![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/df09a34fba29931fb21fe9baa439ba28.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
A Republican running for governor of Florida is in hot water online after calling for a Black man to be \u201clynched\u201d in a tense exchange that has gone viral on social media. This is the latest controversy for the GOP candidate, who seems to revel in making offensive and provocative statements.<\/p>\n
Republican candidate in Florida calls for Black man to be \u2018lynched\u2019<\/p>\n
James Fishback, one of several Republicans running for governor of Florida, got into a tense exchange with a Black voter who confronted the Republican on allegations of sexual misconduct. In a video posted on X, a Black man confronts Fishback in a crowd, asking the candidate, \u201cSo, Mr. Fishback, what\u2019s with you smashing a 16 or 17-year-old? Can you answer about what\u2019s going on with that?\u201d<\/p>\n
The question is a reference to accusations made by Keniah Fort, who worked for Fishback\u2019s nonprofit organization, Incubate Debate. Fort accuses Fishback of dating her when she was 17, and he was 27, further alleging that he stalked her after the relationship ended. Fishback has denied the allegations. The video shows an increasingly tense back and forth between Fishback and the Black voter, who goes into graphic detail, speculating about Fishback engaging in various positions with the then-teenager. An increasingly frustrated Fishback chastises the man: \u201cI don\u2019t want you ever speaking about women in our state like that ever again,\u201d he tells the voter while defending himself. \u201cWhy haven\u2019t I been arrested? Why haven\u2019t I been arrested? You should be lynched!\u201d exclaims Fishback before the video abruptly ends.<\/p>\n
Fishback builds brand on racist trolling<\/p>\n
The now-viral clip is the latest instance of public outrage surrounding Fishback, who has built a campaign based on a young fan base that he seemingly attracts with his outlandish and offensive statements. Writing about Fishback for The New York Times<\/a>, columnists Michelle Goldberg and Daniel J. Wakin discuss how he established his political brand by founding \u201canti-woke\u201d organizations such as a high school debate league and an exchange-traded fund; he launched the latter at President Donald Trump\u2019s Mar-a-Lago. Per the columnists, Fishback \u201cembraces a kind of trollish racism and antisemitism\u201d that appeals to some young conservatives, a demographic that has been demonstrated to delve into racist and offensive ideas<\/a> and language in recent years. Fishback, for example, has defended the University of Florida College Republicans<\/a> even though the group was disbanded after a picture was posted online showing an apparent member making a Nazi salute.<\/p>\n Fishback trails Black Republican congressman in race for governor of Florida<\/p>\n Despite his popularity with the so-called \u201cgroyper<\/a>\u201d community of young white supremacists, which Fishback claims he is not, he is currently trailing in the Republican race to replace retiring anti-\u201cwoke\u201d Gov. Ron DeSantis. Leading that race is Florida Rep. Byron Donalds, one of a handful of Black Republicans<\/a> in Congress and an ally of Trump. Donalds currently enjoys a huge lead over Fishback and other Republican candidates in polls of likely voters. Fishback has repeatedly gone after Donalds with racist attacks, referring to him as \u201cBy\u2019rone\u201d and warning that Donalds would \u201cturn Florida into a Section 8 ghetto.\u201d These comments are in addition to other outrageous statements made by Fishback, who posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, \u201cDon Lemon is lucky he\u2019s not getting hanged in the public square for ransacking a church,\u201d after the journalist covered a controversial anti-ICE protest at a Minnesota church.<\/p>\n Fishback\u2019s brand of racist and offensive politics has so far failed to make a large dent in the GOP race for governor of Florida. His comments have, however, gained him significant attention and appealed to a brand of bigoted young conservative politics that has been vocal in recent years. Now, Fishback, while again denying concerning and disturbing allegations that were once made against him, has escalated his political racism by calling for a Black man to be lynched.<\/p>\n The post Republican In Florida Governor\u2019s Race Tells Black Voter He \u2018Should Be Lynched\u2019 In Viral Exchange<\/a> appeared first on Blavity<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Republican running for governor of Florida is in hot water online after calling for a Black man…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":217842,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[695,28,30,29,99031,28912,23855],"class_list":{"0":"post-217841","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-black","9":"tag-florida","10":"tag-florida-headlines","11":"tag-florida-news","12":"tag-governor-of-florida","13":"tag-james-fishback","14":"tag-republican-candidate"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217841","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=217841"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217841\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/217842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}