Is James Fishback the Weirdest GOP Candidate Yet?

Summary

Bulwark Takes – “Is James Fishback the Weirdest GOP Candidate Yet?”

Date: November 25, 2025
Host: Sam Stein
Guest: Will Sommer

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Episode Overview

In this episode of Bulwark Takes, Sam Stein and Will Sommer dissect the bizarre and controversial entry of James Fishback into the Florida primary for governor. Fishback, a former hedge fund analyst with a flair for self-promotion and an appetite for online drama, is roiling the Florida GOP landscape. With no real political experience and a penchant for outlandish tactics—some bordering on the comical and unethical—Fishback exemplifies a modern trend of fringe, brash candidates using social media and culture war provocations to grab attention.

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Key Discussion Points

Who is James Fishback? (00:41–02:18)

• Fishback’s Background:
  • At 30, Fishback is described as an ex-hedge fund analyst, not the "financier" he bills himself as.
  • Known for supporting Dogecoin, frequent Fox Business appearances, and an anti-establishment message popular with segments of the online right.
• Zero Political Experience:
  • Fishback has no political background and is widely seen as lacking credibility with the electorate.

Quote:
“He’s kind of this, you know, I say in the piece, he’s kind of like a pipsqueaky energy… willing to go absolutely nuclear constantly on Byron Donalds, and I think that is going to present at least an irritant to them.”
— Will Sommer (01:31)

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The Basis for Fishback’s Campaign (02:18–04:03)

• Ego & Online Persona:
  • Fishback’s run appears rooted in self-belief and a hyperactive online presence rather than real-world support.
• Policy Stances:
  • Against H1B visas, wants to abolish property taxes, opposes AI data centers—adopts right-wing talking points, many with a populist or nativist bent.
  • Notably hostile to “outsiders” moving to Florida, to the point where he discusses lottery systems for state access.

Quote:
“He’s just jumping on a lot of these sort of hot button issues… he’s really against outsiders moving to Florida.”
— Will Sommer (03:15)

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Racism & Extreme Tactics (04:03–05:48)

• Racially Charged Attacks:
  • Fishback was called out for referring to his Black opponent, Byron Donalds, as “DEI Donalds” and “a slave to his donors.”
• Resume Inflation & Lawsuit:
  • Despite being a low-level research analyst at Greenlight Capital, Fishback claimed to be “Head of Macro.” Internal accounts and lawsuit evidence reveal this was a single-use email title to get into a conference.
  • Lawsuit and countersuit unearthed texts revealing ethically murky behavior and attempts at self-promotion.

Quote:
“He was a junior employee… and in David Einhorn’s telling, James sucked at his job and was obsessed with creating an anti-woke alternative to high school debate.”
— Will Sommer (04:54)

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The Schemes & Shady Maneuvers (05:48–12:31)

• Faking Clout & Online Popularity:
  • Fishback orchestrated efforts to artificially inflate his public profile—buying likes, using sockpuppet accounts, and even directing cronies to send fake praise to media outlets.
  • He urges a college student helper (Alex Mungia) to engage in various schemes, like emailing journalists and pretending to be investors or fans.
• Embarrassing Text Messages:
  • Fishback himself writes anonymous fan mail to Barry Weiss’s Free Press, gushing about his own unremarkable column and lobbying for follow-ups.
  • Co-opts his “crony” and even tries getting the crony’s father involved in fake “reference checks” as part of lawsuit chess.

Quote:
“Perhaps for that reason, Fishback ended up writing the anonymous laudatory email praising his column himself and urged the Free Press to have Fishback write a follow up article.”
— Sam Stein reading from Sommer’s article (10:16)

Quote:
“So then he says, well, I need... an investor to do a reference check on me and have them deny the Head of Macro thing so I can sue for defamation.”
— Will Sommer (07:59)

Memorable Moment:
Will Sommer describes Fishback’s over-the-top reactions: “This is James Fishback, oh my God, I love you. No Diddy. I guess it’s like, no homo now. Or he would say, ‘We will destroy this man.’” (07:45)

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The Hapless College Stooge (11:07–12:47)

• Alex Mungia:
  • Fishback’s unfortunate accomplice, who’s roped into schemes, buying likes, sockpuppeting, and potentially involving his own father in Fishback’s legal drama.
• The Absurdity of the Ruse:
  • The co-hosts laugh at the idea of recruiting dads to pose as hedge fund investors for reference calls.

Quote:
“Hey, dad, I need to tell this Wall Street Journal reporter you’re a hedge fund investor.”
— Will Sommer (12:47)

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Fishback’s Chances & Broader Implications (13:01–14:55)

• Slim Odds:
  • Betting markets show him at only a 10% chance; DeSantis world wants nothing to do with him.
• Potential for Chaos:
  • Hosts warn that while Fishback likely won’t win, his involvement could ugly-up the race, force serious candidates to address him, and reflects a susceptibility to fringe provocateurs in today’s GOP.
• Financial Fallout:
  • Fishback’s anti-H1B ETF was delisted after his text messages surfaced; he now reportedly owes Greenlight’s David Einhorn millions.

Quote:
“In the modern Republican political movement… there is a constituency for this type of crazy, provocative, you-know, jump-on-every-trend behavior, and if it gets a 10% chance to win the governorship, I mean, that’s not nothing.”
— Sam Stein (14:33)

Quote:
“The modern Republican Party is just so open to hucksters and, like, I don’t think this guy’s going to win.”
— Will Sommer (14:55)

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Final Thoughts & Takeaways (14:55–16:16)

• No Parallel on the Left:
  • The hosts struggle to name a left-wing equivalent to Fishback’s particular brand of shenanigans.
• Open Call for Tips:
  • They encourage anyone with first-hand or textual evidence of Fishback’s antics to reach out to Will Sommer.

Quote:
“If you’re a college student who’s been, you know, hired by James Fishback to do some crazy [stuff] and you want to, you know, send it to us and let us know what it’s like, we’re open to hearing from you.”
— Sam Stein (15:44)

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Notable Quotes – At a Glance

• On Fishback’s self-inflation:
  “I love the idea of just calling yourself Head of Macro. Like… Is that even a job title? Who knows?”
  — Sam Stein (06:28)

• On the wider significance:
  “That’s the larger takeaway… the modern Republican Party is just so open to hucksters.”
  — Will Sommer (14:55)

• On college stooge woes:
  “Sir, this man has an anime profile, I just don’t know if it’s worth it.”
  — Alex Mungia, via Will Sommer (11:41)

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Segment Timestamps

• 00:41–01:31 – Who is James Fishback?
• 01:32–02:50 – Fishback’s Political Persona and Candidacy
• 02:51–04:03 – Platform, Issues, and Constituency
• 04:04–05:48 – Lawsuit, Racism, and Resume Embellishment
• 05:49–10:16 – Lawsuit Drama & The Georgetown Connection
• 10:17–12:47 – Sockpuppets, College Cronies, and Family Schemes
• 13:01–14:55 – Odds, Aftermath, and Implications for GOP
• 15:44–16:16 – Final Thoughts and Call for Tips

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Tone & Atmosphere

The episode is fast-paced, incredulous, humorous, and at times genuinely gobsmacked at Fishback’s brazenness. Both hosts poke fun at the absurdity but also underline the disturbing ease with which flamboyant outsiders can now inject themselves into serious races—an indictment of broader party trends.

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For those who missed the episode: James Fishback is a microcosm of an attention economy-driven GOP, where self-invention, viral fighting, and bluster can briefly make a nobody into a headline—though probably not a governor.

Transcript

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[Will Sommer]

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[Sam Stein]

Hey everybody, it's me, Sam Stein, managing editor with the Bulwark. And I'm here with Will Sommer. And we're going to be talking about the newest entrant into the Florida Republican primary for governor, a character, a man named James F. Fishback who is roiling the right in part because I don't want to say he's like a charlatan. He's got some credentials. But like his text messages which you uncover from a separate lawsuit make him seem a little bit quirky, to put it mildly. Why don't you explain to us why this guy, who this guy is and why he's running for office? Yeah.

[Will Sommer]

So James fishback is a 30 year old financier. Seems a little elevated. I don't think.

[Sam Stein]

That doesn't seem right.

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Financier.

[Sam Stein]

Financier is not right. He was like a mid level guy at a, I don't know, what was it, a firm financial firm. What was it at?

[Will Sommer]

A hedge fund. Yeah, hedge fund analyst, which I think is pretty low level analyst.

[Sam Stein]

That's a good way to put it.

[Will Sommer]

But he's, he's kind of fashioned himself. So he's 30, he's, he's kind of this, you know, I say in the piece, he's kind of like a pip, squeaky energy. He's kind of like a little trash talker guy. And, and basically he's used his, his experience in the financial industry to be, to fashion. He's like a do, He's a very big, he was a big supporter of Doge. He's on Fox Business all the time. He's a real like, he's like Donald Trump's got to clean out the Federal Reserve. And so this is kind of how he built his platform. And now he's running against Byron Donalds who is Trump's pick to be the next governor of Florida. And Trump people are flipping out about it because James Pushback, he has no, no political experience. He has, I think, very little credibility with voters, but he's willing to go absolutely nuclear constantly on Byron Donald. And I think that is going to present at least an irritant to them.

[Sam Stein]

I think it's, I think it's worth like, sort of explaining, like, because I don't think normal people would say, okay, this guy's 30 years old and he was an analyst at a hedge fund. Like, how did he even get into the stratosphere where he would even consider the possibility of running for governor? Like, what the. It's like a incredible amount of ego to do something like that. And what is his constituency? And I, I still don't quite know. Like, how did he get to this point? I mean, he was involved, I guess, in Doge, and he's hyperactive online, but so are a lot of people. Like, what is the basis for this run?

[Will Sommer]

Well, he's got a healthy ego, I would say, and very strong view of himself. I mean, he's a guy who basically, you know, I saw someone, he released his announcement video. I saw someone on X describe it as MAGA slop. I mean, he's jumping on to like every kind of, like, in kind of a Trumpian way. He's jumping on a lot of these policy issues that I think are gaining currency on the right. Like, he's extremely against H1B visas to have foreigners work in America. He wants to abolish property taxes, which is obviously a Ron DeSantis thing, who he's kind of trying to align himself with. He's against AI data centers. So he's getting on, on these kind of popular issues. I think particularly in Florida. He's really against outsiders moving to Florida. He kind of made kind of made a splash when he was just not like, Florida's.

[Sam Stein]

Half of Florida's economy is snowbirds.

[Will Sommer]

It is. But he's saying, you know, if so run ruins New York. I don't want to hear about it. Stay out of Florida. Semaphore profiled him and he interviewed a woman or was meeting with a woman who had an idea that there should be a lottery to allow access to Florida for, for people from outside this day. Like, you shouldn't be able to move there freely. And so that's. He's kind of, he's just jumping on a lot of these sort of hot button issues. And that's how he, how he's built a lot of his profile.

[Sam Stein]

Again, I doesn't make for a profile. I will just say he's also like, blatantly, racist towards Donald's. Right. Like he Donalds who is black, he's called him DEI Donalds and he has said repeatedly that Donald's is a quote, slave to his donors. And like that's not even subtle. That's, that's bad stuff. But like the, the coup de grace is this lawsuit that he's involved in. So I'll just said I want to go through some of the allegations. But from your piece, I just want to be clear. He served at a firm called Greenlight Capital. He was a research analyst. But he started going around calling himself head of Macro. I guess he was called that once, right, or something like that.

[Will Sommer]

So yeah, so this, this emerged in this lawsuit that became like a big kind of meme in the financial community. The idea, basically he was working as a low level research analyst at this hedge fund run by this billionaire who's, who's like David Einhorn, who's well known in Wall street. And he's, he was this junior employee. And you know, in David Einhorn's telling, James sucked at his job. Ed was just like, he was obsessed with creating an anti woke alternative to high school debate. And so like he was always going on Fox News to talk about it. He was running this kind of separate nonprofit about debate. And they would just be saying like, you don't seem to be actually working here per se. Like and he would say like I'm going to get it together. And they'd say okay, all right, you have five months to work on this one project. And then the presentation would come and then it would look like he wrote it like right before the doors open. And he had to, oh my God. And so, so ultimately basically they scheduled a meeting with him to fire him. And then he said, actually I'm quitting, so I'm quitting, start my own hedge fund.

[Sam Stein]

And that's why they sued him, right? Because he can't, he was like breaking a non compete and he was going out there misrepresenting the role he had played at the firm and all that stuff.

[Will Sommer]

Yeah, he was saying this, this very elevated head of Macro which is essentially like head of like monitoring interest rates and kind of doing trades around that. And they said no, you're, you're kind of this, the dude who didn't do very well at this junior role here. And he said, well I have this one email where they described me head of Macro to get me on the list for a conference. And then they said, well yeah, that's because you wanted to go and you Were kind of like this nobody. So we decided to inflate your title this one time to get you in the door. And so he keeps. There's, like, a lot of schemes that go along with this. He basically. He wants.

[Sam Stein]

Well, I want to get into those in a second because it's so funny. But I just. I love the idea of just calling yourself Head of Macro. Like, I just. It's so funny. Is that even a. Is that even a job title? Who knows? But now it's like, something. Not at the firm now, but maybe in real life I can. I can adopt that. All right, so. So in. In the course of this lawsuit and then the countersuits, all these texts become public, and they. They show that this man, James Fishback, is, like, the ultimate schemer. Like, along the lines of, like, not quite Jack Berkman is. And people would know if they know. But, like, he's kind of close, right? Like, he's doing stuff that is very shady. A lot of, like, plans to sort of, you know, present himself in the public as someone he's not. What were some of your favorite discoveries from these texts?

[Will Sommer]

Yeah, and, you know, I would just say James went to Georgetown, as did I. James dropped out a couple years after I graduated. Well, I guess he's also unique to me because, like, I feel like I know a lot of people like this. These kind of, like, real, kind of, like, fake it to me, make it kind of Georgetown character that said basically what he needed was he knew Greenlight was probably going to sue him over calling himself head of Macro as he was raising money for his own hedge fund. So then he says, well, I need them to tell I. I need a. An investor to do a reference check on me and have them deny the Head of Macro thing so that I can sue for defamation. So he sends all these texts. He has this. This college student, this conservative college student helping him who's kind of like his crony. And he's saying, you know, you need to get. You know, email this Wall Street Journal reporter and get them to write about how they're doing me wrong. And the guy would say, okay, I did it. And he would be like, oh, my God, this is James Fishback. Oh, my God, I love you. No Diddy. I guess it's like, no homo now. Or he would say, like, we will destroy this man. I mean, all these things that, like, you do not want to come out in a lawsuit. He got one investor to finally agree to do this reference check. And this is crazy. This is James and his dad. And he's the dad would be like that investor is the goat. And then James would say like base number one, homeboy, stuff like that. And then he was also trying to sort of inflate his to his dad to his dad. Well, and then his dad would say, oh, he's the goat.

[Sam Stein]

I mean, hold on, hold on. It's too good. I want to read the berry rice thing. So I just don't want you to step on it because it's too funny. I want to read it straight. This is just an example of some of the hilarious bullshit this guy was pulling off.

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[Sam Stein]

This is just straight from Will's piece. In one of the more embarrassing exchanges entered into the record, Fishback urged the college student to send an anonymous email to Barry Weiss's Free Press praising an article that Fish Back had written for the site. The article was fairly unoriginal and reductive. In it, Fishback made the case to scrap debate moderators and have presidential campaigns go at it like Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas in their 1858 Senate race. W. Wow. Deep thoughts. Perhaps for that reason, Fishback ended up writing the anonymous laudatory email praising his column himself and urged the Free Press to have Fishback write a follow up article.

[Will Sommer]

And so you can see kind of throughout, he does these like little maneuvers to sort of inflate his platform, make himself look more popular than he is. And I think that's relevant as he enters this gubernatorial race where he's constantly, I would say, quote, tweeting accounts that appear to have been relatively recently created, saying, we love James Fishback.

[Sam Stein]

This guy's amazing.

[Will Sommer]

And so, you know, he tells the college student to buy likes on Twitter. It's also, it's just so funny having this, like, seemingly very hapless college student roped into his schemes.

[Sam Stein]

Oh, that was the saddest part where he, like, made him, like, he's like, spend money on this. He's like, what, what, what do you want him to spend money on?

[Will Sommer]

You know, he's, he's engaged in these, like, Twitter battles with David Einhorn. And he's like, you know, use one of the sock puppet accounts to tweet this. And then five minutes later, he'd be like, this needs to happen now. And the college student would be say, I'm sorry, I'm in class. Or, or, you know, he's like, you got to respond to this guy. And he'd say, sir, this man has an anime profile. I just don't know if it's worth it. I don't think that's a serious person.

[Sam Stein]

Do we know how he found this college student and who the college student is?

[Will Sommer]

Yeah, it's a guy named Alex Mungia, who I believe is still with the new hedge fund. He's, he was a blogger for Lone Conservative, which was like sort of a conservative college blog back in the day. So I, I suspect they kind of met in Florida young Republican circles.

[Sam Stein]

And he's still with Fishback. He wasn't. He doesn't realize that he's been abused.

[Will Sommer]

Well, well, you know, and to your point, I mean, there's a point where he's trying to get his dad. I mean, again, I mean, these are like lawsuit worthy schemes. And so he's saying, okay, well, you know, we're posing as this investor to the hedge fund, but obviously you're a kid, so you can't do the phone call or to this journalist. And so now get your dad to do it. And he's like, my dad?

[Sam Stein]

He wanted, just to be clear, he wanted his college student stooge to call his d to get his dad involved in this ridiculous escapade. This kid's probably like, my dad doesn't know this shit, that doesn't know what I'm up to.

[Will Sommer]

Hey, dad, I need to tell this Wall Street Journal reporter you're a hedge fund investor.

[Sam Stein]

Can you imagine having to rope in your father into that? My dad would be like, what the fuck are you Talking about, please stop dealing with this James Fishback character.

[Will Sommer]

All right.

[Sam Stein]

What's the chances he ends up as governor?

[Will Sommer]

I think pretty low. I mean, polymarket, I think had it at like 10%. I mean, 10%. I, yeah, I mean, I think the issue is going to be that, like he's just gonna really, I mean, and I should say he's trying to align himself with DeSantis. DeSantis world wants nothing to do with him. As far as I can tell. They have the, you know, I think the lieutenant governor, they want to run. And so there's the sense that, I think though, that like, because of his rhetoric and he could just make the race really ugly. I mean, this whole, he's, he sent me this email. I think one of the first times he called Byron Donald's a slave to his donors was in an email to me. And, and I was sort of like, do you want to, want to try that one again? You know, do you want to run that back? I guess not.

[Sam Stein]

It's like, no, I like this one. This is precisely the point.

[Will Sommer]

So. And you know, the other thing I would briefly add here is he created an etf, which, you know, folks are like kind of mutual funds, that was specifically the anti H1B ETF. And then it got delisted by the company that made that packaged it. And he said, this is anti conservative bias, all this stuff. And the company said, oh, no, we just saw the text messages that you did that, you know, emerged in this lawsuit. We don't want to be in business with you. So now it looks like he's going to owe David EINHORN Something like $2 million.

[Sam Stein]

Yeah, I saw that. Is he like independently wealthy or something? Where's he gonna get the money?

[Will Sommer]

No, I, I, maybe, well, you know, he might live in the governor's mansion so he could save money on rent that way. Or there you go, sell off Disneyland.

[Sam Stein]

I don't know, it's just, I mean, there is some as comedic as this is, like, there is like a larger point to it, which is that in, in the modern Republican political movement, it's not maybe, you know, enough of a constituency, but there is a constituency for this type of crazy, provocative, you know, jump on every trend behavior, and if it gets a 10% chance to win the governorship, I mean, that's not nothing. Folks like, that's, that's wild stuff.

[Will Sommer]

I guess that's the larger takeaway is sort of the modern Republican Party is just so open to hucksters and like, I don't think this guy's going to win. He could get to the point where Byron Donald is having to address him during speeches saying, you know, fish back.

[Sam Stein]

You know, he's, yeah, Randy Fine had to address him. Right. I mean, so Congressman Randy Fine, who himself is a real character, like, had to go after the guy and the White House has gone after the guy, right?

[Will Sommer]

Yeah. I mean, yeah, we had a deputy chief of staff saying, you know, this guy's out, this, this guy's lying and, you know, he doesn't have Trump's endorsement.

[Sam Stein]

Would there be a parallel on the left? Like, who would be the corollary here? I can't even think of someone like this. But it's like, it just doesn't even make sense. Like it's, it doesn't, it doesn't compute to me. But that being said, if you're a college student who's been, you know, you know, hired by James Fish back to do some crazy and you want to, you know, send it to us and let us know what it's like, we're open to hearing from you.

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[Will Sommer]

Absolutely. You know, he is. A lot of people are bringing him up at Byron Donald's events on colleges. I wonder, is this truly, is this truly an organic surge or is there something else?

[Sam Stein]

Oh, he's going to be, he's going to throw so much against the wall. This is going to be the most mudslingy campaign possible. It's going to be crazy. Yeah. But in all seriousness, if you've dealt with James Fishback and you have some texts and you want to share them with Will, drop a, drop a note to Will. We would love to see what you got.

[Will Sommer]

I'm here. I'm here. I, I want it all. I love this. Just gave me an appetite for James Fishback.

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[Sam Stein]

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