Republican Candidates running in District 23
MIAMI - It's a new look for US Congressional District 23, it stretches up the coast from Fort Lauderdale to Boca Raton and covers much of North Broward and South Palm Beach.
On the Republican side, it's a crowded primary field with 7 candidates. Six of those candidates agreed to talk to CBS4.
Dr. Steven Chess is a retired chiropractor who lives in Fort Lauderdale.
"I believe in two books, the constitution and the Bible. I live that life. I have no baggage," he said.
He was a Democrat but switched to the Republican Party 6 years ago, saying it aligns better with his beliefs.
He believes in a balanced budget, term limits, line item veto power for the president and wants to replace the federal reserve.
He's concerned about devaluing currency.
"Everything comes off currency. Without currency, you have no military. Without currency, you have no social security. Without sound currency, you have no social welfare programs. Everything that we have is based on currency," Chess said.
Christy McLaughlin is an attorney and said she has spent her life promoting conservative values.
She calls herself an enthusiastic supporter of Donald Trump. "I was one of the speakers at the "Stop the Steal" rally. I was one of the volunteers that looked into evidence of voter fraud," she said.
She'd like to see term limits, and a balanced budget. She's in favor of dismantling the department of education. She supports same sex marriage and, as the daughter of Cuban immigrants, said she wants to see tightened border security.
"I'm in favor of ending birthright citizenship, making sure we have no social welfare programs to incentivize people from illegally crossing the border and a moratorium if you are caught crossing the border illegally and sent back," McLaughlin said.
Myles Perrone lives in Coral Springs. He calls himself a Trump Republican, a fighter and disrupter.
"I'm not a politician. I'm just like I like to say, I'm a pissed-off American. I've seen what is going on in this country and I couldn't put up with it anymore."
Some of his main issues include the economy and getting inflation in check, stopping, what he calls, ridiculous spending.
He wants more border security, saying it's wide open right now, and election security.
"We need election integrity is one of my main things. I think we need ot look at what happened in the 2020 election where we had a rigged and stolen election. We need to talk about it," he said.
Jim Pruden calls himself an America First candidate. "America first candidates really are concerned about one thing, that American citizen should be the top of the priority," Pruden said.
He had two careers, one in the tech industry and another as a business attorney.
He's concerned about the economy and inflation, border security, including finishing the wall and zero tolerance for illegal border crossings.
He's a supporter of the Second Amendment and wants more domestic manufacturing.
"We need to return manufacturing to the United States. A number of critical goods and services are now for example 97% of our antibiotics are manufactured in China and here we are, we're at odds with China and they could shut us off tomorrow," he said.
Darlene Cerezo Swaffar is a small business owner in Pompano Beach. She said she wants to take our country back and send radicals packing. "I am a conservative constitutional Republican," she said.
Her main issues include border security and tightening immigration policy, restoring energy independence, economic development and job creation and decentralizing the department of education.
"I think we need to put party differences aside and focus on restoring our freedoms, ending government over reach, ending the shutdowns the mandated vaccines. We need to end all that. We need to do everything we can to protect our freedoms," Swaffar said.
Ira Weinstein lives in Pompano Beach. He's an attorney and manages real estate. He says the battle to take back America has never been so important.
"I was home, an ordinary person and I got tired of yelling at my television set so I decided I'd step into the race," Weinstein said.
His big issues include tackling inflation and the economy, as well as energy independence, combating crime, securing the border, including completing the wall, and increasing legal immigration.
"I would like to see the borders closed. However, I would like to hire 10,000 new INS agents to process legal immigrants and bring them into America as solid citizens with a good start," he said.
Republican candidate Joe Budd declined our request for an interview. He said he's speak to us after winning the primary.
