Trump Humiliated by String of Endorsement Flops in Key Races

Photo Illustration by Victoria Sunday/The Daily Beast/Getty Images Three Republican candidates endorsed by Donald Trump lost their primary races on Tuesday, adding to the list of the president’s failed efforts to sway election outcomes.

Two of the losses were in the president’s home state of Florida, a week after Mike Lindell came up well short in his bid for Minnesota governor, and two weeks after Tennessee Rep.

Andy Ogles and Michigan Rep.

Amir Hassan lost their seats.

All three had Trump’s support.

In Florida’s 19th congressional district, which includes Naples and Fort Myers, there was a crowded field to replace Rep.

Byron Donalds, who won his gubernatorial primary on Tuesday.

The ten candidates on the ballot included former North Carolina Rep.

Madison Cawthorn, who lost his seat in 2022 amid scandals, and former New York Rep.

Chris Collins, whom Trump pardoned at the end of his first term after he pleaded guilty to insider trading and lying to Congress.

Trump endorsed neither, instead opting for Catalina Lauf, a failed Illinois congressional candidate in 2020 and two years later in a different district.

Lauf, a 33-year-old former Commerce Department adviser whom Trump appointed in 2018, lost to Jim Schwartzel, the president of Sun Broadcasting, by about seven percentage points, the Associated Press projected .

Lauf drew headlines on Monday when an audio recording from several months ago revealed her lack of knowledge about the district she was running to represent.

Lauf, who moved from Illinois “recently,” according to Gulf Coast News , couldn’t name her county commissioner, school board member, or even the mayor during a meeting with BUPAC, a political action committee.