Jay Collins sues to throw James Fishback off Florida GOP governor’s race ballot

ORLANDO, Fla. – A Republican candidate for Florida governor is suing to throw another candidate off the August primary ballot.

Lt. Gov. Jay Collins filed a lawsuit Monday that accuses opponent James Fishback of failing to meet the residency requirement to be Florida governor.

In the complaint, Collins said Washington, D.C. records show Fishback registered to vote in the district on Nov. 3, 2020, voted that day, and was listed on the active voter roll in Washington, D.C. as recently as June 1, 2026.

[ELECTION 2026: Make sure you’re eligible to vote | How to vote by mail | Election Myths]

The complaint also says Fishback bought a home in Washington, D.C. in 2021 and filed for a homestead exemption. Collins says Fishback got a property tax bill for that home as recently as Feb. 17, 2026, and in April the D.C Office of Tax and Revenue issued a “corrected property tax bill” that removed the homestead exemption and reassessed the property going back to 2023.

Qualifications for Florida governor require a candidate to be a resident of the state for seven years when elected. That would be from Nov. 4, 2019, to Nov. 3, 2026.

You can read the full lawsuit at the end of this story.

Fishback, in a post on X.com, accused Collins of illegally suing to remove him, and also accused him of acting on behalf of Republican gubernatorial frontrunner Rep. Byron Donalds. In response, Fishback posted a photo of his Florida driver’s license from 2016.

“His claim? That I, a fourth-generation Floridian who has lived here my entire life, haven’t lived in Florida for the past 7 years,” Fishback said.

“This baseless lawsuit is nothing more than a desperate and illegal attempt to stop our momentum because they know we’re going to win on August 18,” Fishback added.

News 6 checked the address on the driver’s license: 14631 N. Beckley Sq. in Davie.

According to the Broward County Property Appraiser’s website, Jay Thomas Fishback and Aydee E. Fishback sold that house in 2017.

Checking Florida’s publicly available voter rolls, Fishback used that Davie address for his voter registration until 2024, when he moved his voter registration to Madison County.

He is listed as a registered and active voter on Florida’s voter rolls since at least 2020.

Fishback’s voting history also showed that he voted in the 2022 elections in Broward County, before voting in 2024 in Madison County. His voting history does not show that he voted in 2020 in Florida.

The Florida voter history data is publicly available through the Florida Division of Elections. The data only specifies whether Fishback voted, not who or what he voted for.

News 6 also looked into the D.C. property records and confirmed that a James T. Fishback has owned the home mentioned in Collins’ lawsuit since 2021, and it had a homestead exemption on it in 2021 and 2022.

Florida’s residency rules

While Florida law does make a residency requirement to run for office, it does not specify what it means to hold residency. This has been an issue in recent election lawsuits over residency in the past few years.

In 2024, a candidate for Florida Senate, Randolph Bracy, threatened to sue to remove incumbent State Sen. Geraldine Thompson from the ballot, accusing her of not living in her district. While she and her husband had a home outside the district, Thompson maintained she was living in Ocoee to help her daughter raise her children. Thompson’s voting record showed she was registered to vote in Ocoee, within her district.

The lawsuit was never filed.

Thompson would later accuse Bracy of living in Lake County and keeping a home in Oakland so he could claim he was in the district. Property appraiser records show he had homestead exemptions on both houses.

News 6 wrote about the race when it happened HERE.

In the case of the 2024 race, Thompson claimed that Florida Senate rules accepted her candidacy because it took into consideration the totality of her circumstances.

Just this past year, a residency lawsuit mired the race for Apopka mayor.

Former Mayor Bryan Nelson sued his opponent, former Orange County Commissioner Christine Moore, accusing her of not living within city boundaries for a year before the election, as required.

Moore had lived just outside the city boundaries for years, and was in the process of buying a home within city limits. However, since the home wasn’t ready yet, Moore said she rented a home to meet the candidacy requirements.

In his lawsuit, Nelson accused Moore of using the rental as a residence in name only, and said she was photographed dozens of times at her first home before moving into the new house.

In the end, both Nelson and Moore lost the Apopka mayoral election. The lawsuit was dismissed in March.

Florida officials’ ‘ministerial role’ in qualifying

When a candidate runs for office, they affirm in their sworn oath of candidacy that they meet the requirements.

However, as Collins notes in his lawsuit, the Florida Division of Elections only takes a ministerial role when it comes to candidate qualifying.

In other words, the office makes sure the paperwork is in order, and if it is and the candidate has paid their qualifying fee or gotten enough petition signatures, they qualify for office.

Florida law even says, “the filing officer may not determine whether the contents of the qualifying papers are accurate.”