Florida Republican gubernatorial candidate James Fishback speaking in Tampa at American Social on Dec. 1, 2025. (Photo by Mitch Perry\/Florida Phoenix)<\/p>\n
TAMPA \u2013 Florida has been one of the fastest growing states in the country<\/a> over the past five years. Now the newest entrant to the 2026 Republican gubernatorial race says it\u2019s time to focus less on bringing in new people and more on improving the lives of those who already live here.<\/p>\n \u201cStop inviting the whole country and the whole world to live here,\u201d James Fishback told a packed crowd during the Tampa Bay Young Republicans monthly meeting Monday night in Tampa, admonishing U.S. Sen. Rick Scott\u2019s paid aerial banners<\/a> that flew over New York City this past summer that read, \u201cHate socialism? Us too! Move to FL.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSen. Scott, we are full. We are done,\u201d Fishback said.<\/p>\n Fishback has been in the race for a little more than a week officially but has already drawn substantial criticism from Republican Party of Florida establishment figures who say he shouldn\u2019t be there.<\/p>\n \u201cTallahassee\u2019s having a full blown meltdown,\u201d he said. \u201cThe calls I\u2019ve gotten. The attacks that I\u2019ve gotten. All the way to the White House. Don\u2019t do this. Drop out.\u201d<\/p>\n He wants to end the H-1B visa program<\/p>\n A CEO with the startup asset management firm Azoria Partners. Fishback grew up in Broward County and now resides in Madison County in North Florida. The 30-year-old political newcomer (who turns 31 on New Year\u2019s Day) has come out as a hardline immigration critic who has vowed to \u201cfire every H-1B\u201d employee working at state agencies and cut contracts with companies hiring visa holders.<\/p>\n \u201cAmerica is for Americans,\u201d he declared during his opening 20-minute speech. \u201cThe brave thing for our brothers and sisters in Haiti or Brazil or Mexico or India or China \u2013 the brave thing for them to do is stay right where they are. Make their country great. The brave thing to do is not to come here on a H-1B and take a job from one of us. \u201c<\/p>\n H-1B visas allow immigrants to work temporarily in the U.S. in specialty jobs, and President Donald Trump has\u00a0supported<\/a> increasing the number of those visas to allow entry by high-skilled workers. But there\u2019s been backlash from \u201cAmerica First\u201d conservatives, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced<\/a>\u00a0in late October that he was directing the state Board of Governors to prevent state universities from hiring foreign specialty workers.<\/p>\n Fishback said Monday that he was going to expand on DeSantis\u2019 move, saying, \u201cEvery single foreign worker who has stolen a job from us will be relieved of their duties from state government by the time that the sun sets on my first day in office.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re gone,\u201d he proclaimed.<\/p>\n Fishback says he wishes the governor was running for a third term (DeSantis is term-limited in 2026).<\/p>\n But he also is pushing hard on the affordability crisis in Florida. He said it doesn\u2019t matter if the stock market had doubled recently in light of the high costs of groceries, property tax bills, auto insurance, and energy.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve said I\u2019m going to stop construction of any AI data center that threatens to jack up our electric bills,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s just common sense. The idea that we have to pay the costs, have to shoulder the burdens of what others are doing, there\u2019s a word for that. It\u2019s called socialism.\u201d<\/p>\n Can he compete with Byron Donalds?<\/p>\n Fishback\u2019s entry in the Republican race for governor comes as Byron Donalds continues to dominate in public opinion polls, boosted by the early backing of Donald Trump. The Southwest Florida U.S. representative has raised more $30 million to date, dwarfing the totals of every other candidate from either party who has entered the contest.<\/p>\n Fishback told the Young Republicans that they \u201cgotta respect\u201d the work that Donalds has done for Floridians since he was elected to serve in the state House in 2016 and Congress in 2020. At another point, he called him a \u201cgreat guy\u201d and a \u201cgreat father.\u201d They met for three hours in August, he noted.<\/p>\n But he insists the two \u201chave disagreements that are irreconcilable.\u201d<\/p>\n When asked by a member of the audience what he could do to \u201cseparate\u201d himself from Donalds, Fishback became uncharacteristically reticent, saying simply, \u201cYou do it by showing up.\u201d<\/p>\n Fishback was somewhat dismissive of Lt. Gov. Jay Collins, who has seemingly been on the verge of announcing his own candidacy for governor for the past several months but has yet to pull the trigger. Fishback said he was frustrated that, while still serving in the Florida Senate, Collins had sponsored legislation<\/a>\u00a0that would have shielded pesticide companies immunity from so-called \u201cfrivolous\u201d lawsuits. \u201c<\/p>\n \u201cA corporate system is a business that has immunity,\u201d he said. \u201cThat is wrong. That is un-American. I\u2019m always going to stand up for workers. I\u2019m never going to allow any type of immunity.\u201d<\/p>\n Anti-AIPAC<\/p>\n As part of his \u201cAmerica First\u201d platform, Fishback said, he won\u2019t take financial contributions from any organization \u201caffiliated with a foreign country,\u201d emphasizing that includes the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, better known as AIPAC.<\/p>\n Florida GOP U.S. Rep. Randy Fine has\u00a0labelled<\/a> Fishback a \u201ctotal weirdo\u201d and a \u201cneo-Nazi.\u201d Fishback said on Monday that he disavows all forms of hatred but wasn\u2019t going to apologize for any of his stances, nor play \u201cthis game that you\u2019re a racist. You\u2019re Islamophobic. You\u2019re antisemitic. Enough. Floridians have a right to exist in their own state. I\u2019m not bending the knee to anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n Audience questions<\/p>\n Things got spicier as the evening wore on.<\/p>\n When a woman who described herself as a \u201crecovering liberal\u201d and current university instructor asked how Fishback would hold public universities accountable if they had rewritten DEI initiatives into something more palatable in the existing political environment, the candidate declared that, if elected, he would direct \u201cevery single university bureaucrat\u201d to be interviewed by a member of his team to ask them \u201csimple questions,\u201d such as what was their reaction was to the assassination of conservative leader Charlie Kirk.<\/p>\n \u201cIf they use the words \u2018contextualize,\u2019 \u2018gun rights, \u2018He had it coming.\u2019 \u2014 They\u2019re out. And then guess what? Let \u2019em sue,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s how you actually eradicate an ideology.\u201d<\/p>\n Fishback has never run for public office, nor voted in a GOP primary in Florida. That lack of involvement and experience was called out by Werther Marciales, policy director for the Florida Young Republicans, who asked: \u201cWhy should we trust you?\u201d<\/p>\n Fishback responded that had he known he would ever run for office, he \u201cprobably\u201d would have voted in some primaries. \u201cI would have done things a lot differently,\u201d he acknowledged.<\/p>\n But Marciales wasn\u2019t placated. He referenced a lawsuit filed in 2024 by Fishback\u2019s former employer, Greenlight Capital and DME Capital Management, alleging he had misrepresented his position in the company\u00a0 to gain credibility for his own Azoria Partners. In September, Fishback acknowledged sharing confidential information and agreed to pay the hedge fund\u2019s costs to resolve the lawsuit, according to Bloomberg<\/a>.<\/p>\n When Marciales asked Fishback why his former employer sued him, Fishback said he would be happy to speak to him in private afterwards.<\/p>\n \u201cNo, why don\u2019t you answer it here? Because you\u2019re running for governor and I think people deserve to know,\u201d Marciales said.<\/p>\n That led to shouts from the opposite side of the room, with one voice accusing Marciales of being \u201can attack dog\u201d and another saying, \u201cIt\u2019s not about you, dude!\u201d before everyone moved on.<\/p>\n Despite that confrontation, some audience members told the Phoenix they agreed with many of Fishback\u2019s stances, and bemoaned the fact that Trump has already weighed in on behalf of Donalds.<\/p>\n \u201cThe biggest thing I like about him is his message on H1-B\u2019s and immigration. I think that\u2019s probably the biggest thing that got Trump elected in the last election and it\u2019s a huge topic for Americans, mostly young Americans,\u201d said one audience member, who declined to provide his name.<\/p>\n \u201cI think the race is wide open,\u201d he added. \u201cIt\u2019s early. A lot of things will come out. I like that Fishback\u2019s oppo research is already dropping. He\u2019s saying the right things. \u201c<\/p>\n \u201cI hated that the president came out and supported Donalds so quick, well before the election took place,\u201d said another man who asked to be identified as Tim from Tampa. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of people trying to attack James in saying that he shouldn\u2019t run, and that was just a huge red flag to me. Why shouldn\u2019t he be running? It\u2019s an election. It\u2019s a democracy. It shouldn\u2019t be just that \u2018Oh, just because the president endorsed somebody, hey, nobody else is allowed to run.\u2019 \u201c<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Florida Republican gubernatorial candidate James Fishback speaking in Tampa at American Social on Dec. 1, 2025. 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