TALLAHASSEE – GOP gubernatorial candidate James Fishback told a Leon County Circuit Court judge on Tuesday he’s always lived in Florida and he only stayed in a residence in Washington, D.C. “seasonally,” defending himself from an attempt to knock him from the ballot.
Lt. Gov. Jay Collins challenged the eligibility of Fishback, an investor and conservative activist who grew up in Broward County, alleging he lived in the nation’s capital in 2020 and 2021, a violation of the Florida constitution’s requirement that a governor must have lived in the state for seven straight years prior to taking office.
Before the hearing, as Fishback and his retinue of about 20 supporters waited for the judge to begin, he condemned Collins for bringing the case and called him a “coward” for not being there in person. One of his supporters also cursed at John Cardillo, a Collins consultant who attended the hearing.
During the hearing Fishback aimed more barbs at Collins, a former Green Beret in the U.S. Army who didn’t move to Florida until 2019 himself.
"Jay Collins, a man from Montana, hired a California lawyer ... to sue a fourth-generation Floridian to illegally and illegitimately remove me from the ballot,” Fishback said. “He's in third place. I'm in second."
Both candidates trail frontrunner U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Naples, who has been endorsed by President Donald Trump, in most public polling for the Republican primary.
Collins’ attorneys pointed to a series of documents indicated Fishback voted in Washington D.C. in 2020, that he bought a property in D.C. in 2021 and used it to set up businesses and nonprofits and used the address there when filing tax returns.
Fishback, 31, said his parents moved to D.C. in 2019 and he initially was living with his grandmother in Broward County. In 2020 he ended getting “stuck” in D.C. during the Covid-19 pandemic and didn’t want to return to his grandmother’s house because she was immunocompromised and didn’t want to transmit the disease that was more deadly among the elderly than other populations.
That led him to live in his parents’ apartment for much of that year. Fishback said he wanted to vote for Trump in 2020, but looked into voting by mail too late. So instead he walked into a voting booth in D.C. and asked if he could use his Florida driver’s license identification card to vote.
He said he didn’t review the details of the electronic tablet he signed, which registered him to vote in D.C., which require at least a 30-day residence in the city to vote there.
In Washington D.C. there is same-day registration, unlike in Florida where a voter must register nearly one month before an election.
For the residence he bought the next year, Fishback said it was always meant to be an “investment property,” but also it was close to his parents’ residence, told others he lived there “seasonally,” and it was the first property he ever bought. He also said he didn’t inspect the fine print of the mortgage documents asserting he’d be a full-time resident there.
Fishback’s attorney, former state Rep. Anthony Sabatini, noted that falsely attesting information on a mortgage application could theoretically bring D.C. criminal charges, which he acknowledged but said he had to be honest with the court.
“I would always much rather tell the truth no matter what the consequences are,” Fishback said.
The tax returns using a D.C. address Fishback waived away by blaming the tax preparer, who “erroneously put the wrong address.”
Fishback also noted he’s always had a Florida driver’s license, never had a driver's license in D.C., got car insurance at Florida addresses and the utility records at his D.C. apartment show low usage.
When Collins’ attorneys, Mark Meuser and Nick Boerke, pointed out the utility records only go back to 2022, after he bought a home in Madison County, Florida, Fishback said he couldn’t get earlier utility records because of the expedited nature of the case due to the pending election.
Judge David Frank indicated he plans to issue a ruling in the case by 5 p.m. Monday.
