Florida Republican gubernatorial candidate James Fishback brought his 67-county campaign to Florida Atlantic University on Thursday, holding a meet and greet and rally in the Carole and Barry Kaye Performing Arts Auditorium on the Boca Raton campus. The stop put his message directly in front of students he says he wants to court as he widens his run across Florida.
Fishback used the event to press a hard line on H-1B visas, telling the crowd he wants to eliminate the program because, in his view, it lets companies bypass FAU students. He said he would "import cheap foreign labor from other countries like India or China, and then hire those people instead of FAU people," and added that as governor he would create a system that discourages that from happening. The H-1B program, established in 1990 under the Immigration Act, allows employers to hire foreign workers in specialized jobs through H-1B visas.
The appearance came after Fishback stopped at the University of South Florida last week, a visit that drew controversy because Jewish students allegedly were denied entry. He has also appeared at the University of North Florida, the University of Central Florida and the University of Florida as his campaign pushes toward every one of Florida’s 67 counties. Fishback is also openly against U.S. funding for Israel and has pushed for the full release of the Epstein files.
Students at FAU who attended the event said they heard more than one message. Nicholas Ostheimer said Fishback presented himself as a polished candidate but overpromised what he could deliver, calling him "a very slick politician" who is "selling them something he can’t really give them." Ostheimer said some of Fishback’s ideas were "good policies," but added that he "ruins it with racism and bigotry and xenophobia." He said he would like to see paid maternity leave, conservation rules for AI data centers and low-interest loans for recent college graduates.
May Rojas said Fishback leaned into provocation, making controversial jokes during his speech, including calling his opponent Byron Donalds "Byrone Donalds" and wearing a Burger King crown. Rojas said the crown appeared to reference a video of a man on a plane yelling slurs. She said the crowd was large and lively, and that young voters were watching not just the policies but how candidates try to move people in college settings. Aaron Bombaro took a different view, saying Fishback’s student-focused agenda would help them. He said it is already hard to get jobs as a student, especially from FAU, and argued that if it is difficult for someone from UF to find work, it is "10 times more difficult for someone from FAU to find a job."
Fishback’s campus pitch now has a sharper edge: he is trying to turn student frustration over jobs into support, but his rallies have also brought complaints about exclusion, race and political theater. Whether the message travels beyond the auditorium may matter as much as the crowd inside it.
