Tucker Carlson Platforms Another Groyper—Only This One Is Running for Florida Governor | The Nation

Tucker Carlson platformed another groyper—only this one is running for Florida governor. Check out my latest piece at The Nation on James Fishback, whose upstart campaign defends groypers as “insanely smart & patriotic” & blends white Christian nationalism, Israel skepticism & pseudo-populist economic appeals.

Not too long ago, the slightest hint of association with the groypers could sink a campaign. Last month the 31-year-old Fishback proudly donned their blue AF hat at a rally and said it’s about ‘unapologetic love for Americans’. Facing pushback, he remained defiant, telling followers ‘I apologize for absolutely nothing’. Last week, Carlson rewarded him with the largest MAGA platform.

Some of his policy proposals on Israel sound lifted from the progressive playbook. He has pledged to reinvest Florida’s $385 million in Israel bonds into a fund to help married couples afford a downpayment on their new home. And he opposes the IHRA definition of antisemitism on free speech grounds. But there the similarities end. He mocks his black pro-Israel opponent as “AIPAC Shakur” and calls for a moratorium on all immigration, legal & undocumented, in order to stop “white genocide”.

Fishback is a bellwether of a MAGA populist realignment in the wake of rising Gen-Z Israel-skepticism, economic woes and white Christian revanchism. He remains a long-shot candidate. But he stands to turn the Florida governor race into the latest proxy war over the future of MAGA.

He also proves that the groyper’s mainstreaming strategy appears to be working. Fuentes always sought to position his America First movement as a tugboat at the rightward edge of the GOP, casting edgy ideas out into the discourse for mainstream leaders to steadily adopt. Now candidates like Fishback feel increasingly emboldened to step into the space he has created— with the help, of course, of normalizers like Tucker Carlson.

Read my piece at The Nation to learn more about Fishback’s blend of white Christian grievance, Israel-skepticism and faux-populism— and why Tucker Carlson may be right that “pretty soon, all winning Republican politicians will talk like this.”