“First and foremost, I think Zohran and I are two good-looking guys in our thirties.” James Fishback, the controversial Republican running for governor of Florida, tells me that it is “not politically wise” to acknowledge his similarities with New York’s new mayor – but he can’t help himself.
Both he and Zohran Mamdani are from privileged families, have taken on their own parties, have harnessed youth activism, are big on social media and have courted the same voters on the same issue: the rising cost of living. And, like 34-year-old Mamdani, at this stage of his campaign, Fishback, 31, needs a boost in the polls. Currently he is polling between 5 and 23 percent, while congressman Byron Donalds leads the Republican primary pack at 37 to 47 percent.
Part of Fishback’s strategy to close the gap is to grab headlines, which has led to accusations he’s a right-wing troll. He called Donalds – a black man – a “slave to donors,” he used the phrase “goyslop” to refer to highly processed food supposedly promoted by oligarchical Jews for gentiles and defended the “groypers” – young men who follow Nick Fuentes. He also instigated a fight with Sophie Rain, an OnlyFans model, after proposing a 50 percent sin tax on the platform.
Mamdani campaigned on free kindergarten places while Fishback is a supporter of paid maternity leave
To his critics, he is a white nationalist who has based his campaign on outrage and will harm the party he represents. But he tells me he is not a racist or an anti-Semite. “As a proud Christian, I could never bring myself to discriminate against someone on something that they could not control as an immutable characteristic, like the fact that they are black or white.”
Another more substantive way in which he hopes to close the gap with Donalds is by making inroads with Democratic voters and even stealing some party policies wholesale. (The number of Democrats is growing in Florida, with Miami electing its first Democratic mayor in 30 years in December.)
Following Mamdani’s lead, Fishback is leaning in to the cost-of-living crisis – and babies. Mamdani campaigned on free kindergarten places for two-year-olds while Fishback is an ardent, and somewhat unlikely supporter, as a Republican, of paid maternity leave. It’s one issue, among others, on which he breaks with GOP orthodoxy. Since Roe v. Wade was overturned, there has been a shift in thinking toward the issue among some Republicans who believe women should be given financial support to have babies they don’t think they can afford. Some believe lessening the financial burden may ease the birth rate crisis. In a debate last year, J.D. Vance pointed out that the US is the only western nation without paid leave and said: “We could do a heck of a lot better.”
“I don’t think you could call yourself pro-life if you expect a mom who gives birth on Saturday to be right back at work on Monday morning,” Fishback told me. “That’s why, as governor, I will institute paid maternity leave for every single mom in Florida.”
Fishback says the more youthful ranks of the modern GOP approach the issue with fresh thinking. “I wish Republican establishment politicians would stop worshiping at the altar of capitalism. This is the trade-off I had to make all the time running a business. It’s the moral and ethical thing to do, yes, but there’s also a very strong business case to pay maternity leave, because if you value women in the workplace, if you recognize the extraordinary contributions that women can bring to your company, you would want them to be happy.
“The only way women can truly be happy is by being married and bringing incredible children into this world. I’m also going to support our women who want to raise families and be stay-at-home devoted mothers. Whatever path you choose, I’m going to fight for you with even vigor.”
The cost of living is set to dominate both the midterms and the general election, and is the issue on which Trump and the GOP are – rightly – fearful they will be punished by voters. Mamdani won in New York by focusing on rental costs, consumer costs and wages. Fishback is among a new wave of Republicans who have stolen a page from the Democratic playbook, and who believe the state has a greater role to play in solving some of the issues facing America.
“I think both Zohran and I recognize that the real crisis facing our respective constituents is the affordability crisis. There’s not an affordability crisis that uniquely afflicts Republicans and doesn’t affect Democrats.” Fishback says he will bring down the cost of rent, bring down the cost of auto, home and health insurance and eliminate road tolls.
“The big issue is being able to buy a home. It is quite literally a life or death decision. If you can’t buy a home, you can’t get married. If you can’t get married, if you can’t have kids, then what is the point?” He is campaigning to ban Blackstone and major investors from buying family homes in the state and will write first-time buyer couples a $10,000 check.
Democrats in Florida, Fishback says, are receptive to his message and telling him they are switching their party registration to Republican to vote in the closed primary on August 18. “My message to Floridians is this: recognize the math. Look at yourself in the mirror and admit that the next governor of Florida is going to be a Republican. The question is, what kind of Republican?”
He hopes it will be the kind of Republican who has moved past identity politics and DEI. Fishback believes these are yesterday’s battles and that the party needs to move on to stay relevant. The culture war “is a distraction from the existential cost-of-living crisis. I’m no fan of drag queens. I’m no fan of certain books in our libraries, but that is not the war that Republicans should be waging right now.”
On immigration, the similarities with Mamdani judder to a halt. Fishback, who is the only gubernatorial candidate who speaks Spanish fluently (his mother is an immigrant from Colombia), supports a moratorium at the federal level. If elected, he says he would charge companies that bring immigrants into the state on H-1B visas the difference in cost between that and hiring an American. “I think that the United States has been generous, to say the least, over the past hundred years in accepting immigrants. The immigrants who came here [through] Ellis Island are very different than the immigrants who breached the border on Kamala Harris’s watch. They committed themselves singularly to the American experiment. They also did not receive food stamps, an Obama phone and $7,000 a month as the latest round of migrants got.
“American jobs should go to qualified Americans. You cannot allow a second class of foreign slaves to come into our country and steal jobs and rob people of their ability to get a great-paying job to start a family and to live out the American dream.”
Fishback, like Mamdani, has relentlessly focused on the youth vote, campaigning at colleges and using motivated young volunteers for his ground game. “What you’re going to see over the coming weeks is thousands of Gen Z volunteers in our campaign knocking on the doors of people who look like their parents and grandparents making our pitch,” he says.
‘I am being attacked from every single angle, including from many in my own team,’ Fishback says
Controversy also attends Fishback in his personal life. He was accused in 2022 of having a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old when he was 27 (though he has always denied any wrongdoing). The woman asked for an order of protection against him, which was denied. His former employer, Greenlight Capital, is suing him for spending more than $37,000 on “extravagant” personal expenses.
“I am being attacked from every single angle, including from many in my own party. They’re attacking us because we are right over the target,” Fishback says. Some of these attacks take a physical form. His home in Madison was recently targeted, he believes, by an arsonist. His yard was engulfed in flames so large the fire service had to extinguish them. In response, he came out fighting – posting a video of himself outside the property with an AR-15 rifle. “We will not be intimidated. We will use deadly force. We will not wait for the police if something like that happens. We will shoot anyone dead.” He says he carries, as do people on his team.
Fishback will not be easily deterred because, despite setting up a hedge fund and starting a national debate league, politics is the real family business. “I will be the sixth governor in my family and I look forward to making my ancestors proud. It’s a family tradition of the Fishbacks. My most recent ancestor was the governor of Arkansas, William Meade Fishback, in the 1890s. I’ve always had an ambition to do something extraordinary.”
A stumbling block he must overcome if he is to win the governorship is to settle the question of whether he is eligible. Florida’s constitution requires candidates to be state residents for seven years before running. Fishback grew up in Florida, but in 2020 he was registered to vote in Washington, DC. Fishback is adamant that he has never voted or lived in the capital. He must also boost his election war chest. His team claims it’s a $250,000 pot, but filings suggest it’s more like $19,000. Either way, it is dwarfed by the $45 million raised so far by Donalds.
If he does settle the practical issues of residency and campaign finance, he will still be tainted by accusations of racism and anti-Semitism. Yet it’s worth remembering that they didn’t hurt the young upstart whose success he wishes to replicate. Mamdani vowed to target “whiter neighborhoods” for higher taxes and has defended the “globalize the intifada” chant. Fishback, too, is a critic of Israel and wants to put a stop to the billions of dollars of US military aid handed to the country, as well as Florida’s purchase of Israeli bonds. Critics say that Mamdani and Fishback’s flirtations with anti-Zionism are a dogwhistle for anti-Semites.
But unlike New York, Florida is not brimming with progressive voters. Its key demographic is the progressively deteriorating, whose grandchildren will have their work cut out if they want persuade them to abandon their habitual support of traditional Republican candidates. Fishback is unlikely to win. But like it or not, his ideas will live on among the new right-wing progressives.
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