James Fishback is emerging as a potential political figure in the U.S., identified as possibly the first ‘Groyper’ candidate, known for leveraging extreme alt-right shock strategies.

A 31-year-old contender for the governorship of Florida, Fishback has sparked controversy by accusing his African American rival of plans to transform the state into a “Section 8 ghetto,” a reference to the federal housing assistance program.

Fishback has openly praised followers of influencer Nick Fuentes and admits to tuning into Fuentes’s far-right broadcasts, which have been banned from major platforms due to their promotion of hate speech. During his campus rallies across Florida, he uses complex groyper jargon like “goyslop.”

Fishback’s message is resonating with a new wave of Gen Z individuals who lean towards a reactionary right-wing ideology. This approach, although alienating to older generations, is finding traction among the younger conservative demographic.

Despite his inflammatory rhetoric, Fishback enjoys four times the support among 18 to 34-year-olds compared to his opponent, Byron Donalds. This trend hints at a potential shift in the party’s future direction, driven by Gen Z.

A survey conducted by the University of North Florida in February reveals that Florida Representative Byron Donalds is leading the race, holding 31% support from the general electorate, while Fishback stands at 6%, with half of the voters still undecided.

But Donalds’ 5 to 1 lead completely flips among young voters, where Fishback leads 4 to 1. He is backed by 32% of 18-to-34-year-olds, while just 8% support Donalds. 

It’s a startling indication that Gen Z’s version of conservatism — honed online, and shaped by social media influencers and Twitch streamers — looks very different from their parents’ and grandparents’ versions.

It seems as though Fishback is modeling his campaign off the Gen Z online right: be as provocative as possible for attention and clicks, and push the envelope as far as possible to sustain buzz.

Fishback recently chased Byron Donalds down to call him “AIPAC Shakur” — a play on Tupac Shakur’s name and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee — to his face. He has also dubbed him a “token black” and a “slave to his donors,” while changing his name to “By’rone” in a tweet.

He wants a $50,000 “Mamdani tax” levied against out-of-state buyers (not just New Yorkers) of Florida homes. He’s not just anti-immigration, but anti-immigrant, campaigning on removing every “foreign worker who has stolen a job from us.”

He joined Tinder to meet young female voters, even though NBC reported that a Florida school district cut ties with Fishback in 2022 over an allegedly inappropriate relationship with a minor student.

After Don Lemon was arrested for being present as Minneapolis protesters interrupted a church service, Fishback tweeted in January, “Don Lemon is lucky he’s not getting hanged in the public square for ransacking a church.”

This hasn’t endeared him to older Floridians, but his growing fanbase is indicative of a recent turn by young men to the political right.

Fishback’s rallies have been frequently held at college campuses, where he draws out young male students. The crowd at a Pinellas Young Republicans gathering was overwhelmingly male and mostly under 35, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

Many young men have been influenced by far-right streamer Fuentes, who spews constant racism and antisemitism on his Twitch streams, but Fishback doesn’t seem to have a problem with that.

“I’ve found the audience of young men who follow and watch Nick Fuentes to be actually incredibly informed and insightful and very patriotic,” he said in an interview. Fishback has mastered performing the rhetoric of Fuentes and his followers, known as Groypers. 

At a University of Central Florida rally in February, Fishback elicited cheers from the crowd when he vowed to rid school cafeterias of “goyslop.” This was an apparent re-purposing of a the Yiddish word “goy” — a slang term for a non-Jewish person, which is sometimes used in a derogatory manner — which white supremacists have been trying to co-opt.

It would be easy to ignore this guy as some attention hungry loser provocateur — if he didn’t have his finger on an actual political pulse. 

Conservatives cheered when young men shifted to the right and supported Trump in record numbers in 2024, but under the assumption that this next generation’s conservatism is legible. Unfortunately, many of them are better represented by James Fishback than they would have been by Ronald Reagan.

We can only hope Gen Z will grow out of this shock-jock, internet-brewed version of conservatism, and refuse to cede the party to the Groypers in the meantime.