Far-right media figures including Tucker Carlson and Nick Fuentes are rallying around the Florida gubernatorial campaign of James Fishback, a hedge fund manager who rails against “white genocide,” praises the extremist “groyper” movement, and is currently polling at about five percent in the GOP primary.
Fox News has been the key media venue for would-be GOP candidates seeking to reach right-wing voters and attract support over several election cycles. Current Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis broke through in the 2018 primary by making himself a Fox fixture, and the front-runner to succeed him, network favorite and GOP Rep. Byron Donalds, has adopted the same political strategy, with at least 40 weekday appearances last year.
Fishback, the 31-year old CEO of the anti-“woke” investment firm he co-founded, has been on a tour of the right-wing political factions in recent years, from writing pieces for Bari Weiss’ site The Free Press to backing Vivek Ramaswamy’s presidential campaign before trying to get himself named to a seat on the Federal Reserve Board by promising to be President Donald Trump’s “bulldog.” After launching his gubernatorial campaign in November by painting himself as aligned with DeSantis, Fishback subsequently positioned himself as what The Bulwark’s Will Sommer described as “the first groyper candidate” — with a media profile to match.
Fishback worked his way up through interviews with “white nationalist influencer Ella Maulding,” “groyper leader Beardson Beardly,” “a Youtube show run by white nationalists in northern Idaho,” and “former Infowars host Owen Shroyer,” before breaking through with a fawning treatment from Carlson, as right-wing extremism expert Ben Lorber documented for The Nation.
Lorber reported that Fishback — along with groyper leader Fuentes — represents “an ascendant, Gen-Z America First wing of MAGA openly suspicious of Israel, economically populist and steeped in a white Christian nationalist worldview that scorns Jews, women, and nonwhite immigrants.”
Far-right media figures host, endorse Fishback
Carlson, a GOP power broker and White House regular who once used his Fox show to lift up Republican candidates like Vice President JD Vance, is currently focused on promoting such ideas and the noxious pundits and would-be GOP officeholders who espouse them on his streaming program. His hourlong interview with Fishback was published January 9.
“James Fishback is running for governor in Florida,” Carlson said as he promoted the interview. “Pretty soon, all winning Republican politicians will talk like this.” The landing image for the interview’s YouTube video featured text reading “WHO REALLY RUNS FLORIDA?” over photos of DeSantis — and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Discussing why he is running for governor as Carlson nodded along, Fishback railed against foreign students taking university slots from Floridians, “white guilt lessons” in schools, and H-1B “slave labor,” declaring that “the only systemic racism in America is against white Christian men.”
“I’m aware,” Carlson replied.
Fishback won Carlson’s support by promising that Florida would divest from Israeli government bonds and use the funds to help provide down payment assistance to married first-time homebuyers.
“You’ve got my vote,” he responded after Fishback laid out the proposal. “That’s all I needed to hear. Amen. Amen.”
Fishback’s turn on Carlson’s podcast spurred an outpouring of interest from higher-profile far-right media figures.
The following week, Fishback did a joint interview with antisemitic misogynist streamer “Sneako” (real name: Nico Kenn De Balinthazy) and “looksmaxxing” influencer “Clavicular” (real name: Braden Peters).
Fishback discussed his proposal to, as he put it, implement a 50 percent tax on women who “hoe out on OnlyFans” to disincentivize them from doing so. (“Say what you want about Saudi Arabia — there are no women hoeing out on the internet in Saudi Arabia,” Fishback said). He also alluded to an antisemitic conspiracy theory, saying of OnlyFans, “Let’s not get in trouble talking about who owns that platform.” Sneako endorsed Fishback later in the interview, while Clavicular praised his “insane reaction-baiting” but repeatedly poked holes in his policy proposals.
On Wednesday, Fishback appeared on the podcast of Patrick Bet-David, who often provides a friendly platform for far-right extremists like white nationalist streamer Fuentes to spread their messages unimpeded. Bet-David praised Fishback for his “bold ideas.”
Fuentes himself has also taken notice of the campaign, praising Fishback on his show while stressing that he didn’t want to damage the candidate’s chances with an endorsement.
“I really like what I've seen from Fishback,” he said on his January 12 stream in response to a question from “FloridaGroyper” about the candidate’s Carlson interview. “I have to say I'm a bit conflicted still for a few reasons. I don't want to hurt him. That's kind of my first thing is I don't want to speak out of turn and hurt a politician by association if they're an ally. And the other thing is I didn't vet him myself.”
Fuentes commented that Fishback “seems really smart,” and said he was “really impressed” with the interview as well as with Fishback’s social media presence, adding that it had been “hilarious” when Fishback said that Donalds, who is Black, wanted to “turn Florida into a Section 8 ghetto.”
He later told Sneako and Clavicular that Fishback is “solid on the issues,” adding, “I watched him on Tucker — I don't think I disagreed with anything he said.”
And even before his appearance with Carlson, Fishback counted in his corner the gaming streamer Zack Hoyt, better known as Asmongold, who had more than 2 billion views on YouTube alone last year. In December, Hoyt endorsed Fishback as “my guy,” cheering along with one of the candidate’s videos, praising his proposals as “based,” and urging his fans to “vote for people like this.”
Is this actually going anywhere?
Each of these far-right media figures have large followings — but trying to elect Fishback governor of Florida will put their influence to the test. The candidate is polling at or below 5% in recent surveys and had raised “just under $19,000” according to his most recent campaign filing.
While Fuentes is reportedly seeking to build a political movement — and recent reports suggest that his message is resonating with younger Republicans — this election cycle may be too soon for such candidates to succeed.
But for his part, Fishback says that his alternative media play will pay dividends.
“Ultimately, we are in an attention economy,” he told Carlson near the end of their interview. “And the attention is going to go to the person who is going to connect and show up and earn the trust of voters.”
“You don’t get to earn the trust of voters in that Fox News studio in Washington, D.C.,” he added.
Reprinted with permission from Media Matters
