James Fishback signals he will launch Governor campaign ‘imminently’

Azoria CEO James Fishback signaled he will launch a campaign for Governor.

“I have made my decision, and I will announce it imminently,” he told Florida Politics.

That’s after weeks of raising his profile on social media and through media interviews, and after making clear he was considering running for office and only considering the Governor’s race.

He will run on a starkly anti-immigration platform and a “Florida First” message. He also has signaled an allegiance to Gov. Ron DeSantis, who will wrap his second term next year and cannot run again because of term limits.

“Gov. Ron DeSantis has a historic record I would be honored to preserve and build upon,” Fishback told Florida Politics. “I want to ensure every family in Florida can buy a home, obtain a good-paying job and retire with dignity.”

The Madison Republican notably met recently with Lt. Gov. Jay Collins, a former state Senator many expected to launch his own campaign for Governor as soon as this week. Fishback has repeatedly called Collins a “patriot,” but also suggested Collins’ political moves won’t affect his own.

But Fishback has been deeply critical of U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, who launched his campaign for Governor earlier this year. Most notably, Fishback has called on an end to the H-1B visa program, which allows foreign individuals to live in the U.S. legally to work in specialty occupations. That’s a system Donalds has said needs an “overhaul” but he has not called for its disposal.

“I want to end and deport every H-1B,” he said. “If a job held by an H-1B foreigner could be filled by a Floridian, that upholds a slanderous lie, which is that Americans are lazy, unqualified and unskilled, and that’s nonsense.”

But his promotion that “replacement theory is real” and that American workers are all being replaced in the labor market by immigrants has drawn criticism that he represents the right-wing fringe.

He also has heavily criticized the Israeli government, which typically has bipartisan political support in Florida. That has drawn accusations of anti-Semitism, an issue currently creating a schism in the political right.

But Fishback has stressed his own family background in the Sunshine State, known he’s a fourth generation Floridian.