"I Went to Florida to See the 31-Year-Old Candidate Thrilling Gen Z. We're in Trouble."

[Nevilledog]

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/12/opinion/james-fishback-gen-z-republican-florida.html?unlocked_article_code=1.SlA.Zu6E.-FRCEEGUPGTK&smid=nytcore-android-share


Last Tuesday, James Fishback, a 31-year-old running for governor in Florida, was speaking to a packed house at the Queens Harbour Yacht and Country Club in Jacksonville. Every one of the room’s almost 100 seats were taken, and people were standing several rows deep around the perimeter, with more listening from the lobby outside. The crowd was mostly male and very young; several attendees told me they were in high school. A few wore the “America First” baseball caps popular with followers of Nick Fuentes, the influential white nationalist troll.

Slight and bespectacled, Fishback has a geeky charisma and the verbal dexterity of a former competitive high school debater. His policies are a mishmash of extreme conservatism and economic progressivism; nationalism tinged with socialism, if you will. He believes that Florida’s gun laws are too strict, its abortion laws too lax and its public teacher pay too low. He’s called for a 50 percent sin tax on OnlyFans creators and $10,000 grants to high-performing high school graduates to buy homes or start businesses. Though he’s the son of an immigrant — his mother is Colombian — he wants a total immigration moratorium.

Most of all, Fishback has made contempt for Israel and its American lobby a centerpiece of his campaign, constantly reminding audiences how much America spends on Israel while its own needs are ignored. He often calls Byron Donalds, a Black Republican congressman who is the front-runner in the governor’s race, “AIPAC Shakur,” a play on Tupac Shakur. Appearing on Tucker Carlson’s show in January, Fishback described the “sexual, sadistic” pleasure that pro-Israel donors get in forcing America to “bend over” for a foreign country. Carlson endorsed him and wrote, “Pretty soon, all winning Republican politicians will talk like this.”

After Fishback’s hourlong speech, a young guy stood up to ask how he could trust the candidate to keep his promises, especially when it came to refusing money from AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. Fishback claimed that three weeks prior, a donor had offered his PAC $500,000 if he would disavow Fuentes’s supporters. “I hung up the phone because I will never disavow patriotic Americans,” he shouted, to whoops and applause.

*snip*

[UpInArms]

1. Oof

Sounds like a mini me of tfg

[cachukis]

2. It appears many in this generation are relying on

social media for their education. Ratatat. Not the slow read where you build on the previous sentence.

[JT45242]

3. Great plan antisemitism...scattershot policy

Truly run on antisemitism, but have enough incongruous policy statements that anyone can say "I like his stand on XX, even if I don't agree with him on everything"

And know that you have plausible deniability for the neonazi antisemitism that really make you vote for the guy.

Great campaign strategy...evil as hell but likely to work at least in a Republican primary.

[Prairie Gates]

4. "nationalism tinged with socialism, if you will. "

To be fair, "AIPAC Shakur" is objectively funny.

[OhioBlue]

5. I snorted at that..

[eppur_se_muova]

9. There should be a catchy, more convenient abbreviation for that ... nt

[chowder66]

6. Hook the gullible while they're young so they hand over their votes and money.

He may be building a lifetime of pockets to pick and they'll gladly let him, yet they'll still bitch about how bad the gov't is when they are 40, 50, 60, 70 and wonder why they are struggling.

[Johonny]

7. Entertaining is easier than governing

These people are built to talk bullshit, not to run governments. Will voters figure that out?

[dameatball]

8. (Raises hand) Ohhh...I think I know that answer!!

[Ilsa]

10. What's that expression? "These are not serious people."

The internet has turned the business of governing into a knockoff of MTV's Jackass. Are more children becoming sociopaths?