As American politics increasingly rewards attention over persuasion, a new kind of politics has emerged: “edgelording.” Born from the shadier corners of the Internet, edgelording uses shock and bravado to draw support. It’s especially appealing to long-shot candidates, those with little name recognition or institutional support looking to build not just campaigns, but personal brands.
For a prime example of an “edgelord” candidacy, look to Florida. There, gubernatorial candidate James Fishback has built a national online following by playing the edgelording game. He lags far behind in polls against Rep. Byron Donalds but has scored major attention on the online right, including a recent interview with Tucker Carlson.
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Other Republican candidates, envious of the attention Fishback gets on the Internet, may be tempted to copy his tactics. If they do, they would not only weaken President Trump’s MAGA coalition but also threaten to erase the GOP’s gains in a state that has been transformed from competitively purple to reliably red.
Until recently, Fishback styled himself as a polished, above-the-fray conservative. He rose to prominence as the founder of a high school debate league free from wokeness. He parlayed his relevance into appearances on Fox, articles in The Free Press, and appearances on popular podcasts. He was openly critical of anti-Semitism and comfortable praising mainstream Republican leaders like Donalds and Vivek Ramaswamy.
But since just before he announced his campaign in the fall, he’s shifted to provocation. Fishback has posed in Nick Fuentes-branded hats and praised the ideology of Fuentes’s groyper followers. He targets his rhetoric at those drawn less to policy than to transgression.
Part of Fishback’s approach is to prove his edgier-than-thou credentials by attacking other Republicans. In fact, he seldom goes after Democrats. His attacks, moreover, are often personal and identity-based, co-opting a tool of the Left.
He’s most aggressive with his main opponent, Donalds, the Trump-endorsed frontrunner and a black Republican. Fishback has referred to Donalds as a “slave,” a “tether,” and a “DEI candidate” who has a “DARK” vision for Florida’s future. He recently posted on X that “By’rone wants to turn Florida into a Section 8 ghetto.”
In November, Fishback fixated on an X post from months earlier in which Donalds referred to the Haitian-American community as “integral” to Florida. Fishback responded that Floridians don’t want more Haitians, and that Donalds should move to Haiti.
Hundreds of thousands of Haitian-born Americans and Americans of Haitian descent live in Florida. They are citizens, voters, and taxpayers. Their community includes Berny Jacques, one of the strongest conservative leaders in the Florida House of Representatives.
In his insinuations, Fishback seems to be trying to redefine Florida to exclude such people. Among other things, doing so risks alienating many of the voters whose support has enabled the Trump administration’s restriction of immigration from countries like Haiti.
Fishback’s edgelording extends beyond black Floridians. Take a “joke” he recently told about Ramaswamy, the Indian-American Republican frontrunner in Ohio’s gubernatorial race: “There is a fork in the road. I told that to Vivek and he said, ‘What’s a fork?’”
Ramaswamy has been a friend to Fishback. He endowed an “American identity” scholarship through Fishback’s high school debate league. He invited Fishback to appear on his podcast in 2024. Fishback’s casual attacks on a coalition partner and a swing-state GOP candidate seem designed to shrink the conservative movement, not expand it.
Fishback’s obsessive focus on Israel and Jews serves a similar purpose. He has continued to share an AI-doctored image of Florida’s lieutenant governor standing in front of an “Israel First” banner. He has said that he would not be willing to attend any Hanukkah celebration or Jewish event, despite running for governor of the third-most-Jewish state. And he has praised and worn branded hats from Fuentes, the online personality who attacks Jews, throws around the N-word, and calls Usha Vance a “jeet.” Fuentes, of course, has said his top priority is ensuring that Ramaswamy loses—even to a Democrat.
Fishback’s style of politics has yet to catch on offline. He consistently polls in the single digits. In his end-of-year fundraising, Fishback brought in just under $19,000. Donalds raised $45 million.
Yet it would be a mistake to ignore him. His posts regularly rack up millions of views on social media. A GOP poll recently pegged his support at 4 percent. Plenty of candidates —including New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani—have made up more ground in less time.
In recent election cycles, the Republican Party has expanded its coalition in ways that seemed unlikely a decade ago. President Trump’s popular vote victory was built on this feat. He achieved near parity with Kamala Harris among Hispanic voters, doubled his support among black Americans from 2020, and earned more Jewish support than any Republican in four decades.
Coalitions, especially those that are new and quickly growing, are far more easily lost than built up. Broadsides that replace persuasion with provocation will only undermine the Trump coalition.
Fishback is unlikely to be Florida’s next governor, but other candidates may be tempted to embrace his edgelord style to gain notoriety. If conservatism is to remain a governing movement, its leaders must remember how and why they won their newest voters—and embrace a more constructive strategy for holding onto them.
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