Roger Shermann, 28, is one of the young men attracted to the campaign of James Fishback, the Florida Republican gubernatorial candidate whose aggressive guerrilla politics went viral when he used a bullhorn to troll U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, telling him “you’re a slave” and calling him a DEI hire.
For Shermann, it is Fishback’s economic message that resonates, not the identity politics.
“The current GOP does not care about young people in this country,” said the Broward County resident who now serves as a regional coordinator for Fishback’s campaign. “I don’t want to keep voting for a party that I believe does not have my best interest in mind.”
When talking about the candidate, Hank Woodall, 26, of Cape Coral, expressed the sentiment that a nascent supporter of President Donald Trump may say in 2016. “I had felt kind of politically homeless for the last few years of my young adulthood, and he really got me excited that some change could be possible.”
Why the Republican party is uncomfortable with James Fishback’s message
Fishback, 31, is comfortable calling himself a “disrupter.” His opponents, however, say his nativist campaign uses racist dog whistles and promotes antisemitism, tacking toward the Groyper movement, an alt-right, white nationalist political faction led by Nick Fuentes.
“I fear that the Florida that I grew up in is disappearing,” said Fishback, who lives in Madison. “The cost-of-living crisis is crushing us. Wall Street is buying up our homes, taking away the American dream.”
For the Republican establishment, Fishback has become an annoying splinter. At the very least, his candidacy has exposed a rift within Florida’s GOP, whether it is Gov. Ron DeSantis echoing his complaints about open primary debates or an underlying dichotomy over the party’s economic message that Shermann talks about.
Guerrilla stunts attract young voters overlooked by GOP establishment
“He gets a lot more attention because we have a clear front-runner now,” said state GOP Chair Evan Power. “He gets attention because he does stunts.”
For instance, Fishback made headlines in March when he said he was banned from all Waffle House locations in Florida. He was also accompanied by a supporter in a chicken outfit while screaming at Donalds, also a Republican, as the candidate left a Lake City campaign event on Saturday, June 13.
All polling shows Donalds running away with the nomination. Still, Fishback has been drawing crowds — mostly young men — at his campaign events on college campuses. The youth movement can be seen on the Democratic side as well, with 13 under-30 candidates filing to run for state office.
“They are staring down the worst job market for young people in modern American history,” Fishback said.
But Fishback’s followers have taken heat as the candidate has taken his campaign online like no other of the candidates, with critics dismissively calling them “broflakes.” Shermann says he couldn’t care less, saying detractors can “kick rocks” for dismissing his legitimate concerns.
“The James Fishback I know and have heard speak many times talks about how we will protect all Floridians, regardless of their race, their gender, their ideology,” Woodall added.
Fishback said another reason Gen Z is attracted to his campaign is that it’s fun and energetic. “Come for the humor and the guerrilla campaigning, and stay for a real platform that fights for you, your kids, and grandkids,” he said.
Why does James Fishback resonate with some young voters?
Cat Margaux, president of the Florida Young Democrats says they aren’t surprised at the rhetoric — pointing to the Florida International University chat scandal where young Republicans were caught using racist and antisemitic language.
“The reaction we had in the Florida Young Democrats was pretty simple: fish found in water,” they said of the Fishback campaign. “This is what we see from our young conservative counterparts.”
Margaux said Fishback resonates with young conservative men because, like Trump, it allows them to express what “many people have kept very secret in hidden groups chats, not for the public eye, to see.”
Who has Donald Trump endorsed for Florida governor?
Detractors on both sides of the aisle say Fishback’s campaign is little more than an avatar for DeSantis to tear down Donalds, who has been endorsed by President Donald Trump.
“(DeSantis’) team recruited Fishback. That’s been well-established,” said U.S. Rep. Randy Fine, R-Daytona Beach.
“I believe that James Fishback is a product of Ron DeSantis,” said Angie Nixon, the state representative from Jacksonville currently running in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate.
DeSantis’ office did not respond to a request for comment, but both Fine and Nixon allege that his advisor, Christina Pushaw, was the one who developed Fishback as a candidate.
Fishback denies he is anybody’s puppet and Pushaw has publicly distanced herself from him.
Democratic activist Fergie Reid said the Fishback campaign smacks of DeSantis’ dog-whistle tactics during the 2018 gubernatorial race against Democrat Andrew Gillum. “None of those same Florida Republicans blinked an eye at DeSantis saying ‘monkey it up’ in reference to Gillum being elected governor,” Reid said.
Strict debate thresholds spark intense Florida Republican infighting
The state Republican Party recently rescinded its invitation to Fishback to participate in the upcoming Sunshine State Showdown candidate forum and all other official primary activities. The move occurred after Fine said he would boycott the event because of what he said was Fishback’s antisemitic rhetoric.
Fishback has said Donalds is afraid to debate him and the other candidates, a field that includes Lt. Gov. Jay Collins and former House Speaker Paul Renner. Donalds, according to Power, is the only candidate who qualified for the official debate by polling above 10% and raising $10 million.
“If Byron is too afraid to face voters in the state he wants to lead, I’m happy to meet him where he’s most comfortable, on Fox News,” Renner wrote on social media. Collins, a veteran, took off his prosthetic leg at Wednesday campaign stop in Milton when asked about the debate requirements, saying “there are not participation trophies in politics.”
DeSantis has called the debate requirements “ridiculous,” saying the state GOP is trying to “engineer an outcome.”
James Fishback defends his controversial language
Fishback, in the meantime, is a living example of the adage that there is no such thing as bad publicity.
His recent bullhorn performance confronting Donalds as the GOP’s frontrunner left a campaign event in Lake City caught fire on social media. While many users condemned the tactics and the language, they shared the video anyway.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier called Fishback’s characterization of Donalds as a slave “gross.”
Power, the GOP chair, said, “What he did this weekend was disgusting. The words that he used, the actions that he took, making physical contact with staff members, is just unacceptable for someone who wants to be governor of the third-largest state of the union.”
Fishback – who founded an investment management firm – is unfazed. He said his found the bullhorn ambush of Donalds “funny.” And he defends the use of the term “slave,” saying it refers to the leading GOP gubernatorial candidate taking $368,000 from the powerful lobbying group, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).
“Any organization that lobbies on behalf of a foreign government should be illegal in the United States,” he said.
Fishback added that he “condemns all forms of antisemitism” and supporter Woodall said that the candidate’s criticism of the government of Israel should not be construed as bigotry. As for his nativist platform, Fishback argued that H-1B visas are being used to take jobs away from Americans, saying Wall Street is “addicted to cheap labor.”
What is Byron Donalds’ reaction to James Fishback?
The Donalds campaign has remained mum, intent on not giving any fuel to Fishback’s candidacy.
Fine, who isn’t one to hold back, called Fishback a “fringe nut job,” adding that the candidate’s obsession with AIPAC is simply “a way to attack Jews without saying Jews.”
“I don’t like that we have a neo-Nazi running as a Republican candidate, but I think that the voters are going to overwhelmingly reject it,” Fine said.
John Pacenti is the Government Impact Reporter for The USA TODAY NETWORK-FLORIDA. You can get all of Florida’s best content directly in your inbox each weekday day by signing up for the free newsletter, Florida TODAY, at https://palmbeachpost.com/newsletters.
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Young men are flocking to a Florida campaign shaking up Republicans
Reporting by John Pacenti, USA Today Network-Florida / Florida Today
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By John Pacenti, USA Today Network-Florida | USA TODAY Network
