Florida gubernatorial candidate creates Tinder account to ‘meet young female voters where they are’

A Florida Republican is trying to swipe his way to the governor’s office.

The Florida gubernatorial candidate previously accused of having an inappropriate relationship with a high schooler has launched a Tinder account in a bizarre scheme to match with and earn “young female” residents’ votes.

James Fishback, 31, created a Tinder dating profile to “meet young female voters where they are,” but hit a speed bump when he ran out of likes in under an hour — and then pleaded for donations so he could upgrade his account to get unlimited likes.

“I’ve joined @Tinder to meet young female voters where they are, and share my plan to make it easier for them to get married, buy a home, and raise a family,” Fishback announced on X Monday.

He also shared a screenshot of his dating profile, which features his “hottest take” that “Florida should offer paid maternity leave to all moms.”

Later that day, the investor and hedge fund manager posted that he “ran out of likes” and needed someone to donate to him so he could purchase a Tinder Plus account.

In a Tuesday X post, he claimed he hit “2,000 matches” on the dating app.

Fishback jumped into the race in November to succeed term-limited Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in 2026, launching an oftentimes vulgar and racially charged campaign against his rival, Rep. Byron Donalds, in the Republican primary.

In December, the candidate wrote on X that Donalds, who is black, should return money to his corporate donors if he “doesn’t want to be called a slave.”

He also wrote later in January that “By’rone wants to turn Florida into a Section 8 ghetto.”

Donalds, a three-term congressman, is currently the front-runner in the race and was endorsed by President Trump last year.

Fishback is in last place among the four contenders in the primary race, with just 3% of registered Republicans’ support, according to a January Mason-Dixon poll.

The fourth-place candidate has been accused of sexual misconduct by a woman who said he initiated a relationship with her when she was a 17-year-old high school student — leading the Broward County School District in Florida to cut ties with Fishback’s student organization in 2022, NBC News revealed in December.

The teen was working for his organization, Incubate Debate — which partnered with Florida school districts to build debate programs for middle and high school students — when Fishback, then 27, initiated the relationship in spring 2022 and “explicitly directed” her to keep it secret, court records obtained by Florida Politics revealed.

The pair lived together and were briefly engaged after the student turned 18, the woman said in the court documents. She also accused him of losing his temper and throwing things at her during their engagement, according to the January 2025 filings.

Fishback denied the allegations, telling the outlet they “are completely false.”