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No, Georgia, it’s not a trick; Florida just wants to share a kid-friendly treat

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As Saturday’s Georgia-Florida game approaches, much attention is being paid to the fact that the Gators just fired their head coach and are now looking to lure a high-quality replacement to Florida.

Yet, curiously, there’s another Sunshine State recruiting effort that ought to interest Georgia residents — and Peach State policymakers — even more.

A billboard recently appeared in downtown Atlanta featuring a young schoolgirl with this message: “Every Florida child gets $8,000 for public, private, or home education. Join us.”

The billboard is sponsored by a Florida-based think tank for which I work. And when some of my Georgia friends first saw it, they asked if this was some dirty trick:

“Are you guys trying to lure some of our state’s education-minded families to Florida?”

I can understand why Georgia folks might worry about losing high-quality K-12 families to Florida. The Sunshine State has the most robust school choice programs in the country. More than 500,000 Florida students now receive school choice scholarships. And more than half of our state’s K-12 students (51%) now attend something other than their zoned public school.

Unsurprisingly, Florida is consistently ranked #1 in education freedom by various assessment groups. And since our school choice programs are now available to all families regardless of income, we’ve seen a steady stream of education-minded families moving to our state in recent years.

Many of these new Florida residents are “digital nomads” who, with the rise of remote work, can now live and work — and educate their kids! — anywhere they want. And it isn’t just Florida’s big cities that are seeing students flourish thanks to universal school choice. Many of our state’s rural areas and small towns are also benefiting from the rise of microschools, online, and hybrid programs serving scholarship families.

So, yes, Florida’s school choice programs are a magnet, bringing some of our nation’s best and brightest students to the state, now being called “America’s education destination.”

Still, there’s no reason Georgia couldn’t adopt similar school-choice policies for Peach State parents. And as someone who has deep ties to Georgia (I graduated from UGA, married a gal from Dalton, and formerly worked for Sen. Sam Nunn) – that’s precisely what I hope Peach State policymakers will do.

To be sure, Georgia policymakers will have to overcome all sorts of scare tactics and hypothetical horror stories advanced by school choice critics. They’ll need to recognize something every football fan knows: Even the very best programs sometimes aren’t the right “fit” for a particular student/athlete. (And, frankly, it’s unfair to public schools to expect them to be the best fit for every student in their zone.)

Now, if Peach State policymakers fail to act, Florida will happily accept any K-12 families who want to “enter the transfer portal” and move to our state. But our strong preference would be for Georgia — and every other state in SEC Country — to join us in adopting universal school choice scholarships for every K-12 student.

So, to all my Peach State pals wondering about our billboard, please hear me when I say:

“No, Georgia, it’s not a trick; Florida just wants to share a kid-friendly treat.”

___

William Mattox is the senior director of the J. Stanley Marshall Center for Education Freedom at The James Madison Institute.



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Austin Rogers considering a run to succeed Neal Dunn in CD 2

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The Panama City currently serves as Rick Scott’s General Counsel.

Austin Rogers may shift from advising U.S. Sen. Rick Scott to running for Congress himself. Sources close to Rogers, the General Counsel for Sen. Rick Scott, confirmed he is exploring a run to succeed retiring U.S. Rep. Neal Dunn in Florida’s 2nd Congressional District. The Lynn Haven Republican and Panama City native has worked for Scott.

The Federalist Society member holds both a law degree and a master’s in Theology from Duke University, where he also served on the Duke Law Journal and Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy.

Before graduate school, he earned a bachelor’s in International Business in 2012 from Lakeland-based Southeastern University, then pursued a second degree in Theology from Wheaton College.

After clerking in the Middle District of Florida for Chief Judge Steven D. Merryday, Rogers worked for international law firm White & Chase, then took a job working on Capitol Hill.

He started work in 2023 as Senior Counsel of Oversight and Investigations for the Senate Judiciary Committee when it was chaired by U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, and rose to Chief Counsel within four months. He continued working for the Committee under its new Chair, U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican, and stayed there until taking a job with Scott last July.

He has been an active bar member in Washington, where he is also a member of the Republican National Lawyers Association and active in his local church.

Dunn announced last week that he would not seek re-election at the end of his fifth term.

Rogers, if he runs, will enter a rapidly crowding Republican Party field that already posts a couple of heavy hitters.

Republican Party of Florida Chair Evan Power, a Tallahassee Republican, filed for the seat last week. So did Keith Gross, another attorney who previously challenged Scott in a Republican Primary for his Senate seat in 2024.



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Last Call for 1.19.26 – A prime-time read of what’s going down in Florida

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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.





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James Fishback ordered to turn over Azoria stock, luxury items to pay $229K court judgment

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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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