Fishback is among 42 candidates running to succeed Gov. Ron DeSantis.
VERO BEACH — Over 100 people, mostly young men, packed a conference room the evening of April 11 at the Ocean Breeze Inn on Ocean Drive to hear James Fishback speak.
The 31-year-old who has never held political office is one of 42 candidates running to succeed Gov. Ron DeSantis, who cannot seek reelection because of term limits.
As soon as he took the podium, the Republican gubernatorial hopeful took jabs at the leading Republican candidate, Byron Donalds, who has the support of President Donald Trump.
He rattled off nicknames for Donalds, who is Black, including “By’rone Donalds” and “AIPAC Shakur” — a play on the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and rapper Tupac Shakur.
Many in the mostly White crowd responded in laughter.
“If you want a data center in Vero Beach, Byron Donalds is your guy. If you want to stand up for cattle ranchers and citrus growers, I’d like to think I’m your man,” he said.
Emerson College polling shows Fishback is trailing with 5% support among Florida Republicans. He is getting national attention from young conservatives and far-right groups, including his January appearance on conservative political activist and commentator Tucker Carlson’s podcast. Carlson endorsed him.
Candidate qualifying in Florida begins June 8. The primary election is Aug. 18.
Florida’s affordability crisis
Audience members most frequently asked Fishback about the state’s affordability crisis, given Florida’s rising cost of living and some of the lowest wages in the country.
Fishback said his primary strategy would be to ban private equity firms from buying single-family homes.
If elected governor, he said he would not prioritize growth over quality of life, harkening back to the 1980s, when Florida was less developed.
“I will never worship GDP (gross domestic product),” he said. “But as a Christian, I will worship G-O-D.”
Education, abortion and guns
As for teachers, Fishback proposed an increase in pay but wanted to limit classroom discussions of race and gender identity.
Fishback said abortion laws in Florida were too lax, and he pledged to provide paid maternity leave for every woman in Florida as a way to reduce the procedure.
On firearms, he said he would lower the minimum purchasing age from 21 to 18.
“The tragedy of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14, 2018, and the killing of 17 souls by a sick, depraved man should have never been used as a pretext to disarm millions of 18-, 19- and 20-year-olds.”
The crowd erupted in its loudest applause of the evening.
Fishback’s thoughts on Israel
When an audience member asked about his thoughts on Israel, some members of the audience chuckled.
He said he does not “hate Israel or any country in the world.”
“Right now, our cup is not full, and we should not be in the business of filling up the cup for anyone else,” he said.
Who is James Fishback?
Fishback was born in Davie, a town in western Broward County.
His mother immigrated from Colombia, and his father owned a landscaping business and later became a bus driver. Fishback attended Georgetown University to study international economics, but dropped out sophomore year.
Before entering politics, Fishback worked at the hedge fund Greenlight Capital from 2021 to 2023. He said he had been the “head of macro,” but the firm said the highest role he obtained was a research analyst.
James Fishback: Waffle House bans Florida candidate for governor, he says
After Greenlight disputed Fishback’s title and accused him of sharing confidential portfolio information, the hedge fund sought to fire Fishback for low productivity, but he abruptly resigned, court records show.
He founded an investment management firm called Azoria Partners in 2023, which ran into legal trouble last year when a judge ordered him to turn over company stock and a list of luxury purchases.
Fishback also claimed to be an advisor for the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), but its officials denied he had any role, Katie Miller, a spokesperson for DOGE head Elon Musk told ABC News.
Most recently, a viral video shows Fishback telling a Black man he “should be lynched” during an argument at the University of North Florida.
Jack Lemnus is a TCPalm enterprise reporter. Contact him at jack.lemnus@tcpalm.com, 772-409-1345, or follow him on X @JackLemnus.
