{"id":224340,"date":"2026-04-09T03:14:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T03:14:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/224340\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T03:14:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T03:14:07","slug":"republican-gubernatorial-candidate-james-fishback-speaks-at-unf-defends-controversial-comments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/224340\/","title":{"rendered":"Republican gubernatorial candidate James Fishback speaks at UNF, defends controversial comments"},"content":{"rendered":"

During a campaign stop at the University of North Florida, Republican candidate James Fishback engaged young supporters but also faced protests and criticism. <\/p>\n

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 Republican gubernatorial candidate\u00a0James Fishback\u00a0<\/a>drew both support and criticism during a campaign stop at the University of North Florida, where he held a town hall event that attracted young voters and student demonstrators.<\/p>\n

A line of supporters filled the University Center on Wednesday night, many of them young conservatives who said they relate to Fishback and his message.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think as a young Republican, James Fishback represents our group the best,\u201d Jacksonville resident Brandon Lee said.<\/p>\n

Petr Paliy, a freshman at UNF, said Fishback\u2019s campaign is appealing to younger voters.<\/p>\n

\u201cMore of a younger face, kind of appealing more to young people,\u201d Paliy said, adding he attended the event to hear the candidate speak in person after seeing his ideas online.<\/p>\n

Fishback used the town hall to focus on issues including affordability, education and conservation. He also said Florida is \u201closing its identity.”<\/p>\n

His campaign says he has visited 51 of Florida\u2019s 67 counties.<\/p>\n

Wednesday’s event marked the first stop of Fishback\u2019s “1989 tour,” where he connects with students and communities.<\/p>\n

While supporters gathered inside, a group of students held a silent protest outside the venue.<\/p>\n

Members of Jacksonville Students for a Democratic Society criticized Fishback over what they described as racist and offensive remarks.<\/p>\n

\u201cAllowing for speakers like this to be on our campus makes students feel unsafe,\u201d said Stone Sevieux, a member of the group.<\/p>\n

Critics pointed to a recent viral video that shows Fishback telling a Black man he \u201cshould be lynched\u201d during a heated confrontation<\/a>. The exchange stemmed from accusations related to past sexual misconduct allegations against Fishback.<\/p>\n

Sevieux said the response raised concerns.<\/p>\n

\u201cReacting in that way not only is disgusting, but shows a lot of guilt to me,\u201d Sevieux said.<\/p>\n

Fishback addressed the backlash in an interview prior to the town hall, defending his actions and emphasizing his stance on free speech.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust know that as your governor, I will protect your First Amendment rights to criticize me or anyone in our state,\u201d Fishback said.<\/p>\n

He also said he does not regret the comments made in the viral video, claiming the individual involved had been harassing his supporters and volunteers for months.<\/p>\n

“He comes to our events, he gets in my face, he spits at our security guard, he yells racial epithets and it\u2019s not on video, and I respond accordingly. So no, I don\u2019t regret what I said,” Fishback said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy view is simple. The word police, the tone police, those days are over,\u201d Fishback said. \u201cI can assure you I\u2019m going to be a governor for every Floridian in our state.\u201d<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the University of North Florida said the event was not affiliated with the school and was booked by the Fishback campaign. The university, as a public institution, rents its facilities to external groups, the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"During a campaign stop at the University of North Florida, Republican candidate James Fishback engaged young supporters but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":224341,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-224340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224340","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=224340"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224340\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/224341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=224340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=224340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=224340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}