Hundreds of University of Central Florida students lined up Thursday night to hear controversial Florida gubernatorial candidate James Fishback speak on campus, browsing the T-shirts and other merchandise his campaign peddled while they waited.
Once inside, about 250 people heard Fishback, 31, deliver a populist message that touched on his key campaign points, such cutting aid to Israel, the country’s affordability crisis and the political right’s fixation on culture war issues.
The crowd of mostly young, white men responded with cheers and applause.
Attendees said Fishback represents a younger, more right-wing alternative to an aging class of Republicans. But he is also a provocative candidate who has made racist and anti-Semitic remarks and staked out controversial positions.
But in a UCF lecture hall, as at other college campuses, his message resonated with the young audience.
“It is wrong and it is evil to look a family in the eye and say, ‘There isn’t money for you, but there’s $5 billion to give to Israel to wage a genocide’,” he said.
When the event ended, 19-year-old John Herrera compared Fishback to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani — polarizing to his own political party, but exciting to young voters.
Fishback spoke to the concerns facing young people, he said, like housing affordability.
“After today, he got my vote,” said the UCF student.
Fishback is considered a long shot to win the Republican nomination for Florida governor. Voting and tax records also shed doubt on whether he is lived in Florida long enough to qualify as a candidate.
The latest polling averages have Fishback in the single digits and trailing Congressman Byron Donalds, the Naples Republican endorsed by President Donald Trump, by about 40 percentage points. Two other Republicans, former House Speaker Paul Renner, and Lt. Gov. Jay Collins, are running, too.
He insisted Thursday he was “firmly in second place” in the race for the Republican nomination, but his support remains below 5% in most polls.
Fishback, an investment executive, aligns with the “groyper” sect of far-right conservatives, a group that follows neo-Nazi influencer Nick Fuentes.
Supporters at the UCF event brushed off Fishback’s past controversial comments.
Fishback has called Donalds, who is Black, a “slave” to the pro-Israel lobby in Congress and has said white men are the biggest victims of racism. He’s floated levying a so-called “sin tax” on women who make pornography for the website Only Fans, and joked about “making the trains run on time” — an homage to the words of Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini.
He’s also called Florida’s school cafeteria food “goyslop,” an anti-Semitic term for low-quality food supposedly forced on the public by Jewish people. He repeated the term on Thursday and then joked he told a reporter who asked about it to “get a life.”
He’s been accused of having an inappropriate relationship with a high-school girl, which he denies. When asked about the allegations by a Black constituent, Fishback said the man should be “lynched” and argued it wasn’t true because, if it were, he’d have already been arrested.
Ramiel Brendaro, 25, who attended the UCF rally wearing a blue “America First” hat sold by Fuentes, said he agreed with Fishback’s controversial comments about Donalds.
“Oh, yeah, he’s a slave to Israel. Like, absolutely yeah. If you’re informed, yeah. He’s a slave to Israel,” he said.
Brendaro said he thinks Fishback appeals to young voters who are disillusioned with Trump because the young candidates speaks about issues that impact them, such as the high cost of buying a house.
“I don’t know any Trump young fans anymore. I think they would rather vote Democrat than vote another Republican like Trump again,” he said.
But others said they came to Thursday’s rally out of curiosity. Several students in attendance said they saw Fishback on Instagram Reels and came to learn more.
Callie Cerrato, 18, said she was eager to hear Fishback’s plans for affordable housing and Florida’s public school system.
The daughter of Brevard County teachers, Cerrato said she felt Florida’s schools were going “in the sewers,” citing poor teacher pay and retention.
Fishback said on his first day as governor, he’d divest the state’s $300 million in funding for Israel and reinvest it in a down payment assistance program for Florida homebuyers, a plan Cerrato likes.
“I’m trying to move out of my parents’ house, and I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh, I can’t afford to live anywhere,’” she said.
During his remarks, Fishback said Florida needs to increase teacher pay and downplayed the Republican party’s claims of teachers “indoctrinating” students.
“The public school teachers who wake up early, who stay late, who dig into their own pockets to cover school supplies or lunch money, they deserve a raise because they’ve earned it,” Fishback said.
Fishback also vowed to take on insurance companies and abolish property taxes.
”They don’t have the have the right to tax us to death to pay for their pet projects and their bloated salaries,” he said.
Fishback criticized Donalds for donations he’d received from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, also known as AIPAC.
He mused about a hypothetical scenario where he was a police officer chasing Donalds in a car, pulling him over and questioning how his net worth had increased in recent years.
“Whoa, easy there. Hands on the wheel. You know what? Get out of the car. We’re going to bring you down to the station interrogate you on how your net worth went up by $4.8 million on $100,000 a year salary in the last five years,” Fishback said.
Oscar Perez, a 25-year-old registered Republican, said he regrets voting for Trump because the president is now focused too much on foreign wars and aid.
He came to the UCF rally because Fishback represents what Perez had in mind when he voted for Trump in 2024.
“I feel like he cares. He kind of aligns to what I was originally going for, which is just caring about my people. Citizens. Florida citizens,” he said.
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