{"id":181734,"date":"2026-03-07T05:23:19","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T05:23:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/181734\/"},"modified":"2026-03-07T05:23:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T05:23:19","slug":"ihop-denies-inviting-controvertial-florida-gop-candidate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/181734\/","title":{"rendered":"IHOP denies inviting controvertial Florida GOP candidate"},"content":{"rendered":"

James Fishback, the fringe GOP candidate<\/a> courting the online far right in his long-shot bid for governor of Florida, had a bit of food-service drama this week – and it wasn\u2019t about the \u201cgoyslop\u201d he previously claimed was being served in the state\u2019s school cafeterias.<\/p>\n

Waffle House, he alleged, had banned him from every restaurant in the state after he announced his intent to campaign at the chain\u2019s Florida<\/a> locations. The reason, he claimed, was that he said that \u201cAmericans shouldn\u2019t die for Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n

But not to worry, Fishback quickly announced: Another breakfast chain, International House of Pancakes (IHOP), had extended an invitation to him personally.<\/p>\n

\u201cHey, wanna come over?\u201d reads a direct message Fishback posted to social media, a photo of which appears to come from IHOP\u2019s official corporate account. An elated Fishback soon posted photos from a campaign stop at an IHOP, which he deemed \u201cInternational House of Patriots.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not so, an IHOP spokesperson told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince our founding, IHOP and its franchisees have been committed to providing warm and welcoming dining experiences for all guests. We are not working with James Fishback or his campaign in any capacity,\u201d the spokesperson told JTA in an email. \u201cAdditionally, we have confirmed that the image circulating on social media is not authentic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fishback did not return a request for comment by JTA about IHOP\u2019s claim. The former investment banker has used terms on the campaign trail considered dogwhistles to the online far right and boasts a large online profile that has included interviews with Tucker Carlson<\/a> and antisemitic podcaster Myron Gaines. He has also praised the followers of antisemitic streamer Nick Fuentes.<\/p>\n

Asked by JTA why he had made his earlier \u201cgoyslop\u201d comments, Fishback replied, \u201cBecause it\u2019s funny. Get a life.\u201d<\/p>\n

He then posted the exchange to his X account under the caption, \u201cJournalists are insufferable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier in the same conversation, asked about recently revealed racist and antisemitic messages from a Florida Young Republicans<\/a> regional group chat, Fishback replied, \u201cI condemn all forms of hatred.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"James Fishback, the fringe GOP candidate courting the online far right in his long-shot bid for governor of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":181735,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[41480,85810,7886,28,30,29,14135,4219],"class_list":["post-181734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-antisemitism","tag-antizionism","tag-campaign","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-gop","tag-republicans"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181734"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181734\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/181735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}