A far-right candidate for Florida governor lost it at the online reaction to his surprise wedding.
James Fishback, a right-wing investor currently running against a Trump-backed candidate in the gubernatorial race, posted on X on Saturday, “Logging off for a bit. Getting married. Brb.” He then posted a photo at the altar with the caption “Mr. and Mrs. Fishback.”
Three months ago, the 31-year-old was flaunting a different woman as his girlfriend, the cryptocurrency influencer Francesca Raine, who once called herself “Crypto Barbie.”
That led to online criticism, with one X user writing, “Weren’t you on Tinder like two months ago? How did you meet this girl??”
“Sorry, hate to be that guy, but am I missing something here?” another said. “You were seriously dating someone else 4 months ago, and now you just married someone else? I mean, that’s kinda crazy, no?”
Fishback shared 12 photos with his new bride across three X posts, channeling the accelerated romance of Craig David’s hit “7 Days” in the captions.
“I met her last week, got engaged on Wednesday, completed all of Catholic marriage prep on Thursday, found a venue Friday, and got married yesterday,” Fishback wrote. “Now hire me as Governor so I can deliver this level of speed and efficiency for Florida.”
After his joke fell flat, Fishback made another post to clarify his romantic timeline.
“This is obviously sarcasm, but it’s a tragic sign of the times that some are mad that I didn’t mindlessly date my wife for 5 years before getting married,” he wrote.
“We grew not too far from each other. We dated for several months, got engaged, and then married at my Catholic Church.”
The Republican revealed his new wife’s first name in a salty, conspiracy—flavored comment to The New York Post when asked about his surprise wedding.
“I’m on my honeymoon with my wife, Valeria. I don’t have time for your AIPAC-inspired fake news,” he said, referencing the pro-Israel lobby group.
Fishback is currently running second in the race for Florida GOP primary for governor, which takes place Aug. 18, far behind Trump-backed Byron Donalds.
The relentless social media poster denies being racist or antisemitic, but he has used racially-motivated language and antisemitic slurs. He refuses to distance himself from fans of the white supremacist Nick Fuentes, who was one of the few people to congratulate Fishback on his wedding.
The candidate would occasionally introduce Raine on the campaign trail as his “wife,” according to the Post, even though the couple only began dating in January.
In February, Fishback announced he was joining dating app Tinder to “meet young female voters where they are.”
Less than an hour later, Fishback wrote on X that he “ran out of likes” and asked for donations to subscribe to Tinder Plus, which provides unlimited likes and lets users see who has liked their profile.
His relationship with Raine ended soon after.
Fishback also denied claims from a woman named Keinah Fort, who said he “initiated a romantic relationship with (her)” in 2022, while she was 17 and he was 27, and “explicitly directed” her to keep their relationship secret. She also alleged he harassed her.
He said Fort’s account of when they began dating and accusations of stalking and cyberbullying are “absolutely false.”
“There was no evidence entered into the record to support that allegation, and I was fully exonerated of any wrongdoing in this case,” he told Florida Politics last year.
