energy or utility-rate oversight was found. | No public position found |
| Tariffs & tradeTariffs on imported goods are good for the American economy. | No public position found | No public position found |
| UkraineThe U.S. should continue military aid to Ukraine. | No public position found | No public position found |
| Trump administrationI approve of the direction of the Trump administration. | Leans agree· stated position Calls the administration's border security 'consequential' and says he would fight to ensure no future president can undo it; he won the primary over Trump-endorsed Catalina Lauf. | No public position found |
| VeteransExpanding VA services and veterans' benefits should be a top priority. | No public position found | Strongly agrees· stated position Pledges to 'cut the red tape for veterans,' expand VA health-care access and ensure veterans receive the benefits they earned. |
Where they sit on the map
Each candidate is placed by the average of their documented stances. It is a summary of the table above, not an extra judgment.
Jim SchwartzelVictor AriasHow the axes are computed
Each axis is the average of a candidate's coded stances (+2 to −2) on a fixed set of statements, so it comes straight from the documented positions and nothing else. A candidate needs at least three documented statements on an axis to be placed.
Economic issues (toward "Smaller government (lower taxes, less spending)"): Taxes & spending (agree), Property taxes (agree), Health care (disagree), Housing affordability (disagree), Property insurance (disagree), Energy & utilities (disagree), Social Security & Medicare (disagree).
Social & legal issues (toward "Conservative side of the statements"): Immigration (agree), Abortion (disagree), Guns (disagree), Education & school choice (agree), Elections & voting (disagree), Crime & policing (agree), Gender identity laws (agree), Marijuana (disagree), Environment & water (disagree), Trump administration (agree).
| Candidate | Economic issues | Social & legal issues |
|---|---|---|
| Jim Schwartzel | not enough data | 1.29 (7 statements) |
| Victor Arias | not enough data | not enough data |
Other issues the candidates have raised
Priorities each candidate has brought up on their own, beyond the major-issue list above.
Jim Schwartzel
- Term limits — Supports congressional term limits.
- Audit of federal spending — Says he would 'start with an audit of everything Washington spends.'
- AI, social media and Big Tech — Supports no censorship of political speech, 'real protections for minors' and 'no blank check for Big Tech.'
- Everglades restoration and Army Corps funding — Wants federal money for Everglades and reservoir projects delivered on time and Army Corps estuary/coastal work funded.
- Faster disaster aid — Says disaster money should get out the door 'in weeks instead of years.'
- Regulatory red tape and building costs — Says cutting regulation that 'drives up the cost of building anything' is part of his affordability plan.
Victor Arias
- Everglades restoration funding and red tide — Wants federal Everglades funding and efforts to combat red tide 'at the source' to protect tourism.
- Surprise medical billing and price transparency — Supports ending surprise billing and increasing transparency in health-care pricing.Sources: Victor Arias | BallotReady
- VA red tape — Pledges to slash VA bureaucracy so veterans get benefits faster.
- 'Real representation' for the district — Campaign frames the race around bringing 'real representation to Florida's 19th District' against a large Republican registration advantage.