We don’t always agree with Florida’s attorney general. On this issue, he’s right | Opinion

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier this week pushed back — hard and publicly — on James Fishback’s use of the word “slave” to describe U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds. It was a welcome and much-needed rebuke of racism within the GOP: Fishback had already called Donalds, a Black candidate for Florida governor, “By’rone” and a “DEI Republican.”

Donalds would be the state’s first Black governor if he wins. Fishback, who has praised white nationalism, is also running for the seat. And both candidates are Republicans.

The GOP has been trying hard to ignore Fishback’s continuing comments. But Uthmeier, at least, called it out. “I think somebody that’s going to call a Black candidate a slave clearly has some intentionality there. I think it’s gross. I don’t think there’s any room for that in Republican politics. It’s certainly not my brand of politics,” he said at a press conference on Monday.

Good to hear. Uthmeier avoided saying the R-word but “gross” is a start. He also offered some rationale for the GOP’s tepid response to Fishback’s continuing presence in the party. “I’m not going to give somebody like that any real attention, ’cause it’s not worth it. It’s not worth it to give them a platform, and I think the congressman’s probably doing the same thing,” he said.

So far, Fishback’s support is still in the single digits. A June poll by Associated Industries of Florida put it at 8%. But that’s up from 4% in April. Sometimes ignoring a problem just allows it to grow in darkness.

And what Fishback has been saying is extremely offensive.

“Byron Donalds is a slave. I’m sorry, he’s a slave,” Fishback said. “He is a slave to his donors. He is a slave to the corporate interests, to the tech bros that want to turn our state into, his own words, a financial capital.”

He later said that Donalds was a “tether”— a derogatory term for Black immigrants — and “had no right to be complaining about me calling him a slave when he has absolutely no direct descendant of slavery in his family.”

Donalds, who has been leading the field of gubernatorial candidates, has been endorsed by President Trump. He is one of a handful of Black Republicans elected to Congress.

Florida politicians going into attack mode is nothing new. This is an aggressively partisan state led by a governor who has been heavy-handed in his use of executive power in his zeal to eradicate “woke.“ In previous years, Gov. Ron DeSantis even seemed reluctant to denounce several neo-Nazi demonstrations in Florida, finally mustering up the energy to call them “jackasses.”

Uthmeier is likely speaking out for purely political reasons because he’s running for office, too, after DeSantis appointed him to the attorney general’s job in early 2025. We haven’t forgotten that this is the same guy who enthusiastically touted Alligator Alcatraz as a place surrounded by alligators and pythons: “Nowhere to go, nowhere to hide,” he boasted on a video extolling the virtues of the immigrant detention center west of Miami.

But on this issue, Uthmeier’s politics are on the right side. Fishback’s words, coming from inside the party, are not something Republicans should ignore. Bigotry and racism need daylight to be stamped out. Now it’s up to other Republicans to follow suit.