{"id":436961,"date":"2026-10-24T18:22:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-24T18:22:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/436961\/"},"modified":"2026-10-24T18:22:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-24T18:22:08","slug":"not-welcome-here-james-fishback-allegedly-threatened-with-arrest-at-byron-donalds-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/436961\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Not welcome here’: James Fishback allegedly threatened with arrest at Byron Donalds event"},"content":{"rendered":"

CLEARWATER, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 Former Florida gubernatorial candidate James Fishback<\/a> says he was threatened with arrest by deputies with the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office<\/a> while trying to attend a public event hosted by Republican gubernatorial nominee Byron Donalds<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In a news release, Fishback said he and his wife were told he was \u201cnot welcome here\u201d upon entering the event in Clearwater. The release did not specify what led to the confrontation or identify the deputies involved.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy wife and I attended an event hosted by Democrat U.S. Senate Candidate Angie Nixon last week without incident,\u201d Fishback said. \u201cI have attended political events featuring Donald Trump, Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bernie Sanders, and I’ve never had any issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fishback, a Republican who ran and lost to Donalds in Florida’s 2026 gubernatorial primary, said he was disappointed by the incident.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is disgraceful that Byron Donalds would threaten to arrest us for attending a political event open to the public,\u201d Fishback said.<\/p>\n

See also: Pres. Trump expected to vote in person in Palm Beach after casting mail ballot in March<\/a><\/p>\n

Fishback said he received nearly 200,000 votes in the primary and won voters under 50 by 13 percentage points. Since the primary, he said he has endorsed 22 Republican candidates, knocked on doors and mobilized campaign volunteers to support Republican campaigns across Florida.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter everything I\u2019ve done to help Republicans across Florida, this is how Byron Donalds chooses to treat us,\u201d Fishback said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CLEARWATER, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 Former Florida gubernatorial candidate James Fishback says he was threatened with arrest by deputies…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":436962,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-436961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436961","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=436961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436961\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/436962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=436961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=436961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=436961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}