I’ve previously written about former Woodstock resident and congressional candidate against Democrat Bill Foster’s apparent pending candidacy for the seat in Congress that Bryan Donalds is relinquishing to run for Governor of Florida.
Back then, my guess was that she had a forty percent chance of winning to Republican Primary Election.
The reason?
She would have been the only woman in the race.
Former Illinois congressional candidate Jim Oberweis was first out of the box to mount a campaign to replace Donalds.
He put in $2 million to make sure politicians in southwest Florida would take his candidacy serioiusly.
He ran radio and TV ads and worked local GO clubs.
Shortly thereafter, Lauf started working the same clubs, concentrating particularly on women.
But, recently, a second woman, two years younger than the now thirty-two year old Lauf and someone with much deeper roots in the district than Lauf, who just moved there, has tossed her hat into the ring.
Her name is Ola Hawatmeh.
In 2020, Hawatmeh also ran for for the Republican nomination for Congress elsewhere, in the 19th district of New York State, located between Middletown (fifty miles out of New York city) and Albany.
Like Lauf, she lost the 2020 GOP Primary Election (57%-42%).
Lauf placed third with 20% of the vote in 2020, behind Jim Oberweis with 25.6% and Sue Rezin with 22.8%.
Of course, Lauf won the primary in 2022, but lost to Foster 56.5%-43.5%.
It is clear that Hawatmeh is taking off Oberweis and Lauf:
She recently was featured at a conference at Trump’s Doral Resort:
Wikitia has this to say about her:
“Ola Nesheiwat Hawatmeh (born February 5) is a Jordanian entrepreneur and politician based in New York City.[1]
“She is the founder of Ola Style, one of the fastest-growing Urban-Chic clothing brands, and Mom Me Makeover, a unique personal styling company known for helping mothers across the country embrace their styles and gain confidence.[2]
“She ran for election in 2020 representing New York’s 19th Congressional District.[3][4]
“As a philanthropist, Hawatmeh also started Makeover for a Cause, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping people in difficult situations in achieving a whole life improvement solution by assisting them in connecting with their inner beauty and confidence.[5]
“Hawatmeh has gained mass recognition for establishing two successful businesses from the ground up and was awarded the Most Influential and Top Business Woman award by Alive magazine and SBM. She was also named 2017’s Top business Woman.”
There are currently six announced candidates, not counting Lauf, who has yet to file papers with the Federal Election Commission.
- John Fratto (R)
- Ola Hawatmeh (R)
- Dylan Modarelli (R)
- Jim Oberweis (R)
- Mike Pedersen (R)
- Jim Schwartzel (R)
So three of the announced and probable candidates for this very, very safe Republican seat have run for the same office in another state.
In fact, the total may be four who have run for Congress elsewhere.
Alexios reports that Madison Cawthorn, who served in Congress in North Carolina, was elected in 2020, then lost a five-way GOP Primary byt two percentage points after criticizing his colleagues for improprieties, is seeking a comeback.
Assuming he, Hawatmeh and Lauf make the ballot, there will be three early thirty-somethings in front of the voters.
This is really going to be an exciting race to follow.
