JNS
Florida Republicans defeat alt-right candidates in gubernatorial, House primaries
Andrew Bernard
August 18, 2026

Pro-Israel Republicans defeated a pair of alt-right candidates accused of antisemitism in Florida’s primary elections on Tuesday in races for the House and governor. Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) won the Republican gubernatorial primary to succeed Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican who is term-limited. With 87% of votes counted at press time, Donalds had 762,364 (48.3%), trouncing James Fishback, a 31-year-old investor who courted the “groyper” movement associated with the Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes, who came in third with 163,261 (10.4%) of the vote. Lt. Gov. Jay Collins came in second with 393,248 votes (24.9%)…In Republican House races, Rep. Randy Fine (R-Fla.), who is Jewish, defeated Dan Bilzerian, an influencer with 29 million followers on Instagram, who ran an explicitly antisemitic primary challenge and has previously denied the Holocaust. With 87% of votes counted at press time, Fine had 42,898 votes (56.8%) to Bilzerian’s 13,816 (18.3%). READ MORE

JEWISH INSIDER Florida Democrats nominate DSA candidate for Senate race Angie Nixon, who called Israel’s war against Hamas a genocide and campaigned with Rep. Rashida Tlaib, will be the party’s candidate against GOP Sen. Ashley Moody

JEWISH INSIDER Florida trims the fringe Florida Democrats and Republicans fended off extreme challengers against pro-Israel incumbents in Tuesday night’s primaries, indicating that the state’s older, moderate and notably Jewish electorate was uniquely inhospitable towards the anti-Israel left and the antisemitic right. Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) handily defeated socialist challenger Oliver Larkin by nearly a 2-to-1 margin (64-36%), while Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) easily prevailed in a newly drawn district against a crowded field of challengers. Elijah Manley — the candidate running against Wasserman Schultz on the Democratic Socialists of America, anti-Israel platform — lagged in third place, with just 13% of the vote.