MIAMI — Florida congressman Byron Donalds denounced the wing of his party he claims is threatening to “co-opt the conservative movement” during a speech at a Miami-Dade GOP fundraiser this week, after an anti-immigration candidate started teasing a primary run against him in the Florida governor’s race.
“Since the assassination of Charlie Kirk, there is this strain going on on the right — they’re calling it the ‘woke right,’” U.S. Rep. Donalds said Tuesday. “There’s some strain going on that’s now saying, ‘Not just no illegal immigration, but no legal immigration.’”
His comments during the annual Miami Dade GOP Lincoln Day Dinner came one day after the relatively unknown, very online investor and debate tournament founder, James Fishback, 30, announced his plans to join Florida’s gubernatorial race and attacked Donalds online.
Fishback, whose mother is an immigrant from Colombia, told the Herald his “hardline anti-immigration platform” is to the right of Donald Trump. He is opposed to all immigration, including work visas, which he thinks promote a “great replacement of American workers,” echoing theories promoted by white supremacists.
Donalds’ comments in Miami point to the coming intra-party battle in Florida on how Republicans talk about race, immigration and bigotry during a second Trump term defined by mass deportation — and come amid a broader Republican battle over white nationalists emboldened by the Trump administration. If he wins, Donalds would be the first Black governor in Florida’s history.
“Are we going to have a spirit of fear when it comes to people who say they agree with us, but their words do not align with our principles, or are we going to have a spirit of power and say no to the soft bigotry that might be popping up on social media?” said Donalds, who has also supported mass deportations.
The headliner of the night, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, echoed Donalds’ attempt to create distance from what they see as a threat from within the party. His comments in Miami also echoed statements he made earlier this month after Tucker Carlson interviewed white nationalist Nick Fuentes.
“It’s easy to criticize what the other side is doing. And I want to tell you tonight, we are seeing antisemitism rise on the right in the Republican Party,” Cruz told the room. “If you are a bigot, if you are an antisemite, if you are a communist, if you are a jihadist, there is no room for you in the Republican Party and we don’t want you here.”
Juan Porras, a Trump-aligned Miami state representative who helped organize Tuesday’s fundraiser, also slammed Fishback’s attacks against Donalds.
“It’s partially our job to make sure that we are not just representing our party, but representing our constituents who overwhelmingly do not believe in some of the things that this ‘woke right’ ideology or some of these people believe in,” Porras said.
The so-called “woke right” is not a clearly defined term. Recent use of the phrase has been about political tactics to censor speech, not about a set of policy ideas, according to the Brookings Institute’s Jonathan Rausch. He pointed to the crackdown on criticism of Charlie Kirk, and to Trump “using methods to stamp out views that he doesn’t like in media” as examples of what he sees as “woke right” tactics.
Now, “it seems like ‘woke right’ is just becoming a generalized term of abuse and what you call someone that you disagree with,” Rausch said of Donalds’ usage, which appeared to stand in for the far-right.
Fishback, who said he has “no idea” what woke right means, does fit into the criticism Donalds lobbed: as a Republican against any and all immigration.
He’s been attacking Donalds on social media this week over his support of legal pathways to immigration, and was panned by Donalds’ allies for calling him “DEI Donalds,” echoing attacks Republicans used against Kamala Harris in the 2024 election.
Deputy White House Chief of Staff James Blair posted screenshots of texts telling Fishback, “the President is backing Byron Donalds. He has over $30M in the bank and will win. So I don’t think it’s a good idea.”
Fishback said he has not talked to DeSantis recently, but tried to draw a parallel between his long-shot race and DeSantis’ own rise to power over the early Republican front-runner Adam Putnam in 2018.
“Florida voters resent that attitude of entitlement. They resent the idea that the primary is over simply because Byron Donalds was coronated by the Republican Party,” Fishback said.
But running the race he’s pitching as right of MAGA as a relatively unknown candidate might do little more than expose the weaknesses within the party. According to Donalds, “All that the radical left wants is for us to fight each other and cut each other down and pillory each other and try to fight for comments and fight for leadership posts.”
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