Florida’s Groyper Candidate for Governor

Col Zone Media.

Welcome to it could happen here. I'm Garrison Davis, joined by James Stout.

Hello, I get what are we What are we learning about? Today?

We are going to be learning about a man named James Fishback.

Okay, good first name.

Oh yeah, I've wanted to get someone kind of unbiased, but I now understand unfortunately that you might be might be just kind of, you know, drawn drawn to him.

Yeah. I've come here to defend the James name.

I don't think that defense will last very long. I okay. James Fishback is a former hedge fun analyst who's been worming his way into the political world of the new Right during the past two to three years.

Yeah, I'm giving up on that one. Already. Got no interest in defending this guy.

If you're active on you know, any kind of political feeds, whether that's you know, short short form video, blue sky, Twitter, you've probably seen a video or two of James Fishback. But this episode, we're gonna dive a little bit more into his background at his current political activities, which includes some things you probably haven't heard before. So James Fishback has tried to attach himself to a lot of you

Okay, yeah remember when.

But he did so just by like showing up at campaign staff events. He wasn't a staffer, like, he just kept like appearing. He asked, like, stay overnight at a hotel that this staff was all staying at for this campaign event in Florida, and tried to build a personal rapport with the VEC over a few months, and eventually Fishback outstayed is welcome. He then pivoted to becoming what I would call a D tier right wing comic and

Yeah, just at least literally in their comments online.

And yeah, his Doge claim to fame is that he came up with this idea of the Doge dividend, which is like a stimulus type check that the government would send to people based on the savings that they found or created through slashing government agencies.

Cool.

So that was his idea that he added Elon Musk about, and this idea gained some traction and this this kind of boosted his image as a quote unquote Doge advisor and helped him trick news agencies into boosting his public

Oh yeah, it's forgotten that he did. Wow, how time flies.

Before the inauguration, because he was planning on and is planning on running for governor of Ohio, Fishback tried to put his name in as like a hey, all become the co chair of dog elon since my pal Ramaswami is going to be busy. That also, you know, did not did not work obviously.

Yeah, what needy guy.

He's just very very needy, very clingy, yeah, paid, very parasocial. Yes, And after Katie Miller released a statement being like this guy's not part of dog, Fishback began lobbying Trump for the vacant seat on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors.

Really no shame.

Based on his you know, credentials as this like patriotic America first investor right, who's worked at a hedge fund or two and tried tried to get his way onto the SPACAN seat. When that didn't turn out, obviously, Fishback set his sights on his home state of Florida, launching what I would call a groiper style campaign for governor cool.

And this is what we're going to be discussing for the rest of this episode.

I'm not like intimately familiar with the grouper space, but this seems to be like the most kind of like Beata behavior to constantly like notice me, uh, I forget what that's a wedd that begins.

With sick me?

No, yeah, it could be pick me. I guess it's like a notice met sempi or something that people say.

I never expected you to say noticed me.

Yeah, I've unfortunately I've been on the internet too, Like that's what he seems, right, he seems like extremely uh yes, yeah, this is like I think what will be coded as like beata behavior in the.

Yeah, and now he's kind of trying to do this with when Tesen the Gropers, although to this point more successfully. Okay, he's actually more successfully ingratiated himself with the Groper's space. On Tucker Carlson interview, he talked about how the Twitter account sorry x account af news or af post it's America first post America first News was a part of his like political radicalization towards the sort of Groper's style

Yeah, there are a few of those on Twitter, like bno news is another one that used. Yeah, they aggregates from repost stuff.

And you know, Fishback has pointed to this as being a part of his like a Graper style red pilling.

Is the activity of this.

Account to get a sense of his kind of very graper online background, or at least like a place within the New Right. I'm going to read a tweet of his from February eighth, twenty twenty six. Quote, as Florida governor, I will refuse to let sub human gesters spike our collective cortisol, not even once. Also, no foids or egirls unquote. How much of that do you understand?

James, I got cortisol. I'm familiar, all right.

Okay, so yeah, this is using the kind of currently trendy like looks Maxing terms the jester, which has been used a lot since Clinocular's stream with Fuentes and sneak O at that club where they played the Kanye hal Hitler song. Spiking cortisol is a frequent way that people in the looksack in space refer to your stress being raised, especially like through politics, like through politics raising your stress. Okay, And voids and egirls is just like misogynistic ways to

Yeah, I speak your language.

And it's also just really annoying. Right, He's trying to be off putting on purpose because that will drive attention to him from people who don't like him. And you know, in trying to cover him in this episode, you know, I'm trying to like ride that line of not just unnecessarily giving him publicity because he has outrageous things, but then also framing his rising profile within a certain like context, which is groper candidates popping up more and more frequently across the United States.

Yeah.

So, in terms of Florida, de Santists can't run for another term.

He is term limited.

The clear front runner to succeed Dysantis is US representative from Florida by Donald's who has Trump's endorsement. Last month, Lieutenant Governor j Collins also announced a run for governor.

I will share a clip.

I've seen this one. I'm excited to wash it again there.

If you come back to this home and our staff, our volunteers are working hard. We're not waiting for the police. We're gonna shoot you with an AR fifteen sight on scene.

Five five six.

Yeah, that's what we're going to do. It's very simple. Shall not be infringe?

We have a right. It's just a bunch of woods, they saying, like not in any particular.

Yeah, yeah, it doesn't make much sense.

It doesn't know it. It's also five point five six able to call it five five six bit, yeah, fascinating, two two three yeah, thirty round. Wait, doesn't actually have a magazine in there? I noticed no, no, no, The back sites folded down as well. It's for those familiar with such things, a straight at the box Smith and Western MP fifteen. It looks like he may have bought it quite recently.

So this is one such incident where he tried to generate some kind of publicity through this, you know, very provocative gesture. But he's also done this through the language he uses. Fishback refers to front runner Byron Donalds, who is black as by Rone, which is just not his name, and has said quote by Rone wants to turn Florida

Yeah.

Fishback has proposed a fifty percent income tax on OnlyFans creators, calling it a quote unquote syntax, and one of his very first campaign videos was titled I'm running for Florida governor to make the trains run on time.

Oh cool.

So this has not like generated tons of controversy in headlines. Yeah, it's you know, caused some social media posters to be like, oh, look at this guy clearly doing a Nazi dog whistle. But then it's also signaled, you know, early early in the campaign signaled to you know, grapers and people in the very very far fringes of the right, has signaled

Come on, dude.

Yeah, it's like a clumsy dog whistle, right, it's embarrassing. There's no like a sleight of hand here or whatever. You know, he's just kind of blundering his way towards being like look at me, Nazis.

Yeah.

Like this video he just talked about trying to bring back the Amtrak to the Florida Panhandle.

It's like a one minute video.

Cool.

It had nothing to do about actually like making trains run on time. It's about trying to return Amtrak to a certain section of Florida. Fitchback has promised to quote divest every penny from Israel on day one unquote, which would include three hundred and eighty five million in foreign bonds invested in by the state. And he's apposed to adopting anti semitism ministions in schools that make it quote unquote against the law to criticize Israel.

Uh.

Yeah, this is where the hard right and the software I bet, yeah, I'm sure it's Israel you'll concern with here, buddy, Yeah, No, I bet.

I'm sure he's not doing this out of you know, principled stances of Palestinian solidarity.

And he just wants to do anti semitism like the old fashioned way.

Yes, and this can be displayed during a campaign event at the University of Central Florida where Fishback discussed how to make lunches in high school cafeterias more healthy.

Putant topic, what's with the.

Pop tarts in the Broward County public schools in the cafeterias. I'm not saying that the test scores are a result of the pop tarts, But if you wanted kids to fail, if you wanted to set up our kids for failure, you would feed them the absolute boy slop in our cafeterias. And that that is on gentile.

Okay, everyone's really excited to hear that. Hey, uh yep, wow. Yeah, I mean the crowd is like, uh, they love it. Yeah, but it also looks like they just derived from like a Southern Florida be a pong invitational tournament. Like it's uh, it's it's a lot of like frat boid type.

Yes, it's a lot of the people who are who consumed like the menosphere type content online. Yeah, short clips of Nick Fuentes probably aren't regularly tuning into his like three hour livestream on Rumble, but but engage with his content through short clips online. Yeah, same thing with like sneak o clvicular, Right, It's it's it's this type of this type of influencer which has right wing politics, but

Yeah, it's it's mostly white men, yeah, from the traditional college age.

Speaking of schools, In twenty twenty two, a Florida school district cut ties with Fishback's debate organization after a female student came forward with allegations at Fishback quote initiated a romantic relationship unquote with her while she was working for his student debate organization when she was seventeen years old he was twenty seven.

Jesus.

The student claimed in.

A protection order request that after joining the debate organization when she was sixteen, Fishback quote unquote systematically cultivated a relationship with her by increasing quote unquote opportunities for personal interaction, and that Fishback later quote unquote explicitly directed her to keep the relationship a secret while she was working for his school debate organization Jesus. After turning eighteen, she moved in with fish Back. The two were briefly engaged. Fishback

Yeah, his debate organization, this is some kind of like like plastic turning point.

Yeah, but it kind of.

It was a Florida based debate organization in high schools to encourage debate.

It was active around twenty twenty two.

It was bought by another company a year or two ago, but in twenty twenty two a district ended cooperation with this organization after news came out about this relationship. Yeah, it is interesting considering the amount that Fishback and Fuentes and these guys will talk about the Epstein files and then have this in your Yeah.

Inappropriate relationships with underage women.

Yeah that work for you in your high school debate organization.

Yeah, that gives me the age in a substantial way. Also kind of not that surprising from this kind of area of the right, but it's still gross.

Yeah, it's time for an ad break, but we will return to discuss fishbacks reoccurring campaign rhetoric and his promises as governor. All Right, we're back. A big part of Fishback's campaign targeting H one B visas. He promised on day one as governor to fire as many H one B workers as you can and to quote unquote incentivize companies to hire Americans. Again, here's a radio appearance where he discusses this.

On the first day in office, I would fire every single H one B who works at a state agency. Number two, if you have a state contract with Tallahassee, I don't care if it's serving nils or serving up.

IT tech support.

You have twenty four hours to pick, as President Reagan said, Drew, now is the time for choosing.

You got to pick.

Do you want your fifty million dollars a year state contract from Tallahassee or do you want your fifty year one hundred h one vs.

You pick.

You can't have both. There's no negotiating and you have twenty four hours. That's how we create a culture that stands up for the dignity of American workers.

That's an interesting approach, Like you can't get H one B jobs not for federal government, but for state government. I kind of imagine that, especially in Florida, there are very.

Many Well, he's not just concerned about H to one b's. Fishback has also railed against student visas as a threat to the American way of life, and has falsely said that Trump plants descended two hundred thousand students from China to Florida's public universities, which serve only about four hundred and thirty thousand students.

So it'd be like forty five percent.

It's not real. That's just not true.

Yeah, this was proposed as an idea, not Florida specifically. But this was proposed in spring of twenty twenty five as a negotiating tactic with China over tariffs. This isn't a real thing. Since then, Fishback has promised to raise tuition on all foreign students to one million dollars via executive order. The governor cannot legally raise state school tuition via executive order.

These are just words that he's saying.

Well, so like a lot of these state schools having a certain number of students who are paying a higher fee, be that the non US or out of state, like it's integral to their budgeting, right, Like, yeah, they're not making it on in state tuition.

Fishback has talked about all this in an interview on Tucker Carlson's Internet show last month, where he said that a child quote from Shenjin, who doesn't know what Florida orange juice tastes like, can't possibly in an economic sense, but I think I mean not to sound gay, but in a spiritual sense, does not represent our state and our heritage unquote. Tucker replied, that's the opposite of gay. Actually, quote that's.

A head of an exchange of words. Again, like I'm like a little lost here.

Yeah, this is this is a sizable faction of the new right of of the of of the gropers who are filling staffer positions at Heritage and in DC, Like this is the sort of media environment like linkinguistic environment that they that they are coming out of. Yeah, and the pearl clutchy reaction is not useful here, right, I'm not like who cares?

Right?

This is this is obviously embarrassing.

This is like a man in his thirties trying to sound like a kind of homophobic eighteen year old who's kind of only homophobic via like linguistic reflux.

This is like embarrassing cosplay.

Yeah, it's very cringe.

I can't even find this stuff offensive, Like this is this is just it's no.

It's sad. Like the primary sentiment I feel is like vicarious shame, Yeah, for this guy and his like desperate search for attention.

Now, a core component of selling fascism too people is that they were promised a future that's now been taken away from them because of some people that are the enemy. Right, This is like the dream of finding a subservient wife, a cushy, full time job, buying a home, raising two point five kids in a safe and secure homeland. But because of quote unquote, this dream is no longer possible.

Now.

During Fishbeck's Carlson interview, he elucidated on like an updated version of the like twenty first century version of the American dream that was stolen from gen Z.

Gen Z was such an important part of the president's victory last year. Yes, and they feel betrayed by a lot of these Trump advisors and what they've chosen to prioritize and not.

I can see why.

And when I've met them, and I've met them where they are at their universities, whether it's UF a couple of weeks ago, I'll be at FSU and just a couple weeks from now. Their number one frustration is that, look, they don't want to be lectured anymore. They got a degree, they got good grades, they got good test scores. They didn't study gender studies or black intersectionality. They did the stem thing that Republicans told them to do. Yeah, learn to code, learn to code. And now they say, you

I think this is a really interesting exchange on a sort of slide that's happening on the right.

Beyond talking about like illegal immigrants.

What's really interesting to me is that like the first real immigration lik restrictions that were part of the United States was the Chinese Exclusion Act, right, Yeah, and we have circled all the way back to essentially a very similar argument.

Yeah.

The slide from talking about illegal immigrants in like the far right space to really honing in on on student visa's foreign workers, I think is an interesting pivot. And this new version of the American dream of like you know, stem jobs, learned to code that's now been taken away, that's no longer accessible because so many young Americans aren't getting hired because they're adamant about going to church on Sunday.

Something that's not true. That's not real.

Yeah, that's not a real thing.

First of all, young Americans are not in large numbers going to church on Sunday. Nor is their hiring this

Yeah, into fascism. It's funny to see Carlson repeating that the learned to code thing, as if that was like a serious piece of career advice given to people Like that has been a meme for close to a decade. Yeah, like everybody knew there was bullshit that it's it's literally like that. The phrase is a joke.

Fishback later says after this little rant that quote, our north Star should not be a free market, but a free people. He's okay, if the market's not freeze, Okay, if we're going to be restricting which types of workers are allowed, as long as we have a free American people.

Yeah.

So, his strategy for winning this race appears to be through appealing to homeowners and prospective homeowners through tax cuts and down payment assistance, but then also really trying to engage gen Z voters. Looking at the success of previous politicians, including Trump, and how much of his victory was related to the gen Z vote, He's really really honing in on trying to activate young voters in Florida. He's planning to visit every single state college and so university and

Yeah, in reference to German Germany for Yeahman Germany for the Germans.

I'm sure he knows exactly what he's doing. Oh, certainly. Yeah, Like this is the obvious next place. They have made so much political headway with racism, and like the obvious direction to keep going there for is to be the one who's willing to lean a little bit further into racism, Right, See if that can get you a little bit further, a little bit, a little bit more popular. Yeah, it makes sense in that.

In that way, That's why I find his canadacy really interesting. Regardless of how well he's going to end up doing in the primary, he is trying to trojan horse something into not even trojan horse in a way. He's kind of openly trying to pull something into Republican politics and something that's been like festering in the sidelines for a while. You know, start that Nick's been advocating for a while. There was that fight around H one B Visas about a year ago. Yeah, and he's he's really honing in

I think. And he's counting on the groper support.

And this is what Nick's been talking about for a while, trying to run candidates like this as much as possible. In twenty twenty six, we'll talk more about Fishback's relationship with Fuentes and the.

Grapers after this ad break.

All right, we're back.

In my episode last year about the right wing fallout of Nick Fuentez and Tucker Carlson's brief friendship, I discussed how Fuentes was making threats and promises to deploy his groper fan base to influence elections both in twenty twenty six and then in the the Republican presidential primary in twenty twenty eight, and after that new cycle had peaked, Fuentes continued to really hammere down his promise and threat to various candidates that if they do not adopt sufficient

I do love how Peace Morgan is now like an avatar woke for the Nick American Right.

For the biggest interview of the year, Nick fuent Has and Piers Morgan were, Nick made very very clear, we are done with the pearl clutching, We are done with the white guilt. We are done with this pseudo religion that attacks us for just wanting to exist in our own country, to buy a home, to get a job, and to benefit from all the things that we were promised.

There he is again talking about all the things that we were promised.

And us right, like he's a thirty year old hedge fund guy. Yeah, like he got all the things.

No, he did get the dream that he is saying no longer exists, like that has been his life.

Yeah yeah, and he's just trying to cash in on it now.

No.

But it's through this interview he just keeps talking about Fuentes and glowingly refers to the Graper fan base.

I'll tell you the truth. I found the audience of young men who follow and watch Nick Fuentes to be actually incredibly informed and insimple and very patriotic young man. I'm gonna be completely honest. I probably shouldn't say this, but I think Nick's following is actually really impressive. There's a lot of young men who are patriotic, who are well informed, who know our history, which is why they are so frightened by the current path that we are on.

Having a candidate talk openly about the Grapers in this way I think is super interesting. This is the one of the first cases, and I don't think it'll be the last where Nicks fans and and Nick himself are like openly referred to in a race like this.

Yeah, it's it's interesting again, like super duper surprising to me how easily the Overton window is moved to the right right now. And there's a whole network of these like short form and long form video places to do that right that are kind of set up to incentivize that.

Yeah, and fishback, as a largely unremarkable candidate, is counting on a group of probably hundreds to thousands of young men to do free campaign work for him by telling them that they're good, smart little boys, by complimenting them. He is counting on his success being contingent on this

What you say all? He said?

Yes, Nick Foyn says has endorsed Fishback for governor. That don't really help go Wait, he's voting for Byron uh.

No, Nick Foyt says, he's voting for Byron Donald's.

But that's a bad name, myrown Donald's.

Does that even sound like it could be a governor?

So there you can see that he knows that it could have some possible negative effects, but he's he's willing to play in this like irony irony zone while still very clearly embracing Fuentes and and the Groper's. Yeah, and like this stream with Sneakos is like indicative of a few things. After Fishback talked about Goyslop at that school event. You know, he said afterwards that he wasn't aware of like the offensive connotation.

The fuck else is getting, which is not true.

Right, This has been like a four Chan term forever to talk about how like the Jews are poisoning gentiles with food to make them like subservient.

Right, that's what the term means. He knows that.

And he continued to use the goyslop term on Sneako's stream, and after jaywalking on this stream, Fishback joked quote the headline will read tomorrow Florida govenatorial candidate breaks the law with Hitler sympathizer, referring to sneak o great And based on the most recent polling we have on this race, Fishback's youth centric strategy does seem to be getting its

Yeah, yeah, that makes sense, Like he's relying on social media exposure from them, and then he can even say other stuff to conventional media and it probably won't matter that much.

Yeah yeah, And I mean he's still getting profiled by major outlets like every every week, and it's it's it's gonna be a long race. He wants to eventually debate Donald's, like in a televised debate. Unclear thatats going to happen. Yeah, but as of now, that's kind of the current state of his candidacy, his strategy to overcome the gap and polls.

Yeah, it's his. The election is November of this year.

November is the general. August is the primary.

Okay, yeah, so I guess the kind of Republican primary in Georgia is the big deal. I mean in Florida. Sorry, yeah, yeah.

The primary race in Florida is going to be the one that I'm keeping the most track of.

Yeah.

Yeah, and you know, don't be surprised if if you start seeing fishback pop up and more stuff.

In the next few weeks.

Yeah.

Great, well that doesn't for us today at It could Happen Here? Yeah, now it's time to end the podcast to lower the collective cortisol.

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