6 May 21-27, 2026 miaminewtimes.com | browardpalmbeach.com NEW TIMES | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | NEWS | LETTERS | CONTENTS | Month XX–Month XX, 2008 miaminewtimes.com MIAMI NEW TIMES | MUSIC | CAFE | FILM | ART | STAGE | NIGHT+DAY | METRO | RIPTIDE | LETTERS | CONTENTS | needs to move into the governor’s mansion.” In a sign of the candidate’s appeal to some voters, he says there were around 1,000 members in a volunteer sign-up group chat before he left in February. Tagliarini also joined the campaign in De- cember. As a third-generation Floridian, she was drawn in by Fishback’s Florida-first and anti-AI data center messaging. She worked closely with Fishback and his then-campaign manager, Emma Stanley Wright, on creating the teams for content creation, graphics, and points of contact. In her first couple of months, she says she went from overseeing ten volunteers to 100, most of them young. Her responsibilities in- cluded leading weekly in-person meetings to bring other county chairs up to speed on events, content, and graphics. When she found out that Fishback had been reading her texts and mocking her, Ta- gliarini says, “I felt so disrespected as a leader and a woman.” Believing the candidate was trying to humiliate her, she quit on the phone with Fulgham after he told her. She also con- fided in Wright, who told her in a text mes- sage, “He honestly makes me the butt of the joke sometimes, so I just hit back with an- other insult, so I’ve def been there.” “It was just James being stupid,” the for- mer campaign manager added. Wright did not respond to a request for comment. Asked during an April 30 phone interview whether he read messages from a female vol- unteer to a group of men from the campaign, Fishback quibbled over the wording of the question, at times raising his voice. Ulti- mately, he responded, “I don’t know what the allegation is, but yeah, I guess I deny it.” Tagliarini says Fishback called her a day after she quit — not to apologize, but to blame Fulgham for causing drama. She had a friend with her and had the conversation on speaker phone, who confirmed her account to New Times. “I said, ‘You get me in a room with every single man that you disrespected me in front of, and you apologize.’ He said, ‘I can’t do that,’” she says. “I said, ‘Well, I can’t do busi- ness with men that disrespect women.’” She alleges that Fishback threatened to put the messages on X, formerly Twitter, “just to clear the air,” before backtracking and apologizing. Both agreed to part on good terms. Fishback continued reaching out to Ta- gliarini and asking others about her. On Feb- ruary 9, the day after Fishback’s front yard caught fire, Tagliarini called Fulgham to apol- ogize for leaving him in a stressful situation by quitting. He wasn’t the one who picked up. “It was Fishback on the phone,” Tagliarini says. “I said, ‘Where’s Bryant?’ He goes, ‘You know, you’re so cute when you’re mad. You’re so pretty when you’re mad, and when you’re angry, and you’re yelling.’” Later that day, she received a phone call from Fulgham’s number, but it was Fishback again, this time asking her where she was at the time of the fire. She says she told him she found it “interesting that you would accuse me of something like this.” “And he goes, ‘Well, you are Sicilian, isn’t that what you guys do?’” she recalls. She says she asked if he needed anything else, and he responded, “No, I just wanted to tell you I missed you.” Photos taken by the campaign and viewed by New Times show Fulgham and Fishback on the date and at the location where he claimed his phone was used. Communication waned, despite a handful of back-and-forth messages. Tagliarini says she intentionally kept her personal life sepa- rate from the campaign. “I kept it business. I never, ever crossed that line, because he was going to use it against me if he could get me to slip up,” Ta- gliarini says. Since leaving the campaign, she has com- plained about Fishback on social media. On April 22, she was called into HR at her full- time job. “In the HR interview, they said James Fish- back screen-recorded my Instagram story and said he’s in danger of his life because of me,” Tagliarini says. “He went after my job.” Fishback denied reaching out to Tagliari- ni’s place of employment. Fulgham says what happened with Taglia- rini was part of Fishback’s pattern of speak- ing inappropriately about women. The candidate made headlines in February for a campaign stunt in which he claimed to go on Tinder to get prospective female voters’ opinions. But Fulgham tells New Times that Fishback made comments about the women’s appearances while swiping through the app during a February 2 Texas Roadhouse dinner that followed a campaign event in Palm Bay. Like when he read Tagliarini’s texts, at least one underage teenager was present. “He was passing around the phone saying, ‘Look at this, forget everything I said about Latinas’ and, like, gooning over these girls the whole time, swiping right,” Fulgham says, us- ing a slang word for prolonged sexual arousal. “He just keeps swiping and texting these girls and, like, messing around with them, like making jokes and stuff.” Fishback said he is not familiar with an in- cident like that occurring. Fulgham says this inappropriate culture persisted throughout the campaign and among its volunteers, pointing to a “Fishback Unofficial GC” (group chat) with up to 70 staffers and volunteers who sometimes posted offensive content. Fishback was not in it, but Fulgham says he “is well aware of the kind of behavior that goes on.” “You had a lot of degeneracy, a lot of sex- ism, a lot of people saying off-the-wall things, ‘go kill yourself,’ the N-word frequently,” Fulgham says. “If you did a search in the chat, the word ‘foid’ would appear more than the word ‘woman.’” He repeatedly told staff members how bad its optics were and that it needed to be shut down. Fishback said he didn’t know about the group chat: “That’s got nothing to do with me.” Fulgham says he grew tired of the inap- propriate behavior and pulled back from his responsibilities. After a conversation between Fulgham and a representative for a group of veterans who served aboard the USS Liberty — a ship that Israel mistakenly hit during the Six-Day War in 1967 — ended in an argument, the Fishback campaign demoted him and re- moved him from multiple group chats. Fulgham, disillusioned, decided to quit on February 18 and later spoke with the Bulwark. “So the minute I wasn’t there, it was like, ‘There’s nothing good on this campaign any- more, and so I may as well come out and say everything,’” says Fulgham. After his departure, he was vocal online about his criticism of Fishback and the cam- paign. He says he heard from multiple sources inside the campaign that they wanted to avoid another “Bryant situation.” NDAs were handed out to people in leadership posi- tions, and the “Fishback Unofficial GC” was disbanded. Fishback did not respond to a question about why Fulgham left the campaign. He confirmed that NDAs were handed out in Feb- ruary, but said the reasoning was professional. “Any and all political campaigns who have people in positions of senior leadership are required to sign non-disclosure agreements,” he said. Fulgham says that after he left the cam- paign, he posted a screenshot to X of a con- versation Fishback had in a senior group chat making fun of the TPUSA Super Bowl half- time show. That same day, in the late evening, he received a phone call from a self-pro- claimed Fishback benefactor. “They said they had enough to lock me up for life,” says Fulgham, who believes it was a bluff but isn’t sure. “He’s like, ‘So my lawyer is ready to send something out first thing, and we’ll take you to court immediately, so you can end this now and walk away quietly and go on with your life, or else.’” The last time Fulgham spoke with Fish- back in person, it was at a memorial cere- mony for a service member killed in Iran. Fulgham says they had a cordial and honest conversation. He regrets standing behind Fishback through his indiscretions and par- ticipating in the “boys’ club” culture. “I even said to his face, ‘I really have cre- ated Frankenstein’s monster,’ and he said, ‘Well, just stand back and let the monster do its thing,’” Fulgham says. On March 30, Fishback drew widespread criticism for telling Black social media influ- encer TajyTV he should be “lynched” for questioning him about the allegations that he dated a minor. Verner, the acting Orange County co-chair, and Gunn, the volunteer, were there when it happened during a cam- paign rally at a downtown Orlando Taco Bell. Two days earlier, Gunn says, TajyTV ap- proached him and one other volunteer while filming a video at a sign-waving event in the area and asked if he knew that Fishback was “a pedophile.” The question referred to an amended peti- tion for a protection order request filed against Fishback by Keinah Fort in April 2025 on allegations of stalking and cyberstalking. Fort claimed Fishback “initiated a romantic relationship” with her in Spring 2022, when she was 17 and attending high school in Bro- ward County, and Fishback was the 27-year- old founder of Incubate Debate, a nonprofit that organized high school debate tourna- ments. The petition was later rejected by the court, and Fishback has denied wrongdoing. Gunn tells New Times he was aware of the allegations and horrified by them, but did not know how to handle them internally. The vol- unteer argued with TajyTV, and Gunn watched in dismay. “How do I communicate to people with this giant albatross flying over the campaign? Republican James Fishback is running a longshot campaign for Florida governor. Screenshot via YouTube/James Fishback “I EVEN SAID TO HIS FACE, ‘I REALLY HAVE CREATED FRANKENSTEIN’S MONSTER,’ AND HE SAID, ‘WELL, JUST STAND BACK AND LET THE MONSTER DO ITS THING,’” FULGHAM SAYS. Race to the Bottom from 5
