{"id":348274,"date":"2026-07-22T07:17:28","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T07:17:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/348274\/"},"modified":"2026-07-22T07:17:28","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T07:17:28","slug":"fishback-admits-to-voting-in-dc-but-says-hes-always-resided-in-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/348274\/","title":{"rendered":"Fishback admits to voting in DC, but says he\u2019s always resided in Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV\/Gray Florida Capital Bureau) &#8211; Court proceedings began Tuesday morning <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wctv.tv\/2026\/06\/29\/jay-collins-challenges-fishback-eligibility-governor\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.wctv.tv\/2026\/06\/29\/jay-collins-challenges-fishback-eligibility-governor\/\">surrounding a complaint<\/a> against Republican gubernatorial candidate James Fishback. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The complaint, filed by candidate and current Lieutenant Governor Jay Collins, calls for a Leon County Circuit County judge to declare Fishback ineligible for governor. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">And that could throw a huge wrench in things for thousands of voters who\u2019ve already cast their primary ballots. It wasn\u2019t immediately clear Tuesday what would happen if Fishback was tossed from the ballot.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Collins claims Fishback does not meet the Florida Constitution\u2019s seven-year residency requirement. Fishback admitted to voting in DC, but also presented witnesses that say he\u2019s always lived in Florida.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Despite warnings he could be criminally charged for falsely claiming to live in DC on tax and mortgage documents, Fishback insisted Florida has always been home.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Fishback took the stand on Tuesday and acknowledged he did vote in DC once, but said that doesn\u2019t mean he didn\u2019t live in Florida for the required seven years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cI handed over my Florida ID and I voted for President Trump and left,\u201d Fishback said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">During testimony, Fishback fielded questions about where he was born, what he did for fun growing up in Broward County and where he lived. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">He testified he was living with his family in Florida, including living with his grandparents in Plantation. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">He spoke about his organization, Incubate Debate. Fishback said he was sued by his employer for spending too much time on the organization.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cIt\u2019s a Florida organization that serves Florida schools,\u201d Fishback said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Separately, Fishback said an ex-girlfriend attempted to get a restraining order against him, and even she said he lived in Florida.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text text-start\">Mark McLaughlin was hired by the the Collins team to go through Fishback\u2019s county voting records.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text text-start\">McLaughlin testified that Fishback voted in Washington DC in November 2020 and signed a deed in DC the next year. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text text-start\">For his part, Fishback admits he did vote in DC during the pandemic, but that it was only a temporary thing because he could not go back to his grandmother\u2019s house because of her health during the pandemic. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text text-start\">\u201cI was locked down in DC. I could not get down to Florida to vote in time. I showed up to a polling precinct with my Florida ID and I asked the worker there, \u201cHey, I\u2019m from Florida. I want to vote for Trump. Can I vote here?\u201d And she looked me in the eye and said, \u201cYes.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text text-start\">He also said Fishback received a property tax exemption in DC and to get that exemption, he had to be living there.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text text-start\">McLaughlin testified a 2019 tax return shows Fishback with an address in DC. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text text-start\">\u201cYou file taxes where you live,\u201d McLaughlin said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text text-start\">During cross examination, Fishback\u2019s counsel questioned McLaughlin about how much he\u2019d been paid for his research, which totaled about $50,000 all in.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text text-start\">\u201cYou were trying to find dirt?\u201d Fishback\u2019s counsel asked. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text text-start\">\u201cI was looking for anything on behalf of the campaign,\u201d McLaughlin said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text text-start\">Attorneys asked if McLaughlin found any evidence Fishback was abandoning Florida. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text text-start\">\u201cThe evidence was that he was domiciled in DC,\u201d McLaughlin said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text text-start\">As for the DC home, Fishback testified his sister lives at that house and that he only recently furnished it.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Fishback: My sister lives at the house in Washington DC.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I got a 30 year mortgage at 2.7% so it was a compelling time to buy a property,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Otherwise I&#8217;d have to get a hotel.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Q: Have you ever worked a job in DC?<\/p>\n<p>A: No<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Matt Hoffmann (@ByMattHoffmann) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/ByMattHoffmann\/status\/2079596353244495919?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow\">July 21, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text text-start\">\u201cIn 2022, I spent only a few days there. Family friends would stay there, or my extended family,\u201d Fishback said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text text-start\">The hearing, which was expected to last two days, wrapped up Tuesday evening. The judge said he will rule by 5 p.m. next Monday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text text-start\">We asked the Florida Secretary of State what would happen to the potentially thousands of votes already cast for Fishback during early voting, but we haven\u2019t yet heard back.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 WCTV. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV\/Gray Florida Capital Bureau) &#8211; Court proceedings began Tuesday morning surrounding a complaint against Republican gubernatorial&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59836,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[36236,142553,28,30,29,6281,139834,28912,5187],"class_list":["post-348274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-fishback","tag-fishback-governor","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-governor","tag-governor-candidate","tag-james-fishback","tag-jay-collins"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348274","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=348274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348274\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=348274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=348274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=348274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}