This crowded Republican primary in Florida has drawn a unique cast of candidates

John Strand speaks during an event at the U.S. Capitol on June 13, 2023. A convicted and pardoned Jan. 6 rioter, Strand is now running for the Republican nomination in Florida's 19th Congressional District. Amanda Andrade-Rhoades/AP hide caption

FORT MYERS, Fla. — The race to replace Republican Rep. Byron Donalds, who's running for governor, has drawn a unique cast of characters.

The cast includes former members of Congress and pardon recipients from President Trump.

And many of them have only recent ties to the district, which includes parts of Cape Coral, Naples and Fort Myers, and the state.

One of the candidates running for this southwest Florida U.S. House seat is John Strand, a former model and actor, and a convicted and pardoned Jan. 6 rioter, who grew up in Beverly Hills, Calif.

But Strand is not the only candidate running for the strongly Republican 19th Congressional District without deep roots in Florida.

In this crowded GOP primary, where almost all 10 candidates are Trump loyalists, a tension has developed between candidates who claim deeper ties to the community and those who recently moved here — for work, warmer weather or to run in this race.

Even the candidate who won Trump's endorsement last week, Catalina Lauf, moved to Florida recently, and ran for Congress multiple times in Illinois, as recently as 2022.