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.
Debates and forums
- On or shortly before 2026-10-11 (article says 'recently') · League of Women Voters of Lee County candidate and ballot-measure gathering at the Collaboratory, Fort Myers (2-minute candidate remarks, then informal conversation). Held.
Victor Arias (D) and Seth Haskin (NPA) spoke; Jim Schwartzel (R) is not listed among participants.
Candidates
Report an error ↗One candidate in this race is a write-in. Florida does not print a qualified write-in candidate's name on the ballot. To vote for one you must write the name on the write-in line for this race; a blank or misspelled line may not be counted.
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 …
Seth Haskin
Seth Haskin is a no-party-affiliation candidate in Florida's 19th Congressional District. He says he grew up in a lower-middle-class household and earned a bachelor's degree in neuroscience, and he works as a business manager. He previously ran as an independent write-in candidate for governor of Wisconsin in 2022 and…
Alexandra Zakhvatayev
Alexandra Zakhvatayev is a write-in candidate in Florida's 19th Congressional District. She lives in Cape Coral, graduated from Florida Gulf Coast University, works as a certified fitness trainer and founded a language-learning platform. She is known locally as an advocate for Ukraine, has written guest commentaries f…
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 | Seth Haskin No Party Affiliation | Alexandra Zakhvatayev Write-in |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 | Strongly agrees· stated position Haskin says he would repeal the 16th Amendment and end the federal income tax, and calls for restrained federal spending and borrowing to address the national debt. | 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 | 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 | No public position found | 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 | No public position found | 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 | No public position found | 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. | No public position found | No public position 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. | No public position found | No public position 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 | No public position found | 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. | No public position found | No public position found |
| 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 | No public position found | No public position found |
| Crime & policingCriminal penalties should be tougher and police funding increased, rather than emphasizing reform and rehabilitation. | Leans agree· stated position Pledges to restore law and order. | No public position found | 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. | Strongly agrees· stated position Opposes what he calls the push to force gender ideology into schools, sports and workplaces, and stands against biological men competing in women's sports. | No public position found | No public position 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 | No public position found | No public position found |
| Tariffs & tradeTariffs on imported goods are good for the American economy. | No public position found | No public position found | 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 | No public position found | Strongly agrees· stated position In a February 2025 newspaper guest commentary, Zakhvatayev argued that continued U.S. support for Ukraine is a national-security interest as well as a moral and defense obligation, and described herself as a strong proponent of military aid. |
| 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 | No public position found | 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. | No public position found | No public position found |
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 AriasSeth HaskinAlexandra ZakhvatayevHow 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), Teacher and staff pay (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), Library and classroom materials (agree), School safety approach (agree).
| Candidate | Economic issues | Social & legal issues |
|---|---|---|
| Jim Schwartzel | not enough data | 1.38 (8 statements) |
| Victor Arias | not enough data | not enough data |
| Seth Haskin | not enough data | not enough data |
| Alexandra Zakhvatayev | 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.
- League of Women Voters of Lee County event remarks — At the same Fort Myers gathering, Arias raised concerns about the economy and job availability for young people and tied clean water and beaches to tourism jobs.
Seth Haskin
- Enlarging the House of Representatives — Haskin's main goal is adding 100 to 200 members to the U.S. House, arguing smaller districts would make representatives more accountable, make gerrymandering harder and reduce the influence of lobbyists.
- Repealing the 17th Amendment — He supports returning the selection of U.S. senators to state legislatures and restoring the nondelegation doctrine so Congress, not federal agencies, writes the rules.
- War powers and surveillance — Haskin opposes regime-change wars and says he would require clear congressional authorization before committing U.S. forces, and would repeal remaining Patriot Act surveillance authorities. He also supports moving toward a dollar backed by metals.
- Non-delegation and rulemaking by agencies — In his 2026 Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey, Haskin said the Constitution gives lawmaking power to elected representatives rather than unelected bureaucrats, and called for restoring the non-delegation doctrine, ending what he called government by regulation, and making Congress accountable for the rules it imposes.
- League of Women Voters of Lee County event remarks — At a Lee County League of Women Voters candidate gathering in Fort Myers, Haskin focused on federal spending, calling for less borrowing and lower inflation and protection of savings and retirement accounts, and proposed increasing the number of U.S. House members.
Alexandra Zakhvatayev
- No campaign platform published — Beyond her Ukraine advocacy, no campaign website, questionnaire response or published platform was found for Zakhvatayev's 2026 write-in candidacy.