Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno announced this week he will not run in Florida's Congressional District 19 race in a post on social media.

"Fighting on the national level alongside our President would be a dream come true. However, after careful consideration on how I can best serve my community – a community I love and cherish – I have decided I can best serve by putting criminals behind bars and protecting our most vulnerable as YOUR Sheriff," Marceno wrote.

"This was not a decision I took lightly, as I love the residents of Lee County. Today, we are safer than we have ever been and I will continue to make our community, state, and nation proud as a tried and true, law and order sheriff," he concluded.

Marceno, a Republican, was appointed sheriff of Lee County by former Gov. Rick Scott in 2018. He was elected as sheriff in 2020.

District 19 covers Lee and Collier counties in southwest Florida, including the cities of Naples, Fort Myers, Bonita Springs, and Cape Coral. The seat is open in the Nov. 3 election after Rep. Byron Donalds announced his run for Florida governor in February 2025.

The district is heavily Republican, with a Cook Partisan Voting Index (PVI) of +14.

Rep. Donalds won the district by nearly 33 points over Democrat Kari Lerner in 2024. He has represented the area since 2021.

With Marceno passing on CD-19, major Republicans in the running are listed below:

Madison Cawthorn
Catalina Lauf
Ola Hawatmeh
Chris Collins
Jim Oberweis
Jim Schwartzel
John Strand
Mike Pedersen

You can look at some of their answers to their continued funding of Israel during interviews with The Floridian earlier this month. Candidates were also asked about water quality.

Howard Sapp, Victor Arias, and Jared Kane are running for the Democratic nomination.