Florida Governor’s Race Candidate Accused of Failing to Pay Scholarship Winner

What Happened

Briana Whatley, a high school debate champion and regional and national Incubate Debate champion, is now suing James Fishback, a far-right Republican candidate for Florida’s governor’s race, over $8,000 in scholarship money that she claims was promised but not paid. The incident has come to light after Whatley filed a lawsuit in small claims court in Broward County on November 15, 2024, alleging that the funds were due upon her graduation from high school. According to Florida Politics, Incubate Debate is a league-style competition set up by Fishback and his company, Incubate Foundation Inc., aimed at encouraging youth engagement in political discourse.

Details of the Dispute

Whatley’s lawsuit, seen by The Guardian, was filed on November 15, 2024. Among the allegations are that Incubate Debate initially failed to respond to emails asking where the money was, then tried to change the terms of how it would be paid to her. Fishback, who is challenging front-running US congressman Byron Donalds and Jay Collins, the lieutenant governor of Florida, for the Republican nomination for state governor in November 2024, admitted that this was an oversight on his part when he wrote: “This was an oversight on my part. We are fixing it.”A recording posted to Substack by Fishback in May 2024 shows a previously cordial relationship turning sour when Whatley questioned why a promised installment was not paid. In the recording, Whatley accepted a $10,000 check for besting seven other finalists in the 2024 Incubate Debate national championship and two $500 area awards she previously won. However, according to the lawsuit, Fishback allegedly evaded communication by initially ignoring emails from Whatley regarding the payment, later blaming a terminated employee for the written award terms, falsely claiming an unwritten “installment policy,” and delaying payment for months.

Reactions and Legal Proceedings

In another text exchange, Fishback allegedly claimed that the employee who sent the original award letter promising full payment on graduation had been fired, and that installment payments had “always been the case.” Despite no previous mention of it. The legal proceedings have not gone smoothly for Fishback; in a court ruling last week, he survived a legal challenge by Collins to remove him from this month’s primary. A judge in Tallahassee ruled that Fishback had not violated a rule requiring a gubernatorial candidate to be a resident of the state for seven years prior to the election, even though he bought a condo in Washington DC in 2020 and declared it his primary residence.Whatley claims she has suffered severe financial injury and out-of-pocket damages as a result of Fishback’s alleged failure to pay. The case is still pending with a pretrial conference scheduled for September 9, 2025.

Contextual Background

The lawsuit over scholarships follows a May 2023 episode in which Fishback and Whatley appeared to be on the same page in their criticism of the National Speech and Debate Association (NSDA), a rival to Incubate Debate. In an essay for The Free Press, then owned by Bari Weiss, CBS news editor-in-chief, Fishback stated that the NSDA had become “a woke organization ‘hijacked by left-wing politics’” that was telling students what they could and could not talk about. Whatley, then a high school sophomore, told Fox News Digital that she was warned by the organization to refrain from bringing up former President Donald Trump during debates because it would be “inappropriate.”

Conclusion

The ongoing legal battle between Briana Whatley and James Fishback highlights the complexities of political endorsements and potential financial obligations in competitive races. As the case moves forward, it will be interesting to see how this dispute affects both parties' campaigns leading up to the November 2024 gubernatorial election.

Source: The Guardian