Politics
Claudia Villatoro launches bid to unseat Debbie Wasserman Schultz
Republican Claudia Villatoro thinks Democratic U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz has failed to deliver for Floridians during her ample time in Congress, and it’s time voters make a change.
Villatoro is running in Florida’s 25th Congressional District to unseat Wasserman Schultz, who has served in Congress for 20 years.
During that time, Wasserman Schultz has sponsored three bills that become law: the Legislative Branch Appropriations Act of 2010, the EARLY Act Reauthorization of 2014 and a resolution last year to study the potential transfer of a museum.
That’s a better rate than South Florida’s senior delegation member, Republican Mario Díaz-Balart, who hasn’t seen a bill he’s been the primary sponsor of become law since 2004. But it’s still insufficient, according to Villatoro, a former commodities broker who said Wasserman Schultz has instead prioritized “open borders,” enriching herself through “insider trading” and orchestrating “rigged elections for Hillary Clinton.”
Notably, Wasserman Schultz does not advocate for “open borders” and has instead advocated for a comprehensive approach to immigration reform that combines a formal, legal immigration process and border security with a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants already in the U.S.
There is also no public evidence that Wasserman Schultz “enriched herself” through insider trading. Like many members of Congress, she trades individual stocks and periodically files required STOCK Act disclosures. She has, however, been cited by watchdogs and media for late disclosures — a reporting violation — including this past July, when she was found to have violated the STOCK Act for a fourth time.
As for “rigged elections,” leaks from internal messages at the Democratic National Committee (DNC) in 2016 — which Wasserman Schultz chaired at the time — revealed favoritism for Clinton over presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. The violation of DNC’s neutrality norms prompted Wasserman Schultz to resign as Chair that year, and the DNC apologized to Sanders, whom many today still believe would have beaten Clinton in an unbiased Primary.
“Time to wash away Debbie Wasserman Schultz and her failed politics. Florida deserves fresh leadership. That’s why I’m running for Congress,” Villatoro says in a 90-second campaign launch video.
The video features heavy use of glass-related terms and imagery, a handheld pressure washer and photos of President Donald Trump and Republican U.S. Rep. Jimmy Patronis.
“I am an entrepreneur and philanthropist, an immigrant who followed the rules. Running a glass company taught me to always be crystal clear, fully transparent and as strong as steel,” Villatoro adds.
“I’ve broken glass ceilings, campaigned tirelessly for justice and freedom and fought child trafficking around the world. I’ve stood with President Trump to secure our borders and keep America strong. South Florida needs leaders who will listen to you and never crack under pressure. I’m Claudia Villatoro, and the choice is clear. It’s time to clean up Congress.”
Villatoro, 57, was born in Guatemala and immigrated legally to the U.S. in 1994. After working for years in the glass industry, she launched her first company in 2002 and “grew it into several successful ventures across Florida, New Mexico, and California,” according to her campaign, which said President George W. Bush recognized her as “Businesswoman of the Year” in 2003.
Around that same time, she landed a federal contract with White Sands Missile Range.
In 2009, after the Great Recession hit, Villatoro joined the Chicago Board of Trade, where she remained a member until 2020.
The following year, she founded the nonprofit Villatoro’s Global Foundation, which her campaign website says is “dedicated to fighting child trafficking, malnutrition, and water insecurity.”
The organization launched in St. Petersburg and later relocated to Hollywood, where Villatoro ran unsuccessfully for City Commission last year. The organization is not rated by Charity Navigator or GuideStar.
This past May, the IRS revoked the tax-exempt status of Villatoro’s Global Foundation after it failed to file proper documentation for three straight years. A ProPublica analysis of the organization’s books indicates it has no revenue, expenses, assets or liabilities.
Villatoro is running on a promise to lower the cost of living, secure the southern border while supporting legal immigration, empower small businesses and entrepreneurs, and protect children from crime and trafficking.
She also vows to support American energy independence, defend constitutional freedoms and “reject the socialist policies she and her family fled in Latin America.”
Neither Villatoro’s campaign launch video nor press release mentioned reporting on how the Trump family has made billions in cryptocurrency ventures or how the President recently pardoned crypto tycoon Changpeng Zhao, who pleaded guilty in 2023 for failing to combat money laundering tied to terrorism and child abuse.
Zhao’s company, Binance, was financially involved with crypto platform World Liberty Financial, which sends 75% of token sales revenue to a Trump-linked company.
Trump claimed in a new “60 Minutes” interview to have “no idea” who Zhao is.
In 2024, Villatoro donated $5,000 to Joyce Bryan’s Broward County School Board campaign, $2,500 to the Republican Party of Florida and $1,000 to Chris Eddy, who challenged Wasserman Schultz last cycle.
She also gave $500 to George Navarini, a perennial candidate for the Florida House.
She is one of two Republicans running now to supplant Wasserman Schultz, who beat Eddy in November by 9 percentage points. The other is Michael Carbonara, a 42-year-old fintech executive who raised nearly $900,000 in crypto last quarter.
Last week, Florida Bulldog reported on three ongoing lawsuits filed against Carbonara or his company.
One filed in Miami involves the alleged sexual assault and abuse of an employee in Singapore by a co-owner of Carbonara’s company, Ibanera. Another in Miami centers on claims that Ibanera failed to transmit at least $18 million in fiat and crypto funds to a Bahamian bank.
The third, filed in Michigan, revolves around a bitcoin mining operation linked to Carbonara that allegedly created excessive noise, prompting residents to complain and the Judge presiding over the case to temporarily shut the facility down.
Wasserman Schultz has raised about $1.25 million this cycle and has $1.62 million in cash on hand.
CD 25 covers the southernmost portion of Broward County, including Davie, Hollywood, Miramar, Pembroke Pines, Weston and parts of Plantation. The district has a D+5 partisan voting index, according to Cook Partisan Voting — a composition Villatoro’s campaign says puts the seat long held by Wasserman Shultz, 59, “firmly in play for Republicans.”
Last Call – A prime-time read of what’s going down in Florida politics.
First Shot
Did Christina Pushaw break the law by asking gubernatorial candidate James Fishback to delete text messages the two exchanged in recent months?
Maybe.
Pushaw, who earns a $179,000 tax-funded salary as a senior management analyst for Gov. Ron DeSantis, all but confirmed the authenticity of texts between her and Fishback in which she appears to have written, “I need you to confirm that you deleted everything with my name on it.”
The exchange has raised questions about whether she solicited the destruction of public records, which would be illegal if the messages involved her government duties, but likely not if they were strictly campaign-related, as she says.
Fishback posted a screenshot of the exchange following a public blowup between the two after they, according to Pushaw, spoke “frequently” since October about Fishback’s campaign.
On X, Pushaw accused Fishback of deception, writing: “Thanks for proving my point that you have no qualms about lying and revealing private messages. I truly believed that we were friends, and I feel sickened and violated by this betrayal.”
Pushaw, who has worked for DeSantis as both a campaign and government staffer, says she was never paid for advising Fishback and never told the Governor about her communications with Fishback.
In a brief phone interview on Monday, she said none of her messages with Fishback touched her state job.
“I never talked to him about government business,” she said. She declined to explicitly confirm the authenticity of Fishback’s screenshots, including one that referenced her government position.
Read more on Florida Politics.
Evening Reads
—“Donald Trump ties Greenland takeover bid to Nobel Prize in text to Norway leader” via Ellen Francis and Steve Hendrix of The Washington Post
—”Trump’s letter to Norway should be the last straw” via Anne Applebaum of The Atlantic
—”Trump’s Greenland move is one of the dumbest political decisions I have ever seen” via Chris Cillizza of So What
—”The race to build the DeepSeek of Europe is on” via Joel Khalili of WIRED
—”Three maps tell a tale of the 2026 Midterms.” via Ashley Cai and Shane Goldmacher of The New York Times
—”Orlando Sentinel 150: Remembering MLK’s only visit to Orlando in 1964” via the Orlando Sentinel
—“Jeff Brandes: Six ideas Legislature can’t afford to ignore in 2026” via Jeff Brandes for Florida Politics
—”The Indiana-Miami CFP game is the Hollywood tangle we didn’t know we needed” via Steven Zeitchik of The Hollywood Reporter
—”‘It shaped my DNA’: The very Miami story of Mario Cristobal” via Andrea Adelson of ESPN
—”Two other Hoosiers from Miami are coming home, too — and could play a big role” via David J. Neal and Jordan McPherson of the Miami Herald
Quote of the Day
“I didn’t vote for this weather.”
— Marc Caputo on a frigid morning in Miami.
Put it on the Tab
Look to your left, then look to your right. If you see one of these people at your happy hour haunt, flag down the bartender and put one of these on your tab. Recipes included, just in case the Cocktail Codex fell into the well.
Even though it’s booze-free, the Duval delegation could use a Cortisol Cocktail to calm their nerves after a bomb threat landed in their inboxes.
Disney and Universal are getting an Investigators Rite, courtesy of Central Florida Democrats, who are requesting they look into a company that operates independent restaurants on their properties.
Someone should’ve sent an Out of Office for Attorney General James Uthmeier, because he picked an odd day to drop his latest opinion.
Breakthrough Insights
Tune In
Miami plays for national title at home
The Miami Hurricanes try for the program’s first national championship since 2001 when they face top-seeded Indiana at Hard Rock Stadium tonight (7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN).
Miami entered the College Football Playoff as the 10th seed and knocked off Texas A&M, Ohio State, and Ole Miss to reach the finals. The Hurricanes (13-2) have benefitted from a defense that has limited opponents to 14 points per game this season. Defensive end Rueben Bain Jr. was named the ACC defensive player of the year and is a likely Top 10 pick in the NFL Draft.
Indiana (15-0) has enjoyed the greatest season in program history. In the second season under Curt Cignetti, the Hoosiers have not only won more games than they ever have in a season, but also more than the program ever did in two consecutive seasons combined before Cignetti’s arrival.
The Hoosiers are led by Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Fernando Mendoza.
The two programs have met twice in history, with Indiana winning the first meeting in 1964 and the Hurricanes taking the return match in 1966. The two programs have not met since.
The last time a college football team won the national championship by winning a game on its home field was the Hurricanes, who won the Orange Bowl following the 1987 season to win the program’s second of five national championships.
___
Last Call is published by Peter Schorsch, assembled and edited by Phil Ammann and Drew Wilson, with contributions from the staff of Florida Politics.
Gubernatorial candidate James Fishback’s legal woes are deepening.
A federal magistrate Judge has ordered Fishback, the founder and CEO of Azoria Capital, to turn over company stock certificates and a slate of luxury purchases to the U.S. Marshals Service by the end of the month as payment on a $229,000 judgment to his former employer, Greenlight Capital.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Martin Fitzpatrick of the Northern District of Florida granted two unopposed motions by Greenlight after Fishback failed to respond by a court-ordered deadline.
It’s the latest escalation in a dispute between Greenlight and Fishback, a former analyst for the hedge fund who has made more headlines recently for his race-baiting rhetoric in the Governor’s race, allegations of grooming, multistate voter registration and public blowup with Gov. Ron DeSantis adviser Christina Pushaw.
Greenlight told the court that Fishback still owes it money under a June 2025 court order. The firm asked the court in late November to compel Fishback to surrender his stock or share certificates in Azoria Capital, Inc., a Delaware corporation Greenlight described as founded by Fishback and controlled by him at “75% or more.”
Because Fishback did not oppose the request, the court granted it and directed him to “locate, obtain, and turn over” all Azoria stock and/or share certificates to the U.S. Marshals Service by Jan. 30.
The Marshals Service, in turn, is ordered to sell the stock for the benefit of Greenlight as the judgment creditor. Fitzpatrick warned Fishback that federal courts have inherent authority to enforce orders and cautioned that ignoring the directive could place him “in danger of being held in contempt of court.”
Fitzpatrick also granted a second motion by Greenlight seeking the turnover of personal property belonging to Fishback. The firm alleged that Fishback claimed he lacked means to pay the $229,000 judgment while making more than $37,000 in debit card purchases over 16 months through a previously undisclosed JPMorgan Chase account.
The court summarized transactions at retailers including eBay, Nordstrom, Burberry, Bucherer and others, but noted it did not know what exactly Fishback purchased. Still, Fitzpatrick described the spending as “extravagant” and found that Fishback, by not responding by the deadline, waived his chance to argue the items were exempt or not personal property.
Under the order, Fishback must turn over 43 items listed in the motion paper, along with a list, to the Marshals Service by Jan. 30. The Marshals must hold the items for 30 days, allowing Greenlight’s lawyers to retrieve and sell them as partial satisfaction of the judgment.
Fishback worked at Greenlight from 2021 to 2023, after which he and the company became embroiled in a very public dispute over how he described his role there. He said he was “head of macro” for Greenlight, while the New York hedge fund insisted no such title ever existed and that the loftiest role Fishback held was as a research analyst.
Greenlight alleged that Fishback misrepresented his position to boost credibility and attract investors for Azoria. Fishback, meanwhile, argued Greenlight’s denial harmed him with potential backers and pointed to internal communications he says support his version of events.
He did, however, admit to sharing confidential Greenlight portfolio information and agreed to pay costs to resolve a separate lawsuit.
Trustees of a white-label exchange-traded fund (ETF) under Tidal Financial Group also voted in October to liquidate two Azoria ETFs — SPXM and TSLV, which together held about $40 million in assets — after Fishback admitted to sharing the information.
Between when he launched his campaign on Nov. 24 and Dec. 31, when fourth-quarter bookkeeping closed, Fishback reported raising less than $19,000 through his campaign account and nothing through an affiliated political committee.
Fishback is seeking the Republican nomination for Governor. The race’s poll-tested front-runner, U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, amassed $45 million last quarter.
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