A Tallahassee judge has rejected one GOP gubernatorial candidate's attempt to knock another out of the race.
James Fishback will remain in the primary, beating a challenge from Lt. Gov. Jay Collins.
“This attempt to remove us from the ballot has been rejected by a Tallahassee judge,” Fishback said in a video he posted on social media Monday evening, soon after the ruling. "I will remain on your ballot, and in 22 days we will pull off the biggest upset in American politics."
There's a seven-year residency requirement to be governor. Collins said Fishback violated that, pointing to how he registered to vote and voted in Washington, D.C., filed D.C. resident tax returns and certified a condo there as his primary residence on mortgage paperwork.
In a hearing last week, Fishback testified that his tax preparer handled his returns. Fishback said he "inadvertently" registered in D.C. after walking into a polling place to vote for Trump in 2020 and signed mortgage papers there in a rush and didn't mean to list that home as his primary residence.
ALSO READ: Fishback-Collins hearing details
"It may be true that the various election and financial filings and transactions about which the plaintiff complains could result in regulatory, maybe even more severe legal, repercussions for the defendant under Washington, D.C. law,” wrote Judge David Frank.
“The defendant himself acknowledged this,” he continued. “They do not, however, defeat the presumption of continued residency under Florida law."
He wrote that Fishback “never had an actual subjective intent to move his permanent residency, his domicile, from Florida to Washington, D.C.”
Fishback said he bought the home to visit his parents, referring to it as an “investment property.” And he said he got “stuck” in D.C. in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a statement to reporters, Collins’ counsel is accusing Fishback of committing fraud in D.C.
Statement on @j_fishback’s court victory from @JayCollinsFL’s counsel, Mark Meuser:
— Forrest Saunders (@FBSaunders) July 27, 2026
“His ignorance may be enough to keep him on the ballot, but who wants to vote for a candidate whose own sworn testimony is he committed mortgage fraud and doesn’t understand how the law works… pic.twitter.com/bNOl5OmH9n
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This story was produced by WUSF as part of a statewide journalism initiative funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
