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The future looks all right so welcome to the first official florida gubernatorial debate make some noise everybody we got a crowd in the house good looking crowd here we're gonna have a good time together uh i want to properly introduce each individual that i want to bring up and we'll get right into it first candidate that we're bringing up is the former florida house speaker paul renner he was a Speaker of Florida House from 2022 to 2024, champion Florida's universal school choice expansion, U.S. Navy surface warfare officer during the Gulf War, career prosecutor or legislative strategist, widely viewed as one of the principal architects of much of Governor DeSantis' legislative agenda while serving as a Speaker. Please make some noise for Speaker Paul Renner. All right. Next, we have Florida Lieutenant Governor Jay Collins. 23 years. Let me properly introduce him, if you may. 23 years as U.S. Army Green Beret Special Forces deployed to combat multiple times. Purple Heart recipients, Bronze Star, Legion of Merit, Soldier Medal. After losing a leg due to combat injuries, he returned to active duty for another five years, elected to florida state senate in 2022 appointed lieutenant governor by ron desantis in 2025 please make some noise for lieutenant governor jay collins and last but not least we have businessman and investor james fishback founder of azoria partners and outsider in the race who has made a name for himself in record time became one of the highest profile, first-time candidates, in recent memory, a social media sensation with a following among younger conservative voters, an endorsement from major media figures. Give it up for James Fishback. James, great to have you here as well. Gentlemen, are you okay if I address you by your first name? Is that okay with you? Thank you for your permission. With that being said, let's address the elephant not in the room, Byron Donalds. Byron Donalds and I have had multiple conversations. I told him I'm going to be saying this, so when he's seeing this, he knows. You know, I talked about this.

I invited him multiple times. I said, Byron, I suggest you be here. I agree with the governor. You ought to be on the stage debating. He says, Pat, I got $100 million I've raised. Ten times everybody combined together. I'm at 48% to 58%. And if anybody gets to double digits in approval rating, as far as candidates goes, I will entertain debating. But till then, I'm not showing up. So that's Byron Donald. Anybody watching this, your job is to help your candidate get to double digits. So he will be on the stage with them. And that's on you to do so. So with that being said, let's get right into it. Gentlemen, again, thank you so much for making the time to come here. There were a lot of people said, oh, he's not going to show up. Oh, this person's not going to show up. Oh, that person's not going to show up. I applaud all three of them for keeping their word. Please make some noise for the candidates for showing up. All right, so let's get right into it. Gentlemen, each of you get a 90-second opening statement. Paul, we'll start off with you, please.

Thank you, Patrick. Good evening, and Patrick, thank you for hosting this debate so voters have a chance to make an informed decision in this election. I want to recognize my wife, who's in the audience, Adriana. We are the proud parents of a six-year-old daughter and a four-year-old son, and I got I tell you, being a parent of young children is perfect preparation for dealing with some of the politicians over in Tallahassee. And also, I want to thank everyone who's listening tonight, and I look forward to earning your vote. As Florida goes, so goes the nation, and we need a governor who is a battle-tested leader. At age 23, I was a young officer navigating through mine-infested waters, and I led a small boat team to destroy those mines. Twenty years later, as a commander in the Navy, I led a team to stop foreign fighters from coming into Afghanistan to kill Americans. I was also tested back here at home as a state prosecutor trying habitual and violent habitual offenders to protect our communities. I've started my own business, been a partner in another business, and most recently led the Florida House as Speaker. Voters want a proven leader who can deliver results. Governor DeSantis described those two years that I led as unmatched. And when I led the Florida House, conservatives won every battle. But Florida has new challenges ahead and we need a governor who can navigate them. That's why I've announced a bold contract with Florida, an aggressive conservative agenda in the first 100 days. As your governor, I will make Florida affordable. I will keep it safe. I will protect our environment. our environment and keep our state free if you want to strengthen the state of florida the free state of florida you need the proven leader who helped build it so tonight i ask for your vote to lead this wonderful state as your next governor thank you paul thank you thank you

jay collins well good evening and of course uh i want to say thank you to layla and my son gabe great to see you here love you guys and thank you patrick for hosting us it's incredibly kind of you to open up your channel like this. It means the world. Guys, this race is about leadership, about leadership under pressure. It's about the future of the great free state of Florida. We have been blessed to have Governor Ron DeSantis as our governor for quite some time now. In that time, he has stood boldly with strong, bold, conservative leadership. This simply cannot change. Under his watch, we have become the free state of Florida. We have become the conservative proving grounds of the United States of America. And friends, if you look around the world, there is nowhere else to go. The simple fact is this. When Florida leads, America wins. We have to keep that momentum. He has shown what conservative leadership is truly about. Friends, the next governor has to hold that line. There is no falling back. The left, what do they want to see? They want to see the free state of Florida devolve. They want to see it break down and be soft on crime, soft on DEI, and go back to where we came. That simply cannot happen. You've heard my story. Yes, I was honored to be a Green Beret for many years. It's something I'm incredibly proud of. Brave men who I serve beside and I look up to this day. Yes, I got shot. Yes, I lost a leg. And yes, I requalified. But the greatest part of all of that is that I kept getting up, fighting, and serving the great state of Florida, the United States of America, because that is what grit, that is what leadership is, and that is what makes this nation what it is. Friends, I cannot be intimidated. I will not be broken. And under my watch as an ex-governor of the great state of Florida, the brightest days won't be behind us, but be ahead of us. because this state and this nation are worth fighting for every single day. Thank you, Jay. Thank you.

Folks, if you're watching this, if you're following the debate and you put in commentary, our team will be watching as well. Follow the hashtag VTDebate on Twitter again, VTDebate on Twitter.

James Fishback, please. Paul Patrick, thank you so much for hosting this. Thank you to my wife, Valeria, for being here. Jay, thank you for being here. Thank you for your 23 years of service to the United States Army. Thank you, Paul, for being here in your 20 years of service to the United States Navy. To the viewers at home, thank you for tuning in to tonight's important debate. Let me start by getting one thing off my chest. If Ron DeSantis could run for a third term as governor, I would not be in this race, because Ron DeSantis is the greatest governor in Florida history. When teachers went woke, he fired them. when Soros prosecutors went soft, he removed them. And when Anthony Fauci and Joe Biden tried to shut us down, mask us up, what did Ron DeSantis do? He stood and fought for our freedoms. As the eight years close on this incredible man's legacy, there are a new set of challenges on the horizon. Experimental data centers, sky-high property tax and property insurance, and most importantly, the education and future of the next generation. I am in this race to do two things, to preserve Governor DeSantis' extraordinary legacy and to fight to make our state more affordable. This July 4th will be a special one because 250 years ago, brave men stood up and said enough was enough. Let's honor them. Let's write the next great chapter of American history right here in Florida. Beautiful. Okay, thank you for that.

If each of you can take 60 seconds and share with the audience, with the voter here, what the top three issues are for you in the order from third to first, which the top three most important issues are to you. Jay, I'll come to you first. Look, as I've traveled... around the state i have been from big city to small town and the number one thing that comes to our ears is affordability it's about the economy number two is about safety and security and the last thing is education because a simple fact is this what we teach our children today is the reality of our state and our nation tomorrow we can't afford to fail on those three things

those were your three okay beautiful paul well i would also echo affordability if i go and speak to a pastor's breakfast, they want to talk about affordability, homeschool moms, affordability everywhere you go. And we have become a victim of our own success with prices going up, with everybody moving into the state. That's number one. I would also say we have to fight public corruption and enforce public safety. We see what's happening in blue states across the country, and it's unacceptable. We have been an oasis of safety when it comes to our public safety here in the state of Florida. And finally, it's preserving our constitutional rights and freedom. We are the free state of Florida. We need to not only protect it, but also strengthen

it. Okay. James, how about yourself? The three issues for me that are most important are this. Number one, Ron DeSantis gave us a 50-year low in crime, and it wasn't by accident. Crime's down, prosecutions are up, because Ron DeSantis did the radical thing that CNN and MSDNC won't talk about, is we're going to back the blue every step of the way. That's the first thing. Number two, we have a real problem with these so-called experimental data centers. I'm sorry, we are not going to build a 2 million square foot facility in our neighborhood that Mark Zuckerberg is going to use to become a trillionaire. The same exact experimental data center that will drive up your electric bills, jeopardize our water supply, and is so loud and noisy that you will hear it 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. I want to be clear. I am not going to regulate data centers. I am not going to reform data centers. As governor, I will reject and remove every experimental data center

in our state. Okay, and we're going to address that as well with data centers. I got, that was

just two. Go for it. Here's the last one. The last one, you don't need a history book. You don't need a time machine. The last one is happening right now. There is a movement in our country that calls themselves democratic socialists, but let's call them what they really are. They are communists. The mayor of New York is telling people who are sweating during the worst heat wave, telling kids and our senior citizens that they dare not touch the thermostat. We will never forget what communism really is. Our neighbors in Cuba know that, and we must fight the wickedness of communism, no matter what the Democrats call it today. And for the audience, if you're watching,

the temperature here are 68 degrees. That's where we have the AC, just to make sure we're going to be fine. So since affordability was number one for all of you, let's get right into affordability. And we're going to have some fun here as well. We're going to have some items that are going to come up. We're going to play a game to see who knows more about affordability than And the other, it'll be a little bit entertaining, and we'll address some important issues. But let's start off with affordability. And, James, I'll come to you first here. Let's talk about homeowners insurance, which is a big issue. Between 2020 and 2024, more than 12 insurance companies cut back coverage in Florida or left completely, including State Farm, Allstate Farmers, and Progressive. Now Florida has the highest property insurance rates in America. As governor, what specific immediate steps will you take to lower insurance rates and make housing affordable again?

Patrick, it's a great question. And it's one that we have to fight with a very simple idea called capitalism. If you're the only dairy queen in the middle of a desert, you can charge whatever you want for soft serve. What we have to do is bring in a Baskin-Robbins, bring in a Carvel, bring in a Cold Stone. You might even bring in a McDonald's, Jay, if the ice cream machine were working that day. What does that competition do? it brings down prices. The fact that 12 insurance companies have cut or left the state entirely is exactly why insurance rates have gone up. As a business guy, I'm going to call those CEOs myself and ask them, what is it going to take for you to come back to our state? How can we reform these laws? But here's the thing. Insurance doesn't just come down to price. It also comes down to coverage. For the Florida families who went through Michael in 2018, Irma in 2017, or Wilma in 2005 know this when a hurricane hits you will not have to hunt down and recruit a lawyer to get paid from your insurance company I will stand up to insurance greed in our state

Paul how about yourself yeah well I have some unique I have some unique receipts on this issue because as soon as I became speaker we went into special session to take two special interests the billboard lawyers who are driving up rates as a litigation hellhole in Florida, as well as the insurers. And we said, let's focus on the consumers. And by doing that, we saw auto rates go up 30 percent before I was speaker. And since then, auto rates are going down in one state in America. That's this state. Now, homeowners insurance is a little bit more stubborn, but we have seen dozens of new insurers come into the market when before those reforms, they were going out of business, dropping coverage. But here's what we can do we can make sure to eliminate and suspend the tax on homeowners premiums we can end the rapid cash what's called the rapid cash buildup which is was done at a time when our catastrophic fund was broke suspend that for a while and also allow that cat fund to come down and handle smaller storms than what they're handling right now all all three of those and some other reforms we can make will lower tax or lower the premiums by up to 20 percent and we'll do that in the first hundred days as part of my contract with Florida. Fantastic. Make some noise. Thank you, Paul.

Jay, how about yourself? All right. Thanks, Patrick. Look, you've heard similar answers here, and it's very simple. Under Governor Ron DeSantis, we have fixed this problem and we continue to work towards it. Look, at one point, we were down to one insurance company. It was very, very tough. Many of us worked day and night trying to figure this out, move it forward, and bring more insurance companies in here. Yes, we spoke to CEOs. Yes, we spoke to economists. And yes, we pushed everybody. The number one thing that drove that was rolling back tort reform. Guys, what we did with tort made a huge difference. The number one thing you can't do is fall back. We cannot cede ground to the trial bar. It can never happen on that. Not now, not ever. The rates will skyrocket. We have to make sure that we look at things like permitting and impact fees. Right now, those are things that we can actually solve on the ground. The cost of permitting is built back into the cost that goes back to the person. It's not just the fee. It's the carrying cost. And it's magnified because it drives up our insurance. But it's incredibly dangerous when coupled with that FEMA 50% rule where homes are being lost and homes are being torn down. And the last thing is this. We understand that we have hurricanes. We understand that there are problems in this state. And that's why we have been leading the nation on property tax reform. And in our administration, we have done that. The language in front of us will bring back property tax relief to our people. We have to make sure we put money in people's pockets. We continue to fight to drive those costs down. And yes, we're going to hold insurance companies liable. We're going to hold attorneys responsible. and we're going to make sure we prioritize the welfare of our people over everybody else.

Jay, question for you in regards to what we can learn from California because a lot of insurance companies also left the state of California. Florida and California, this is one thing we have in common, both states. What do you do, because insurance companies have to also make a profit, how do you make it profitable for them to come into the state at the same time keeping it affordable for families?

Well, I'll tell you, Patrick, look, we love the free market, right? I'm certainly not allergic to money, nor should anybody here on this stage or in this audience be. You've got to really take hold of the crime and the fraud that's going on in the community. We actually have very strong laws. We've worked diligently, but you've got to go take care of that. Right now, roofing fraud, window fraud, windshield fraud on cars, those things are driving rates up, and that cost gets passed on back to the people. We've got to make sure we take care of that. And ultimately, when you do that, that's going to make the cost go down. Their profits will be there. And ultimately, it's going to make sure people have more money in their pockets long term. That's just one of many things.

I think. Please go ahead, Jay.

Well, I think Jay is exactly right, that there is a fraud problem in this state, that when someone cheats their insurance company, especially illegal aliens in our state, when they cheat their insurance company after a storm, the insurance company does not pay that fraudulent claim. They pay it, and then they charge the rest of us. And so it's not a coincidence, Patrick, that we have the highest insurance rates in the nation while also having the highest fraud rates in the nation. That's why my running mate, Florida's Lex lieutenant governor, is a cop who has gone after white-collar crime right here in Florida. We are going to throw the book at anyone and everyone, especially illegal aliens who commit insurance fraud, prosecute them, invite the insurance companies back in. They'll make a good profit, and we can bring down the premiums and save money for Floridians.

Paul, do you have any other angle yourself, any unique angle yourself?

I didn't hear you, Patrick.

Is there any unique angle you have yourself?

Yeah, absolutely. Well, again, I have the receipts because the reforms we did were as soon as I became Speaker of the House to get rid of those jackpot verdicts. So when a handful of lawyers get rich at your expense, that's spread across. everyone who pays insurance policies and we ended that litigation abuse when I was speaker. Another program that we need to talk about is the My Safe Florida Home program, which we funded at hundreds of millions of dollars. It gives up to $10,000 in grants for people to harden their homes, new doors, windows, roof tie downs, etc. And it saves as much as $1,000 in premiums. And so these are practical steps that we can take that allow for insurers to come into the market, and that's exactly what's happened, and we're seeing the benefits of that three years on. Now, the plaintiff's lawyers, as soon as we passed the bill and before the governor signed it, went out and filed almost 300,000 new lawsuits under the old rules, and so it's like the big egg moving through the snake, and we have to wait for that egg to move through before we see those new rules fully take effect. So the good news is, even though we're several years on from And those reforms in 2022, in the end of 2022, we're still seeing benefit to consumers.

All right. Let's go to the next story. Let's go to the next story. The next story I want to get to is housing costs, rents versus wages. A new report shows a Floridian needs to make $77,500 a year to afford an average two-bedroom rent of $1,940 without overspending. As governor, how will you ease this rent and wage pressure so working families don't spend most of their paychecks just on housing? James.

It's always a question of supply and demand. Right now, it's no different than we were 10 years ago, except one major difference. Florida has 1.4 million illegal aliens in our state. The homes, the rental properties, the apartments that they are living in, the fact that Blackstone and BlackRock are buying up all this housing supply, 117,000 single-family homes are owned by private equity single-family homes are for Floridians they're not for hedge funds and so what we have to do is we have to prevent these large investors foreign nationals from buying up our homes driving out Floridians who have built their life here and that's how we can bring down costs but I also want to touch on something as well which is that it's not just the rent or the expenses that you pay every month it's how much you make. How much money are you making today versus five or ten years ago? We are staring down a crisis for the next generation. I met with a young man at Florida State University a couple months ago. He applied to a hundred different positions at a company. And I won't name the company out of respect, but it was Amazon. And so he had a 4.0 GPA, computer science major. And Patrick, he can't get a job from Amazon because they told him, we're not hiring American citizens right now. They're just hiring H-1Bs from India, Pakistan, and China. To the 1,900 employers in Florida right now who are using H-1B foreign labor, I am warning you once and for all, fire your foreign workers, hire back qualified Floridians, or you will face the ultimate wrath of the state of Florida. We must put our workers front of the line. Fourth of July savings are

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Jay, do you agree with James? Yeah, I agree with the premise of what he's talking about. We know we have an illegal immigration issue across the United States of America. Look, every state is a border state. That's just the reality of it, and we have to take that threat serious. We've talked about it. If we have 2 million illegal aliens in the state of Florida, 4 people per house, that's half a million homes or apartments being taken out of circulation. Let's talk a little bit about other notes of that. The American dream is what's important. The American dream is what we're discussing. The American dream can never be broken down to just getting by and having barely enough or just eking it out. Guys, that's not the America that we fought for. That's not the American dream that I want. What I want to see is more opportunity, more jobs, more growth in those industries to raise it up and make a difference in the families. We have to bring back the trades. Did you know the average tradesman is 58 years old? The average farmer is 58.9. When you raise that up and you get more people into the workforce, great things happen. The free market works. Where we run into problems as conservatives, as Republicans, is when we forget our principles and we oversubsidize, we play games, and ultimately it ends up causing problems down the road. If you want to bring back more affordability, you want to drive down the cost of rent, we have to project and take care of affordability and the quality of life across our entire state. That has to be the number one focus of what we're doing. It's the number one thing I talk about moving forward and the number one thing I hear about everywhere I go in the free state of Florida. Thank you, Jay. Thank you, Jay. Paul.

So we are a victim of our success. Millions are moving into our state, much like illegals coming into this country because they have failed countries where they came from. There are failed states now in America, and people want to live in Florida. And look, if I could, I often say I would love to build a wall at the Georgia-Alabama line and make California pay for it to keep people from coming in because it is a supply and demand problem. I agree with James on illegal immigrants as being a source of the problem. Part of my affordability plan, and I also agree on H-1Bs, is that we will have no H-1Bs as state employees. You will not have a state contract and be allowed to have any H-1B workers. Florida jobs for Florida workers, period, full stop. Now, I'm the only candidate for whatever reason in this race that has a comprehensive program to end property taxes for those who need it most. And part of that will have some replacement taxes, and part of that is to raise the taxes on what James described as out-of-state private equity, and he's right, over 100,000 homes that they bought up, single-family homes, and turned into rentals. Now, what's wrong with that? First of all, that's hundreds of millions of dollars out of Floridians' pockets that never hits the local economy or the state economy. And secondly, there are over 100,000 homes not available for purchase, meaning you can't earn the American dream. My property tax proposal also will allow for special incentives for first-time homebuyers. And I'm talking about you've lived in New York and this is your third house, but your first one in Florida, but you're a Florida resident. You're living with mom at age 35. So I got good news for you, mom and dad. We're going to get them out of the house and make sure that they have an opportunity to buy their first home and not wait and not wait as the stats show until 44 years of age to buy your first home. That's why we have Zaron Mondami because when when people feel the door is locked shut and the deadbolt set, you will listen to the pied pipers of the far left or the far right. But Mondami is a creature of the far left and he's promising the moon and then all he ever delivered once he got elected were tax increases. Paul, thank you for

that. I want to come back to you, Paul, since you brought up property tax. One of the challenges with property tax, which we see we're very supportive of what the governor is doing, trying to make it easier for folks with $150,000 to $250,000. But if this leading effort that he has to eliminate property tax for 60% of primary homeowners, there's an analysis that came out recently. I don't know if you've seen it from Tax Foundation. Warned cities will lose $4.6 billion of revenue year one, $8.4 billion year two, potentially raising sales taxes to 15.34%. This is their analysis. Do you support or oppose the homeownership tax cuts? And if you do, if you support them, how would you pay for it? Well, look, the governor recently came out and

said he's not going to campaign for it. You can say it's better than nothing, but I'm not a huge fan, and here's why. My proposal does what this proposal doesn't do, what the governor...

called for is truly in taxes for homeowners. So this proposal will still have school taxes, so you'll still be paying when you're 90 years old and you've paid off your home. My proposal has a $1 million assessment on all taxes, so it will address 95% of homeowners and eliminate their homestead property taxes. We have help for small businesses, mom and pops, that will get a major tax cut, as well as help for renters. And we do that through a combination of savings. As conservatives, we should always save first. That means permanent doge in this state, not just local governments, but the state, the universities, special districts. You know, we spend, Patrick, over $200 billion of taxpayer money. Can we not save $10 to $20 billion out of that, less than 5% or 10% of the whole, so that we don't have to have replacement taxes? But my plan does provide for replacement taxes for those 911 services, police and fire. When you call 911, you want them there in two minutes, not 20. And so we have up to $20-plus billion, if we need it, in replacement taxes that's much less than the benefit. And we're going to do that by taxing people who vacation here and who speculate here. And I already referenced out-of-state private equity. Tourists will pay a little bit more. Major multinational corporations will pay a little bit more in tax fairness. That is how we'll do it. And we'll also seek a way to tax people who are coming into the state in a way that's constitutional and take care of those because I am running a Florida First campaign, which means all I care about are the men, women, and children who call Florida home. And those that are coming here to vacation or speculate here can pay as part of the bill.

Thank you, Paul. Thank you, Paul. Okay. James, how about yourself? What's your position with property tax here?

My position on property taxes? Yes. It's pretty simple. I don't support relieving your property taxes. I don't support reforming your property taxes. I support one thing and one thing only, and that is completely and totally abolishing property taxes in the state of Florida. Completely. Now, I'm a business guy on the stage, so let me tell you how we do the math on it. It's pretty simple. In the last five years, property tax revenue in our state is up 76 percent. They're collecting, Patrick, 76 more, 76 percent more today than they were five years ago. To the people watching at home, is your government doing a 76 percent better job? Are your roads 76 percent better? Your schools 76 percent better? Does anyone believe that DMV is 76 percent more efficient? So we got a problem. Guess what? It's called Doge. It's called audit. It's called remove the waste, fraud, and foolishness. Here are two numbers that every Floridian needs to know. There is a $20 billion increase that that 76% represents. The cost, Patrick, to make sure that no one in this room and no one watching at home who calls Florida home never pays a property tax bill again is just $18 billion. So what we have to do is we have to get local governments like Broward County, Miami-Dade County, Orange, Osceola, Hillsboro, we have to get them to live within our means. Governor DeSantis just signed the state budget into law. It is the fourth year in a row, the fourth year in a row, the state budget has actually gotten smaller while Broward, Dade, and Palm Beach County waste more of your hard-earned money. Hire me as governor. I will go in there not with a scalpel, not with a rake. I'm going in there with a chainsaw and I'm going to save billions of dollars and pass the savings on to you. Thank you, James.

Jay. I appreciate it, Patrick. Yeah, look, this property tax bill was far short of expectations. In our administration, we talked very clearly about what we wanted to do. It's not all property tax. It's homestead property tax. Since 2019, we've seen $31 billion raise up to $61 billion in property tax. That's a significant shift. Have you seen the commensurate growth in roads, sanitation, education, law and order, fire departments? I don't think so. We know we haven't. We know that less than 30% of our property tax dollars in the state of Florida come from homesteaded property tax. The people in these cities and counties, y'all, they have a vested interest in maintaining what they have in padding numbers, growing budgets, and growing positions. very simply i can put it clearly we don't have an income problem we have a spending problem at the city and county level that has to be stopped now you've seen everybody here talk about doge and fafo as accountability we don't have responsibility we don't you can't have responsibility without accountability and the simple fact is this when i ran jlac which is a little bit of a crazy opportunity in the Senate and in the House down in the basement.

had the opportunity to shut off funding for people who had external money from the state going to them. That's cities, that's counties, and here's why. You see, they had failed their audits. They hadn't returned them for years in some instances, and the simple fact is this. When we did that, do you know what happened when we took away their money? It was very clear. They got their audits in. You know who was at the front of the line the next year? Those very same organizations. You have to hold people accountability. Without accountability, we have

nothing great answer thank you okay let's let's play a game here let's play a game here if we can get the ladies to come up one by one by one we're going to play a game called price is right okay and here's how the game works i will state a product in the state of florida okay what the price of this product is going to be you're going to give your number whoever's closest not up or down whatever's the closest so if you say 505 and it's five you say 490 490 the 505 wins because that's closer by the penny. So not the typical price is right. I'm sure we've all watched it before. We're going to play our rules, whoever's closest to the dollar. And then we'll see who knows actually what Floridians are going through on a day-to-day basis. So if we're ready, do we have the products? Please bring the products up if the ladies are ready. Let's start off with the first one. The first one is a dozen great A eggs. Start off with a dozen great A eggs. You can't help them, by the way. I see the camps are here, so don't throw signs or anything. We're watching. The cameras are on you. Okay, so James, how much are the price of a dozen grade A eggs?

Well, my wife forces me to buy the organic, but I know those from a previous life. Those are about $2.50. $2.50, James.

Okay, Jay, how about yourself? About $2.75, a dozen. $2.75, a dozen.

Paul? I was going to say $2.52, but just to hedge, I'll say $2.45. How's that? Non-organic. $2.45. So the average is $2.58, which the first one goes to Fishback.

Okay. So Fishback got one so far. You would have said $2.52. You would have had it. Don't overthink it. You're on the right track. All right, next one. One gallon of whole milk. One gallon of whole milk. Jay, I'll come to you first. It's about $3 a gallon. Okay. James?

About $4.50 a gallon.

$4.50. Paul? $3.50. 350, it's 422. James Fishback takes this one as well. All right, let's go to the next one.

All those trips to Publix and Live Oak that my wife sends me to.

All right, let's see the next one. One loaf of white bread. One loaf of white bread. Paul. 275. James. About 320. 320. Jay. We go with 265. $265. This one goes to Jay Collins. $250. There you go. Collins picked one up. Paul, we got to get on the leader's bullet. Let's go to the next one. One gallon of regular unleaded gasoline. AAA prices as of today for Florida. Fishback. About $435. $435. Guys, don't answer, please. If you answer again, I'm going to ask you to leave. Please don't do that again. I'm being respectful with you. Let's enjoy their answers. Okay, James, you said 450. Next. 385. 385.

I was going to say 385, too, so I'm going with my original answer.

Which is what?

385.

Both of you guys are saying 385?

One of you guys got to say, you got to say a different number.

All right, 390. 390. It's 381, which means this goes to Jay. So Jay's got two now. Jay, Collins and Fishback are tied at two. Next one. Very important to the president. This is very important to the president. A Big Mac meal. Oh. Oh. Oh. James.

A Big Mac meal. Jay and I are tied? No, no. You guys are tied. Yeah. We're tied. You're tied 2-2. Jay, if I win this one, you've got to drop the lawsuit. Big Mac meal. Big Mac meal. Gosh. That's almost 950. 950. Okay, Jay?

I think it's about 1175. All right. Paul? 875. $8.75. You know, it's $13.99, which goes to Collins. Collins takes the lead. All right. We know who goes to McDonald's here. Not me. There you go.

You've got to hope that ice cream machine is working, brother. All right, let's go to the next one.

One package of Pampers diapers, 100th count. A lot. A lot. It's been a while.

I'm a six- and a four-year-old. It hasn't been that long. What do you say, Paul? It's like a pay raise when you stop having diapers. It is. A hundred of them. man that's a tough one we order them in bulk so i'm gonna say 10 bucks 10 bucks jay for a count of 100 100. oh 100 100. Is that $100? No, is that $100? No, we're going with $100. Don't worry about this. This is just a model here. This is a model. No, forgive me. So it's $100.

That's $26. $26? I would say $35.

Okay. All right. Jay? $46. $46. Fishback?

I haven't had to purchase them yet, but we may have an announcement coming soon. Really? Are you making that right now? I'm making an announcement about an announcement. Okay. That's how it works? Yeah. Okay, so what's the number?

Gosh, I don't know. You got to guess. What did you say, Jay? 46. Jay said 46. Paul said 35. I'd say 42. 42. So it's 27, which Paul gets his first one. There you go, Paul. All right, next one. I've seen a lot of those. Next one. 24-pack of bottled water. 24-pack. Add Walgreens. 24-pack of bottled water. Jay. All right, so we're. 24 pack let's go with 24 pack hmm about 425 okay 425 paul uh 15 bucks 15 bucks james about 510 510 this one goes to fishback it's 549 all right it's a tie paul's got one fishback three by the We only have three left. We only have four left. So let's see how this goes. A pound of ground beef, 70-30. James, pound of ground beef, 70-30.

About eight, nine bucks.

Nine bucks. Nine bucks. Okay. Jay? $7.65 a pound. $7.65. Paul? I was going to say $7.50. $7.50. This goes to Paul because it's $4.99. So there you go, Paul. You picked that one up. What? You can make a little more noise. This is good. Paul got a second one. All right. Next one. This is Florida. Five-pound bag of oranges. Five-pound bag of oranges. Jay. Let's go with about 9.75. 9.75. Okay. Paul?

I'm going to go with six bucks.

Six bucks. James?

About eight bucks.

Eight bucks. This goes to Paul at $6.50. Paul's making a comeback. By the way, we have two more left. It's down to the wire. Paul made a comeback. It's 3-3-3. Someone's going to win it now. Here we go. Monthly average car insurance payment.

Paul. Car insurance. I'm going to say monthly. Monthly. uh 100 uh monthly i would say 75 bucks okay okay monthly car insurance car insurance payment you want to change i go back yes because i'm paying monthly now so i'm going to go higher what about how about 250 250 okay jay it's 235 235 james i can tell you i'm paying more on the

insurance than I am on the car payment so it's in our case it's about 350 350 350 it's actually

181 which means this goes to Jay Jay picked it up so Jay's at four now last but not least either Jay's gonna win it or someone's gonna tie him monthly rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Florida monthly rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Florida 1700 Jay 1700

james is it statewide statewide statewide statewide it's about 1300 1300 paul i think

it's higher statewide 2400 2400 2375 1685 jay collins picks it up make some noise all right jay that's a pretty big victory right there that you had all right so let's transition to the next story byron donalds is not here he's watching his team is probably watching what message do you have for byron donalds who uh posted their numbers almost 100 million dollars they've raised uh on every poll he's ahead 48 58 percent raised 10 times more money than everybody combined these are the numbers that they're putting up there he's getting endorsement from the president and many others he's got another one today as well i believe from the ag if i'm not mistaken they made sure they put it out there to the public what message do you have for byron donalds for not

being here right now james i'll come to you first my message is pretty simple byron donalds made history this past week by raising $100 million, the most ever. Our campaign made history by being the first campaign in Florida running for governor to visit all 67 counties. That's not hard to do. That's not easy to do. And I can tell you that when you're in small counties like Liberty and Dixie and Hernando, but big counties like this one where I grew up, you really appreciate the state that we have. I'm a fourth generation Floridian born and raised. I was born right here in Broward County Public School.

my entire life here. My dad ran a small business here. My granddad, after World War II, was a professor at Florida Atlantic University up the road. And my great granddad, after World War I, ran a small hotel on Fort Lauderdale Beach. This is the greatest state in the country, and we have to keep it that way. Fantastic. Jay, how about yourself?

Look, when I talk to Byron on this, it's very clear. We had this little thing in 1776. One person doesn't get to maintain control and say they're in charge, and this is how it's going to work we don't do kings in the united states of america we sure don't do them in florida look if you can't show up on the debate stage you can't show up in the community you can't try to sit here and fight to earn the right to lead the free state of florida what are you doing if you're that far ahead you've raised that much money why are you so scared to get on the debate stage i understand it's about politics but you got to grow a spine you got to stand up and you got to fight for the people of florida guys it's that simple nothing's going to be given to you when i got shot blown up and wanted to re-qualify as a Green Beret, they didn't give it to me. I got up, I fought for it, and I earned it. It's exactly the same thing within the Governor's Mansion. If you want to be the next leader, you got to stand up, fight for it, earn it. That is the free state of Florida model.

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paul every voter in this audience everyone watching everyone in the state deserves a debate and it's disrespectful of byron donald's not to come on this stage and make his case as to why he is better able to lead the state for the next eight years But there's a reason to make the case as to why he's better qualified than the other candidates, but there's a reason he won't, because he's not. And the other thing about Byron Donalds, Patrick, you mentioned all the money he's raised. What is so offensive to me is he's raised all this money, and yet he took advantage of a Democrat-imposed constitutional amendment to take taxpayer-funding money to run his campaign. As a conservative, I was not even going to think about taking that money. He's going to get hundreds of thousands of dollars out of your pocket when you can't pay your bills with all the items we just talked about. And that is not conservative to me. It's disqualifying, and he should be ashamed of himself. But that's what's happening.

So an open-ended question. Any one of you can take it first. Why does he have such a big lead? Why do majority of Floridians count on him to be their next governor, not any one of you?

Well, I'll tell you what. With the president's endorsement, it's very clear. he came out here in march he's had a 17 month head start to many people guys why are we doing that he's been out there for this long what's the leader in the clubhouse it's not byron donald's it's undecided let's put it another way 42 percent of people have had 17 months give or to choose byron donalds and what do they do they said no they're not picking him we don't bequeath anybody you don't just get it because you want it you get it because you earn it why is he out there he's been out for a long time yes he's getting all the money yes he has endorsements but he doesn't have the will of the people and we forget history governor ronda sanus wasn't polling in first place eight years ago today adam putnam was what does history show us adam putnam putnam isn't the governor. How about eight years before that? Rick Scott. Same exact thing that was running against our attorney general, McCollum. And where do we find ourselves today? We find ourselves in the exact same position. You got to show up. You got to earn it because the free state of Florida is full of Florida guy and Florida gal. And you don't bend a knee to anybody. You stand up for

your rights and you vote how you choose. James, why do you think majority of Floridians are

choosing him over any one of you. Well, I reject the premise because you're referring to polls, the same polls that have been wrong time and time again. They were wrong about President Trump. The same exact pollsters that now say that Byron Donalds is ahead, even though you can't find somebody if your life depended on it, who loves Byron Donalds. They're now telling you, they're now telling you that Byron Donalds is the most popular guy in Florida. Here's the truth. When I travel to small counties all over the state and big counties like the one that I was raised in here in Broward. When I meet with voters, they want someone who's going to do three things. Someone who's going to fight for law and order, not someone who, like Byron Donalds, fought in 2019 to let criminals steal up to $1,000 of your stuff and get away with it. We can't have that. The only place criminals should be is rotting in jail, and Byron Donalds is the

wrong choice for that. Paul, I'm going to come to you, and I want to get your thoughts as well. Yeah, I want to respond if I could. I will come to you, and I'll share this if you want to go to it or not. Even if we look at Cal-She right now, which a lot of folks right now are looking at Cal-She more than they're looking at polls because it's real money that people are putting up. $7.9 million, almost $8 million of volume is on Cal-She, and they have Byron Donalds at 95.5%. How much of that money is from out of state?

There you go.

How much of that money is from a Middle Eastern country? Okay. That's a fair question. if I may. They're rigging it. They're rigging

the election. Hold on a second. Please. And how much of the money he's raised that you talked about is also out of state. The special interests are desperate to get rid of Ron DeSantis so they can have somebody and install someone who will do the special interest bidding, and that is Byron Donalds. Hold on a second. If you go around to the grassroots, and everybody on this stage knows this, the one thing that stands out, and it must be unlike any other election where the frontrunner or someone endorsed by the president, where the base, the activists, the people that pay the most attention to these elections do not want Byron Donalds. And I say to people, look, you can go onto my website at votrunner.com, but the more research you do, the more you're going to want me for your governor, the less you're going to want Byron Donalds for your governor. And that is the signal I see in this race, Patrick, is that the more people look at Byron, the more they walk away and they're looking for somebody

else as their next governor jay 30 seconds and i have a follow-up for all of you please

yeah look you're gonna i'm gonna reiterate the exact same thing to a degree look you go around the counties people say the same exact thing they don't want byron they love president trump they're not enamored with byron donald's they meet him they see him they hear him and they like him less moment by moment by moment the simple fact is this follow the money look at the lobby core Look at what they want. They don't want a leader who's going to stand strong for the people of Florida. They want someone who's going to bend and need a special interest, play games, and be a puppet for what's ahead. Guys, that's not the Florida way.

So the follow-up then would be for all of you is the following. It's very obvious all of you are complimentary of the governor, Governor DeSantis. Every one of you has been very complimentary of the governor. The number shows he went from the first time winning by 34,000 votes, but the second time he won by 1.5 million votes. He's done an amazing job. Everybody loves living here. Most people do. Republicans are very happy with him. I guess one of the things would be important to say is what do you think is different from Byron Donald's than the current governor, Ron DeSantis? I'll come to you first, James.

Wow. Well, we're going to need another three hours for that.

Take 60 seconds.

What is the time limit?

I actually want to hear your argument. Go for it.

Yeah. Well, the three biggest things right off the bat is that Byron Donald's took $5 million from Mark Zuckerberg to build data centers in every single neighborhood in this state. Ron DeSantis has been clear. Ron DeSantis has been clear that you're not going to build data centers in our neighborhoods. And as governor, I will reject and remove every single one of them. That's the number one difference between them. Number two, Ron DeSantis is a law and order governor. He's not the kind of guy who's going to let criminals

steal $1,000 of your stuff, and in the name of equity, get them out of jail for free. That is exactly what Byron Donalds did as a legislator in this state. And the third one, if I can be brutally honest, Byron Donalds can't serve Florida because he doesn't know what real Florida is like. If you want to fight for citrus farmers in Frostproof, in Sebring, in Avon Park, you have to have grown up in these places. I remember smelling citrus growing up in west davie i remember what cattle ranchers had 20 30 years ago byron donalds was born and raised in new york city and it shows and we need a true floridian to lead the state

thank you james yeah look look byron byron donalds is all talking points all the time he'll tell you he wants a balanced budget but in congress he's never once sponsored anything to send that out to the states for ratification. For that matter, unlike me, he's never balanced a budget in his whole time in Congress. The governor is a principled conservative, and Byron Donalds, as James just said, is taking tons of money from big tech that want to fill up our state with hyperscale data centers, and that will not happen on my watch. When I'm governor, we'll come in in a special session for affordability and stop the construction of those data centers. This is a clear issue that is distinctly against the interest of a Florida first agenda that is distinctly going to hurt our rural communities and all of our communities in driving up electric rates, in damaging our aquifer, in damaging our environment, and they know it. But Byron Donalds has been singing their tune ever since he got that money until this week. He's starting to listen to his pollsters and he realizes this is not a popular position to take my position and i think james as well has been very crystal clear we're not going to allow these data centers in our state full stop period jay specific question ronda santis

byron donalds how different will it be incredibly different the number one thing is courage and a

moral compass guys ronda santis wasn't america's governor until he stepped into the breach and protected our people and our way of life when the whole world was folding down on top of us. They muzzled our kids, they took away individual freedoms, and they crushed small business, but one man stood. Do you believe that Byron Donalds will stand and take on the onslaught of everybody else across this world? Absolutely not. He does not have that fortitude nor that courage. Number two, it's performance. Look, I'm a retired Green Beret. I served in the Senate for three years. I'm the lieutenant governor of Florida. The best indicator of future performance is past performance. And the simple fact is this. Ron DeSantis shows up, works hard, gets things done. What has Byron ever done? What has he been successful at? What has he done that's made a difference? And let's talk about data centers. Guys, we all agree. It's the hyperscalers that are the issue these experimental hyperscalers that are uh taking 50 to 100 000 a city worth of power and water up to 50 to 100 000 people that's an incredible number that's a shocking revelation but we have to protect our people it's about power it's about water and it's about clarity and performance and protection and the last thing is this look byron donald's is a two-time felon Byron Donalds, frankly, does not believe in law and order. Byron Donalds wanted to change the age of a minor from 16 to 25. That would have made career criminals. He also wanted to raise the age, the line for felonious crime from 750 to 1500. Guys, that's not the way we do this. But in the summer of love, when law enforcement were on their heels, what did Byron do? He eulogized George Floyd. It's still on his congressional website. Guys, that's not good enough. That's not the Florida way.

and i patrick if i can jump into look i talked about we need a governor let me do this for me

i'll come to you let me let me ask this question for you guys because i have three other topics to get into we have to get into ai data centers and a couple other games we're still going to play as well just a question for you so if he is let's say he's at 48 to 58 let's assume that's the number that i don't assume that's i'm gonna assume i'll take the assumption and i'll look bad myself but let's i'm gonna assume it's 48 to 58 okay if we look strictly on the republican primary side for florida what if two of you dropped out to get the percentage to go up on the other individual to go up against byron donald's would would would you entertain that idea and if not this is the next part that i kind of want to go we just went against byron donald's then we went on byron donald's compared to ronda santis but let's talk about the folks on the panel i'm going to open up the next 10 minutes for you individually to ask each other any questions it's open you're officially the moderator each of you gets to ask the other person a question and address certain

Because the audience has to decide right now, hey, if you guys continue going like this, it's done. It's slam dunk for Byron Donalds. We have to now decide which of you three can go up against them one-on-one. So I'll open it up. Who would like to go first?

Well, I think I'm answering your question is that Byron Donalds is the name you know for this reason. For the last five years in Congress, D.C. is a very dangerous place. But the most dangerous place in Washington, D.C. is between Byron Donalds and a TV camera. He has never missed an interview, but he's missed over 150 votes in his five years in Congress. Why would you give a guy a job promotion that doesn't show up for the job he has? And so we are all competing up here. And I would just point you to leadership background. Who's been tried? Who's had positions of trust in that battle-tested leader? I don't know that Byron Donalds has ever run a lemonade stand. And so voters as we get— He sold drugs, though. Well, he has made some money. And you know what, James? He's also, and you know this, he's also making a lot of money in Congress. And it's very interesting to me. He left the Florida House, not a millionaire. He goes up to Washington, D.C. He's trading $11 million worth of stock trades, missing required disclosures. And yet he comes back, and he even reports that they're worth millions of dollars. He and his wife comes back, and in his state filing as to how much he's worth, guess. We just did the eggs. Guess how much Byron Donalds is worth? $89,000. He is dead broke as a congressman. And if you believe that, you should vote for him for governor, I guess. But he is running.

Paul, I want to stay on this. That point's been clear. Thank you for that. Let's stay on the topic. I don't know that voters know that, Patrick. And I appreciate you sharing. I don't know that they know that. But we've gone 10 minutes into Byron's. And I'm telling you that. They got plenty of it, which is great. Now let's talk about the three of you. Open mic, address any question against your peers, because the audience has to now see between the three of you. Some people don't follow politics as closely as others. Some people are not following all the stories. Some people are not up on the news. What questions do you have for each other, specifically to three of you? James, please take the lead.

Jay, if they're going to build a large experimental data center in a neighborhood here in Broward County or up in Sumter County, and you had the opportunity to stop it, to ban new experimental data centers in Florida, would you do that, yes or no?

I'm not going to give you a yes or no. I'm going to give you the real answer here. Look, life is very, very clear. Well, let me finish. Here's the facts. You have to understand governance, and you have to understand that you just don't get to drop bombs. That's not how government works.

They're going to bomb our community with rising electricity rates. They're going to destroy our water. James, James.

Yeah, you're right. Yeah, I would, but not at the state level. We want to empower the local people, the local governments to do the right thing.

The local people don't want anything to do with data centers. You're absolutely right.

And they should ban that at that local level, at the city or county.

We can do it at the state level, though.

Once government starts reaching in and clawing back, it never slows down. I'm at the state level. Nobody wants the state reaching in. Do you want the federal government in your life more?

What we want is we want a leader to stand up and ban data centers in Florida. And as governor, I'll be proud to do that.

So let me be clear here, James. What you're talking about isn't a governor. Are you going to be a king? Are you going to be the king of Florida?

Listen, what is a dictatorship is a billionaire like Mark Zuckerberg running roughshod over Tallahassee saying it doesn't matter what the people think. We are going to actually build a data center that's going to destroy our communities. Jay, can I ask you yes or no question? Have there been long-term health studies done on data centers, yes or no?

Yes.

There have? There have? That's not true.

Where's the study from? I'll tell you what, James. I don't have it on me right now. Look at this. Do you see it here? Yes, there have been. Data centers just came about four years ago.

There's been no long-term health studies. I stand with RFK. We're not going to have EMF. We're not going to have audible noise pollution next to our elementary schools with Project Tamgo and certainly not next to the community in Fort Meade. Hire me as governor. We will ban every data center in all 67 counties.

Well, James, let me ask you a question. How do you think the people in the cities and counties are going to feel about the state government coming in and taking control of that? Let me finish talking, man. Please, come on. Look, the reality is they want local leadership. They want to be empowered. Yes, they do, James. They do. They want to have say in their local life. Brother, you know this. You grew up in a small town just like I did. Where was it? Where did I grow up? I think you grew up in a small town in Florida. Where did I grow up? Here in Florida. I think you called Madison home, right?

I grew up here in Florida, right? All right, case closed. Drop the lawsuit. Oh, really?

James, let me be clear on this, buddy. We're not going to discuss that, and the reality is... Why not? Why don't we discuss the fact that a Montana man hired a...

California lawyer, to sue Governor DeSantis' administration to remove a fourth-generation Floridian from your ballot. You're trying to steal the election with Byron Donalds.

Because the reality is, this isn't about large clicks. It's not about the games you play.

You literally just said, I'm from Florida, and now you're suing me because I'm not from Florida. Will you drop the lawsuit, yes or no? James, no. You're trying to steal the election like

Oh my goodness gracious. There you go again. James, you're killing me, man. The reality is this. That is a matter for the court. I actually respect the judicial system. We have to make sure that we do that the right way. James, I know you don't respect the judicial system. Your whole life has shown that. The simple facts are this. Have I been, have I been arrested? I think you're

confusing me with Byron Donalds. He's the one who's been arrested for two felonies. The simple

fact is this that is a matter for the courts we respect the judicial system and that's how that works but look when it comes when it comes to the question at hand did you respect that decision when it comes to the question at hand on the data centers you have to do black children did you defend that decision you have to james stop playing games man there you go you want to play games you want to do the things dude just stop man the data centers are an issue hyperscalers What are you going to do about it? I'm trying to tell you. Do you want to let me talk, or are you just going to keep interrupting?

Hey, Patrick, can I jump in?

I'm going to give Jay 30 seconds to respond. Can I jump in? May I? Hang on one second. Jay, I'm going to give you 30 seconds to respond. Then I'm going to go to Paul. Paul, you get to address any question to anybody else. I'm going to come to you right afterwards. Jay, go for it. Finish your thoughts, please.

Look, the simple fact is this. When it comes to data centers, you have to have guardrails. You have to lead. And the people in the state of Florida don't want the state of Florida jumping in over the top. They want to have local rule. You have to respect their ability to do the right thing and put that forward. But you have to have a backstop. You have to have the state willing to step in and make a difference. That's how government works. You don't want the federal government solving all your problems. Any government big enough to give you anything can take anything. That's the problem. That's the reality. And we all agree. When you listen to this let me be clear on this guys all three of us are very wary of hyperscalers you should be afraid they're selling you snake oil and it's a problem but we have to make sure we have guard rails because nothing in life is static it continues to evolve i want to thank kamala

harris for the word salad thank you that was pretty clear james well look first of all i don't know how much the people listening or in the audience uh care about these personal disputes if we were at a dining room table you know where the kids table is uh right now with all the back and forth, frankly. And so I do have a question for Jay, because Jay, you've said that it's not possible for the state to regulate hyperscale data centers at the state level. Why do you believe that is? And if you believe the state shouldn't be involved, why did you sponsor a bill to give them permanent tax incentives at the expense of everybody watching tonight? Well, Paul, that's a

great question. You're doing what often is the case. You're misrepresenting. The simple fact is this. I believe in local government. I believe in the local government's right to enforce and take care of business. And yeah, I did. But Paul, do you think that you've learned things? Did I run that bill? I did. But the simple fact is this. I learned you ran the bill. Paul, you let me finish or are you going to play the same games? Come on. Jeez, Louise, man. I've asked you a simple

question i'm not playing games my question is why do you think the state cannot regulate as i will and i think james will on day one as soon as my hand leaves the bible with my wife when i'm sworn in as governor we're going into a special session on affordability we will stop these hyperscale data centers and my question is if you understand florida well enough to be its governor why do you think it's not legal or constitutional to pass restrictions on a hyperscale data center we have data centers but these massive data centers there you go that drive up electric rates that damage our aquifer it is in the people's interest in a florida first agenda to pursue that why do you

believe that's not possible paul i'm pretty sure you voted for these as well and the simple fact is this not all data centers are hyperscalers i've asked you a question you refuse to answer

why do you think the state cannot regulate hyperscale data centers it's a simple i don't

think it's the state's business here i think you should push that down to the local level and let the local government step in. You should have a moratorium. They should put a pause in things, and they should. Yes or no?

Can the state regulate hyperscale data centers? This is the answer. This is the answer. This is the answer. Paul.

Let's just state the obvious. They're not serious about running against Byron Donalds. They're worried about...

me. And guys, here's the problem. No one's buying your game. You're like a walking white

paper, man. Come on. If I'm worried about you, why the hell are you suing me to remove

me from the ballot? So the last person that we need to get to is Jay. Jay, do you have any questions for either opponent? Well, I think you should answer my question before

he asks a question. Well, I haven't had an opportunity because you want to have shenanigans No, no, no, no. Answer the question. It's a simple question. I gave you a green paddle, a red paddle. It's a yes or no. Can the state regulate? No, we don't need from the peanut gallery. What can you do at the state level to regulate data centers? And if you don't believe that's possible, state it.

It's not about banning them as you go in. It's about having guardrails. You just heard it. He will not ban data centers. I will as governor.

There will not be a data center in the state of Florida. The only one playing games is you by letting Mark Zuckerberg and George Soros build data centers in our neighborhoods. Guys, give me a break on this. Good Lord. Why don't you give the people of Fort Meade and Sumter County a break? They do not want a data center.

You're right. But it's how you're doing it. Are you saying that Governor Ron DeSantis handled this wrong? Are you saying he doesn't know how to handle his business? Because what has he done? He has guardrails to the left and right. James, that's a fact. He didn't ban them. What he said is, you can't pass the cost of the power to the people, nor the water, but the reality is you have to make sure that you know who that third party is. Who's the person behind the data center? You all want to play these hyperbolic games. A little childish here, a lot childish there. Guys, the reality is, how we do this matters. Guardrails continue to grow with the problem. This is not a static environment, and things will continue. The reality is, do you believe that all data centers are exactly the same? Yes, I think they're all bad.

You think they're all bad? I just want to say this while we're going through this.

And Jay, we ran a poll of the audience that's watching. And remember, the audience that's watching this is mainly the audience that's interested in Florida. And the question is how they feel about data centers. The audience voted, 85% of the audience voted that they oppose data centers. Now that's the audience. We don't know what that means, that's what the audience is saying.

And it's time we regulate them at the state level.

Hard stop. Jay, James, respectfully, Jay, please, do you have any questions you'd like to ask your opponent?

Yeah, Paul, you know, I hear you talk about this. I'm curious, what are you going to do that's different than James? How would you work with him if he were elected governor? What would you do? Tell me about your relationship and how that's going to work.

I don't even understand your question. I'm not working with, I'm not even, I mean, I don't understand. I'm not, you're talking about a hypothetical. I'm not interested in working with anybody. I'm running to be the next governor and put Florida first.

Paul, there's clear collaboration. No, there's not. Clear collaboration. No, there's not. No, there's not.

If there were clear collaboration, we wouldn't both be on the stage right now.

I think that's obvious. Paul, there you go, man. You're killing me, Smalls. You are. Look, what I want to know is, how are you going to work with other people? Let me make it a little bit more simple here. How are you going to work with other people on this stage if they're elected governor? What would you do to support them? How are you going to make a difference with them?

I don't have to work with, I don't know what you're talking about. You're asking me to work with James.

Do you believe in our way?

Look, I hope that a Republican wins in November. Are you asking whether I'll break my back to campaign for Byron Donalds? Probably not. I'm not going to vote for a Democrat, but you said you'll break your back for him. So is that how you feel? Is that how you're going to work with him? So you're going to vote for a Democrat or you're just not going to vote? No, I'm not going to vote for a Democrat. I've never voted for a Democrat. Look, Jay, you know, it's interesting to me that you're having this conversation with James about residency. As you know, you have to live here seven years, but curiously, you've only made that requirement yourself. As of January, you only moved into the state in 2019.

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Just a quick show of hands on the stage and in the audience. Quick show of hands if you voted for Ron DeSantis in 2018. jay why didn't you vote for ronda santis in 2018 well sorry i wasn't really listening to your question did you vote for ronda santis in 2018 yes or no in 2018 yes uh that's a no that's a no

yeah so you know the fact is james i had to sit and think through my career here and i understand that you haven't done anything to go out there and actually put yourself forward to serve the people and the best thing you've done is whatever you're doing with your life right now but look man I served our nation I did for 23 years my wife did 20 years Paul did over 20 years you're the only one on the stage who actually hasn't done that so you're going to say that because I was serving my nation bleeding for our nation breaking my my butt off everywhere I went to do the right thing that that's a problem no I asked you if you voted for Ron DeSantis in 2018 That's not relevant, James, because the simple fact is this. No, it absolutely is relevant. Where was I?

Hey, and Patrick, if I can jump in, Jay did ask me a question of how I would work with a hypothetical governor in a hypothetical election, and you just said a minute ago, Byron's got this thing taken care of. But here's what I'll say. How will I work with the legislature is the same way I worked with the legislature when I was Speaker of the House. The governor said that the two years that I led the legislature in the Florida House were the most consequential two years of any legislature in America. And yet he didn't choose you to be the lieutenant governor. Don't interrupt me. Don't interrupt me. Because we had a Senate president who was much more moderate than me, and I'd take a bullet for her. She's a great lady, but much more moderate because we criticized in private and praised in public. And what I see here, Jay, look, we all appreciate your service, but what I'm questioning in your temperament tonight is your judgment. And so you have to be able to work with everyone. And we worked in United Conservatives when I was Speaker of the House, in ways that you can only pretend you have done in your 36 months in office. And so at the end of the day, you want somebody who truly is not just, and I respect your service immensely, but that's not alone a reason to make you governor. And I've outlined, look, I've been my own business owner. I've been my own business owner. I've been a prosecutor. But that's not a reason to be your next governor because I've been the most successful Speaker of the House, which is really the number two position behind the governor because you're controlling a budget, balancing the budget. I'm the only one on the stage that's balanced a budget. Byron Donald certainly has not. And so you can come in here, but at the end of the day, you know that in six months you've not gotten the governor's endorsement. All that you're consigned to right now is being a ribbon cutter because that's the only constitutional authority you have as Lieutenant Governor.

All right, so let me get to the next question. This was a good back and forth where, you know, the audience gets to decide for themselves as you went through this. Thank you for working on this with this one. Let me get to the next topic in regard to...

Hurricane preparedness. Under Governor DeSantis, Florida became a leader in hurricane response in when the Sanibel Causeway was destroyed in October of 2022. A temporary bridge opened in 15 days and full rebuilding took just over two years, setting a new benchmark for state emergency response. As governor, what investments or changes will you make to keep Florida the national model for disaster response? Paul, I'll come to you first. Well, look, and the military, we train

over and over again. And the best preparation for a crisis or an emergency is your time in the military. And so I've led that training. And again, you practice over and over again so that when the crisis comes, you act immediately without another thought. And that's what you have to do during hurricanes as well. I don't think, and you can go back in time, we've had a great series of governors that have done a great job. Rhonda Stannis certainly stands at the top of that. And so it's several things. First of all, you have to make sure that you protect the rights and freedoms of every Floridian so that in a hurricane, you're not being told that you can't transport your weapons, for example, from one place to evacuate. These kinds of things. And Governor DeSantis did that very clearly during COVID, which was one of the worst civil liberties infringement as a crisis in American history. and I will never let that happen or anything like that happen on my watch, no matter what the crisis is. But with respect to hurricane response, I would give you four things. One is a risk assessment. You need to know the severity of the risk, the locality in the case of a hurricane. And then you need resources. You need resources for first responders. And I would be asking our local emergency operations centers what they need to respond to that crisis. And then secondly, our third rather is communication a good leader communicates and that's both to the people that are on the ground working the problem but also to the public to warn them of danger that is real but also reassure them that things are under control again you want somebody who's been had a lifetime of being battle tested that can handle the worst thing that comes our way and finally express that calm in a storm thank you paul james 60 seconds

Governor DeSantis said it best when he said that the only time the average Floridian even cares who's the governor is before and after a hurricane. My grandmother, who taught English here at Plantation High School in Broward County for 20 years, she always taught me that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. We need to surge resources into communities before a storm hits. Use both the Florida National Guard, but also the Florida State Guard. I'm going to be campaigning for Amendment 1 that's going to increase the size of our rainy day fund. And I'm going to make sure that FEMA, which was found out in the last two years to deny hurricane relief to those who had Trump flags in their lawn, that is illegal discrimination. We will stand up to anyone who gets in the way of keeping our people safe after a storm. Thank you. Jay?

yeah so Governor Ron DeSantis has clearly been the leader in the clubhouse when it comes to disaster response we know he's been incredible you know we had over 50,000 power trucks lined up after uh Helene and Milton it's pretty incredible to see that you know that consequential leadership his ability to say look that bridge isn't going to take four months it's going to take three days and to get it done is incredible but what we have to do and Paul I think you hit on something that was interesting is a comms plan you have to have a pace plan a primary alternate contingency an emergency plan that's in place where people can scaffold that and make sure that in a multi jurisdictional multi-county situation you can actually communicate and work through that number two is clarity of training we have to make sure that more training is pushed down many of the cities and counties have part-time or short-staffed emergency management we got to make sure they get more information quicker to help make that work for them. And the last piece is this, guys. We all talk about it. You have to get the supplies, the food, the things on the ground quicker. We're going to have to continue to build out what Governor Ron DeSantis has started and have an echelon approach to where our things are around the state. That works. That plan has always worked. And we're going to continue to move forward on

those things. Thank you, Jay. Thank you, Jay. Next question was shared with us by Sarah Adams, former CIA targeter. She asked this question on Twitter, hostile foreign governments are using universities to gain influence through research, money, and partnerships. What will you do to eliminate foreign influence from Florida's

colleges and universities? I'll take it because I've already called for no professors, no students from any country, foreign area of concern, such as China. We let China in several years ago in these Confucius Institutes, and this is just classic academia, they stole our research because our own professors are collaborating with them on things that belong with the Department of War, that belong to the CIA, and so no Chinese students, no Chinese professors, we need to completely remove, and Jay and I worked together on the bill to stop any purchase from the CCP of land in Florida, whether it's farmland or military land. I think that bill can probably go farther, but that was a good bill that we worked on together, and we need to make sure, because this is a real threat. China's not the only one, but they certainly are the major one, and so shutting them off from the spigot of research that's happening in our public universities is job one.

Actually, James, I'll come to you next.

It's very simple. Florida colleges are paid for by the Florida taxpayers. Why then are there thousands of foreign students taking up admission spots, taking up spots in a chemistry, history, or engineering class from one of the kids in our state, a kid from Hernando County, Collier County, Lee County, Osceola, Orange, Broward, Dade, or Palm Beach? Why? We must end foreign students who are practically spies in many of our universities. I will do that as governor by raising the tuition on any foreign student to $1 million a year. When they can't pay, they can't come. And when they can't come, our kids are back in our universities, training, being motivated and educated to write the next great chapter of history right here in Florida.

Thank you, James.

James.

You know, when I joined the Army, the most exciting thing that was going on was fusion, a utilization and a better standardization of local state and federal assets it's good government government working together you also have to bring in your university system for that you have to make sure that operations training you have to make sure that communication cyber intelligence are all there we have to have clear communication better threat understanding better connectedness within all of those assets so our people at the leadership level understand that and then you have to do exactly what Governor Ron DeSantis has done and hold those people accountable but look where do we go from there the simple truth is this we all see the risk of foreign influence we all know what that looks like and what it means yes Paul you and I did a great that was a great bill and we had to stand strong on banning China but it was also the countries of concern it wasn't just the ccp it was other countries that couldn't buy real property we have to call it what it is and we have to protect our people and we have to arm them with the facts one of the things i would love to do as governor is sit down and have a conversation with the people of florida you know in a world where twitter is always moving facebook instagram all of that it's just spinning like your power meter right what can we do you remember when the president would sit there and have a conversation with America we have to address these things as governor we have to sit down and have that conversation with the people of Florida share the facts share the details and share that vision of where this is going to go and then we have to hold them accountable when they don't follow the laws that is the DeSantis way communication is the critical conduit of all of

that thank you well you know on the topic of on the topic of education you know there's a lot of things that Florida gets right, one of the areas that we have to improve as a state is education. Federal data shows Florida public schools rank second in the nation for fourth grade math. But by eighth grade, we drop to 41st. And when it comes on to SAT scores in America, we're at 48 place out of 50 states. The average SAT score in Florida is 948. What specific changes will you make to address education shortfalls in Florida? Paul, I'll come to you

first again. Well, I'll start by resetting the standards of what constitutes an A. Right now, it's far too low. It needs to be at 90%. I think it's at 60% or something. So we need to raise the bar. And with a new governor, I think it's the right time to do that, to continue to challenge our kids to greater excellence. And we need to make sure, as I did when I was speaker, to get the indoctrination out of our schools, teach reading, math, science, civics, make a high school diploma matter again by the time you walk across the stage. And the fact that we're seeing at least the positive signs, but seeing that drop off means to me that we're cluttering the educational experience with too many things that don't go to teaching the core basics of education. That's what a high school diploma ought to deliver so that you can walk off the stage and get a meaningful job. I will be committed to that again, running a Florida first agenda to make sure that We have vocational and technical training along with that math. And so we have to do all of those things. Another thing I would point to, Patrick, is the schools of education must be reformed. And by reformed, I mean, frankly, brought down, demolished, basically, and rebuilt from the ground up. Because we see very weak academics in the schools of education. We see a ton of indoctrination. So a teacher walks in really excited. She loves math. She wants to teach math. And more seconds, Paul. become basically weaponized for the left we see this over and over again so we have to have significant reform of the schools of education and focus more on the subject area not spending four years how to teach but four years about how to be a great math teacher thank you paul

thank you thank you james

take your average high school student here in florida and ask them three questions hold them out of class and ask them to point which way the Pacific Ocean is. Number two, ask them to recite the first and second amendments of the U.S. Constitution. And number three, have them walk into a Starbucks, get behind the counter, someone pays 50 bucks, have them make change. Genuinely, honestly, how many kids, even at the top high schools in our state, could answer all three of those questions? Maybe, maybe, Patrick, it has something to do with the fact that if Elon Musk came down and wanted to teach a high school physics course, he would be barred from doing so because the radical teachers unions will not let people from other fields come to teach. There is an entire group of Elon Musk's engineers, mathematicians, scientists, history buffs who want to come into our public schools and educate and motivate our kids, and they can't. But the other fact is that we've got to pay the best teachers more. Now, most teachers I know, they wake up early. They stay late. They dig into their own pockets for school supplies and lunch money. The teachers need a raise if they're doing what is expected of them. And you do that, and you do that, Patrick, for the very simple reason that a business is nothing without its employees. I'm the only business owner on the stage, and I can tell you this. When you want to retain and recruit the best employees at an investment firm, at a restaurant, or even at a school, you've got to pay them more. But to the parents out there who want not to go to the public school route, I will always defend your right that Governor DeSantis and the First Lady fought for. The Step Up program is going to the next level. I call it Step Up Squared. Here's how it works. Number one, if you have a kid here in Broward or Dade County and they're spending $15,000 a year, the school district on your kid, and you pull them out, you're going to get the full $15,000. Number two, number two, we are going to empower our homeschool families and allow them to access the same exact extracurriculars, debate team, the rest of it, so they can participate in the same way. Let's not forget, Tim Tebow was a homeschool kid who competed on a public high school team. And I'm going to defend the next generation of homeschoolers to do the same.

shay please yeah so let's look at what we have here number one we have to be aware of the cyber footprint of our kids have you ever sat back and looked at k through 12 and the cyber footprint we find our kids in guys it's scary i have an 11 and 14 year old in the house everything they do is through a third-party app everything in their life is tracked online everything is there and their frontal lobes aren't fully developed guys they're at risk everywhere they go and we have to make sure that we start decoupling from some of those apps and some of those processes. We've got to protect their safety, protect their lives and their ID. Number two, I think it's time to move towards classical education. I do. We have been slowly moving that direction under Governor Ron DeSantis. We know that classical education builds strong citizens. It gives strong fundamentals. We know that it provides them with functionality. But let's be clear, we don't just want kids to be competitive. We want Florida's kids to win. Winning matters. Losing sucks. I think we all agree with that, right? We want the best for our kids, and I don't want them to just be okay. I want them to be thought leaders, industry leaders. But you know, there's also been an inherent bias through time that you had to have a bachelor's, a master's, or a PhD to be successful in life. Guys, that's just simply not true. Whether you want to get a job, whether you want to be an entrepreneur, whether you want to go to the trades or get a bachelor's degree, it doesn't matter. We have to demand excellence in all things and that's why i think it's time to bring the trades and apprenticeship back to every single high school across the state of florida the simple fact 10 seconds is that look you can't tell me a 20-year welder can't be given a uh an instructor certification to go ahead and teach people how to do that it's a self-looking ice cream cone of success and it's the right thing

to do for the future of florida thank you jay jay i think you're absolutely right it's the kind of regulation that conservatives need to pull back on. President Reagan said it best. At the nine most terrifying words in the English language are, I'm from the government, and I'm here to help. And Jay, you know this. Paul, you know this. There is too much government regulation that prevents the kind of workers coming in to train with occupations.

licenses that locks out an entire generation of workers. If you are qualified, you should be able to do the job. I'll give you one example. Governor DeSantis this week said you should be able to sit for the bar exam, read the bar exam without having to go to law school. And I agree. There are dozens of occupations in our state where you shouldn't have to jump through all of these bureaucratic hoops, have to prove yourself. You prove yourself in the open market. That's what radical capitalists

do and i'm proud to be one thank you thank you okay let's play this game if we want to bring those panels up to everybody thumbs up thumbs down we'll go through 20 different issues and on some of them if there's uh you guys defer we may go a little bit deeper so you got it so each get one you got them everybody has one so green thumbs up red thumbs down can you show it to the audience so they can see so thumbs up thumbs down okay so i'll state an issue and you tell me if thumbs up or thumbs down eliminate property tax easy require e-verify for every employer legalize recreational marijuana expand school choice and vouchers raise public schools teachers pay which could lead to additional state spending okay you were a little bit hesitant there jay are you still sticking to a thumbs up I was listening to the whole question and making sure. That's my English. Forgive my English. Ban cell phones during school day in K-12. All right. Expand nuclear energy. Build more toll roads to reduce traffic congestion. Okay, let's stay on that. Jay, you put thumbs up. You guys put thumbs down. James, why don't you go first? Why are you thumbs down?

I don't think we need to turn Florida into a concrete jungle. I don't think we need to keep building, building, building. I grew up going to the Everglades fishing with my dad and uncle, and I can tell you this state is perfect just the way that she is. What I want to do for Florida conservation is I want to tackle the FWC head on. You got corrupt commissioners there who are not fighting for conservation. I'll remove them using my Article 4, Section 7 powers. But on toll roads in particular, why is it that the Turnpike was built 50 years ago And we're still paying for a road that we were told we were only going to pay for it to be built. And here's the fact. If you're a Florida resident, you should not have to pay to drive on our roads. Patrick, here is my commitment to the voters of Florida. As governor, I will eliminate all tolls for Florida residents. Paul, you also had thumbs down. And I just want to tell you how we're going to pay for it. Because at a time when communists like Zohran Mamdani are trying to steal money, here's how you're going to pay for it.

Make the purist. Ma'am, ma'am, respectfully, this is my show. You're interrupting. Next time, I will ask you to leave. You've done this since dinner time. One more time, I will ask them to leave. Please respect the audience here. You're the only one that's doing it, and I'm being respectful to you. I'm very tolerant, but you've crossed the line.

For the people watching at home, that's Jay Collins' wife. The other two wives are well-behaved. No, it's not Jay Collins' wife. That's actually not, James, and don't talk about my wife. No, no, it's not Jay Collins' wife, but please continue. So how do we pay for it? We pay for it by charging the tourists more. 140 million tourists drive on our roads every single year. Charge them a buck or two more so we don't have to pay to drive on our roads anymore. Okay. Thank you, Paul. Well, this is very

similar to what we did when I was speaker with Governor DeSantis, which is to give discounts to Florida residents. And to James's point, that is a way to, much like my property tax proposal, I am shifting the burden of taxation away from those who make Florida home to those who vacation here and speculate here and i think that is a a good direction to go the reason i got the red paddle is like i can't tell you we're never going to have a toll road but that's not the first place i would go and so i think it and it makes sense to give relief to our residents who especially frequent commuters who are spending hundreds of dollars a month to get to their job and again dealing with costs that are out of the world right now so give them a little bit of break we did that for a period of time to try to bring those costs down, then we can look at doing that again.

Okay, thank you, Paul.

And Jay, you put thumbs up. Why'd you put thumbs up? Yeah, so if you listen to what Paul said, he said that wouldn't be his go-to. You need to have a medium here because the fact is this, we have 23.5 million people. We have 8 to 1,200 people a day that have been moving here for ages. We've got to have a multifaceted approach that's realistic and moves people where they need to go. That's investing in things like AAM or EVTOL aircraft, which we as a state have done. We're going to be an industry leader in that. that's paving more roads making sure that people get where they want to but if you want to pay for a toll you want to pay a toll to move a little bit quicker i think you have to give that option but the fact is this and i think we all three agree on this the way the tolls work the way the debt is managed that's a problem but it's not just turning it off you can't just turn that thing off it's going to take time to limit

the bonds that is something we should all be united on to solve that problem and eventually end that but right now with our system i think you got to get people off the roads and get people moving faster have you been around miami it's we got stuck there for a while and you know what we

did when i was speaker and with the governor we paid down some of our state debt that jay's alluding to ahead of schedule and so byron donald's if you're watching you never did that in

the federal government i can promise you that okay so let's go let's go to the next one let's go to next one all right so we have we have 12 more to go through again if you want to grab your paddles because we're going back to the game with the paddles here we go require high schoolers to take a financial literacy course before graduation okay that's easy max saves lives tax incentive for young families oh sorry so your thumbs down your what kind of here's my here's my problem with a green and red is what do you mean by tax incentives you mean subsidies so let's just say he's about to make the announcement that he's having a kid right let's just say that announcement's being made making an incentive for folks that are just starting out their families because right now the birth rate is 1.58 so people are worried about having the kids because it's expensive okay i've

already done tax incentives in that respect so you are so you're thumbs up i'm agreeing now yeah

your thumbs up i am and your thumbs down no actually that's the same question okay beautiful okay subsidies are frightening once you start subsidies long term we have a problem we're chasing so your thumbs up don't do it or thumbs up do it i'm actually green on this you have to

center of a family all right that's good just a quick question can we just do a quick thumbs up thumbs down who would do paid maternity leave for working moms in florida go for it i didn't hear

that i didn't hear paid maternity paid maternity leave maternity leave from the state government

from the taxpayers yeah i'm just curious that's a fair question would you be thumbs up or thumbs down look here's what i'll here's what i'll say because the problem with this is that not

everything's a thumbs up or sure yes governor what i will say and where i agree with james on this is we have to make sure that our population is not continuing to decline. This is happening worldwide, so we do have to look for ways. And what I was referring to earlier is we eliminated the sales tax on baby diapers, baby wipes, baby strollers, to make sure that as a pro-life party, we're pro-life after the child is born as well. That's important. And so we do want to do things to help form and help family formation because the family is the original source of government, of self-government. It is critically important because if we don't have strong families, you can't build enough strong government to manage the resulting chaos.

So, Paul, does that mean if the idea makes sense, you would be open to it?

The concept broadly about incentivizing family formation, absolutely. I would be in favor of pursuing multiple different ways of looking at that. Got it. Make sure that economics is not a reason not to have a kid. Thank you, Paul. Make sure economics is not a reason.

Go ahead.

What I would say is, as a Christian, I believe that life begins at conception. I believe that to be pro-life, we have to totally end abortion in the state of Florida. And that's what I would run to do as governor. But I also believe, I also believe that it is really messed up to tell a mom who gives birth on Friday morning that she has to be at work Monday bright and early. As governor, I will institute paid maternity leave for every working mom in our state.

Okay, let's go to the next one. Next one is increased funding for Everglades restoration. Okay. Cap annual homeowner insurance rate increases. Cap? Cap. Like government caps? Yes. Okay, so capitalism. That's what that means. Require AI-generated ads to include a disclosure label. Okay. Expand Birth Futures Program. The what? Expand. The what? Bright Futures Program. It's pretty expanded right now. What is it right now? Is it 3.5 GPA with 1350 SAT? Well, there's 100%, there's 75%. It depends on what your scores are, but we have a pretty robust Bright Futures Program. So you would keep it the way it is? I would keep it the way it is. Are you thumbs up, or would you? Keep it the way it is. Keep it the way it is.

I think I'm a thumbs up on this. I think you have to keep it the way it is, but you have to expand this out to a couple of other areas. How would you expand it? Look, I want to see more movement in trades. I want to say that we have to put our money where our mouth is and stop making people feel like those in the trades are a second-class citizen. Guys, the average tradesman is 58 years old. The average farmer is 58.9. We've got to feel those things. If you eat food or you go to the bathroom, guys, you should be very worried about how that works. I want to make sure there's more opportunity, more scholarships available for those kids. Excellence has to be what we aim for in all things, to include the trades, entrepreneurship, and, yes, regular academic success. We need to do more. James. James.

I agree. We need to expand the Bright Futures program, but we have to take a bigger look at our colleges here in Florida. I want Florida colleges to look more like Hillsdale and less like Berkeley. We need kids studying science, technology, engineering, math, American history.

We don't want kids to be trained to be activists on either side. We don't want CRT or DEI in our universities. And so I would want to expand the program, but I would be open to also reducing and eliminating certain majors so that taxpayer money isn't used for kids to learn about. Let's go to the next one.

Patrick, do you mind? Sure. I'm actually, this isn't something we're going to say very often. I agree with him on part of this. Look, here's the thing. This is a miracle, folks. You've got to take your economy and align it with your education system, with the university the state schools and your high schools you got to create tunnels of excellence where they're interconnected where you make sure that you're projecting out on a one three five and ten year basis real jobs real opportunities that make a difference in their lives people want to live the american dream and that means letting them know with transparency what those opportunities look like as they move forward that's what we should be doing and i think that's exactly what

and patrick just for equal time uh on on vocational training i agree with paul i'm gonna move forward

because I need to go to the guest's three questions, please. I've given you plenty of time. Some would even say I've given you more time than the other two. Let me continue. Require government spending to be searchable online.

Absolutely. I would do it via the radical transparency. Everybody agree. 100%.

Expand vocational training at public schools. 100%. Okay, easy. Offer tax credits to businesses that hire veterans. You're thinking. What are you thinking? Do you want to take a second? I mean, you're in this business. This is what you do. Would you create an incentive?

You're asking to expand what we already have? Whatever you have right now. We have a ton of benefits for veterans. They're well-deserved. So your thumbs down, you're happy with what's out there right now. I'm happy with what we're doing. I think we have the most veteran-friendly state in America. We're going to keep it that way.

So you would say to change and upgrade what we have will be a thumbs down to you?

I don't know that there's a place for an upgrade. I mean, I think we need to encourage our veterans and work, but I don't know that we need an upgrade. All right.

Let me just say this, Patrick. The idle mind is the devil's playground. And what I fear is that so many of our brave veterans who come back from war, that they are reliving that PTSD by staring at the ceiling. They don't have an access to a job or an opportunity. And so what I would fight for is for every single vet to not just have a job in the private sector, but if you can't get a job there, let's open up internships.

This is a very strange thing. Two vets said no. One non-vet said yes.

So let me ask Jay Collins. Jay, what would you say? So look, I don't think that's the approach, but what I do think is we have to step up and do more. Look, the VA simply is too bloated, too bureaucratic, and there's too many problems. We have to make sure that we hold them accountable. I would love to press the federal government to shift how the VA works, number one. Number two, we have to go find, you know there are 700,000 veterans who have no connection to the VA in the state of Florida? We're going to have to do what I call Operation Reveille. We're going to work with nonprofits, churches, local organizations and leaders to bring them in and make sure they get the benefits but the third thing here is very simple we've got to make sure that when they transition we as a state don't leave them behind we have to work with non-profits thank you private partnerships to make that work and make sure they have that transition into a real life can i comment on where i would spend

money yeah so when i did spend money so at university of south florida we're spending right now $28 million for a study into hyperbaric oxygen treatment to cure a traumatic brain injury because we know and Jay knows very well we have a lot of veterans that have traumatic brain injury it's difficult for them to get out and take a job and so getting them right size is very very important this idea that we're going to let the VA give drugs to our veterans for the rest of their life is reprehensible we need to look for alternative treatments that actually cure the brain i believe this hyperbaric oxygen treatment study will bear fruit it will be very exciting for all of our veterans as well as anybody else thank you let me get to the next one so require

able-bodied adults receiving public benefits to meet work or training requirements fantastic uh fully ban chinese nationals from buying land in florida okay and last but not least here prioritize farmland over residential development okay thank you for that paul i'm going to come to you for this next question and we're going to go to the audience for two questions and then we'll wrap it up we are almost at the end so one of the topics that a lot of people in comment section are asking about is flock cameras i don't know if you're familiar with the flock camera so we'll talk about that florida police now uses thousands of flock safety cameras by the way one of them is literally 100 yards away from this building which are part of a hundred thousand camera national network originally used to read license plates the system now uses ai hardware that prepares for facial recognition. Police say it solves violent crimes, finds missing children, and tracks stolen cars instantly. However, civil liberties groups and residents worry about privacy. What is your stance on expanding AI surveillance networks in Florida, Paul? Well, I will stand in front of a

moving train to stop the surveillance state from developing here. the state of florida and protect civil liberties and here's what i'll tell you as an intelligence officer in afghanistan you see things that we can't talk about but you see our capacity to go after bad guys and you think that's great that we can take care of the bad guys but the problem is what happens if that same technology is turned against us and so we always have to be vigilant you know we fought a revolution for a reason to not have an overarching super surveilling government over our backs and in our homes and on the streets. And so it's one thing if you have a camera that can be deployed to capture a missing child that has been kidnapped in the moment, in the hours, in the minutes right after it's happened to stop a death, right? It's quite another thing to let that data go and be held for a week, a month, a year, be taken into AI in crunch and so truly you have a a surveillance state akin to the chinese government that is possible i'm not saying it's happening today or that our police officers aren't doing the right thing today but the point is how far do we want to go in the name of security before we lose our freedom and as once a person i think benjamin franklin famously said if we give up our our security or give up our freedom for security we will get neither and deserve neither thank you

paul thank you okay 60 seconds jay all right look number one this whole discussion is why ai has to be a state level issue it shouldn't be in control of the federal government we have to empower our governors in our local states to do that number two look the reality of flock cameras is we do pull uh criminals we do pull murderers off that but paul what you're talking about is those third party you cannot afford to have the third party information uh the third party organizations grab that information and hold that there we have to secure that in-house we have to make sure that's locked inside our organizations and controlled but paul what you said in the final line on this is that an ai surveillance state is a horrifying frightening thing i believe in our men and women in law enforcement i have talked to all of our sheriffs our local police and i will tell you they are unified that flock does make a difference it does save lives and it keeps our people safe and they are owed the time tools and training necessary to complete their mission and get back their families but they're also held accountable if that thing goes wrong or if it's misused but we have to make sure we keep that data here in our state thank you jay james as governor you will

always get a yes or no answer out of me if elected the 47th governor i would ban all flock and palantir systems in florida there are thousands of cameras pointed at schoolyards outside of churches. Can you imagine what the Democrats would have done with the flock security footage during COVID? They would have known exactly where you were. They would have tracked you day by day and Anthony Fauci and Joe Biden would have been banging on your door with a search warrant because you took your kids to the park when they said it wasn't okay. I'm the only candidate on the stage who can say that I've never taken money from Palantir, never taken money from the large AI companies. And what I'll tell you is I signed that pledge because Palantir may do good work in the Middle East may do good work in Afghanistan or Iraq, but the same weapons of war that are deployed on foreign battlefields should never, ever be aimed at American citizens on U.S. soil. We will block flock and ban Palantir and revive our civil liberties like our founding fathers would have wanted. But Patrick, Patrick, I do just want to touch up on something that Mr. Collins said. Jay, you started your answer with, quote, this is why AI should be a state-level issue. 30 minutes ago you said that ai data centers should not be banned from the state so can we get a yes or no as governor would you sign into law a full ban of experimental data centers the

james again you're playing games listen now let me finish look man it is very clear what the problem is here you want to have a perfect world that operates how it is and if all men were angels we wouldn't need government the simple fact is this it doesn't operate that way not all ai is bad you use it everyone uses it it's the reality our kids use it data centers are also something that's been around do you like communicating with people it's the hyperscalers that are the issue and what i'm talking about is federal control over something that's very complex that should not be the case it should be managed at the state level but what i'm telling you is the local governments have to be in power to make decisions. They don't want the state ruling that. Just like we're saying the Fed shouldn't step in, the state shouldn't ban those outright. That's not what Governor DeSantis has done. What he said is put guardrails in place. That is his model. That is successful right now because it continues to grow with the footprint. Paul, I'll give you 30 seconds

and I'm going to go to questions and final thoughts from you guys. Go for it. Here's the problem with what was just said is that at the local level the whole community in Fort Meade comes out and says, please don't do this to us. And the County Commission unanimously votes for it, because all they can see is the same dollar signs, the same special interests, the same special interests that are funding Byron Donald's campaign. We need leaders who will put the citizens of Florida first and not big tech. Thank you, Paul. This is a state-level question.

Let's go to the audience. We have two questions. Do we have them in front of Mike? Because I can't see. Oh, we do. Please state your name and your question. I'm going to turn on the mic, Jake. Let's try it one more time. You want to test this mic out? Maybe it's this one that you have on. Let's check this one out. Go for it. We can hear you. The mic went out, Jake. I know you can hear it. I want the audience to also hear it. Do you want to try it one more time, Jake? Or try to hold it closer to your mouth. I don't know. Okay, much better there. Go for it.

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Remove restrictions for young entrepreneurs in the state of Florida. 30 seconds each. Go for it. Sure, I'll go first.

We have regulations. Look, regulators, what do they do? They regulate. And so if you leave them to their own devices, they will continue to regulate and regulate. We have regulations that are on the books probably from the 60s and 70s. So we need to do a better job. You hear about zero-based budgeting. I like to see zero-based regulation and tear it down to its bare minimum and only have regulations that go to health and safety. Businesses need reliable rules. They need to just know what the rules are. And as long as they know that and as long as they're low, which they typically are in Florida but not always, then you can prosper but i i hear all the time when it comes to to other states that they do it better in other states where there's not the kind of um simplicity that we need to give to businesses because all of that effort all of that time all the bodies you have to put on that regulation cost money that money then gets passed along to your consumers or reduces your profits and for all those reasons we have to have whether it's a one in two out or how about a zero in three out of regulatory effort. When we look at the Tax and Budget Commission, Byron has kind of sloughed off the whole property tax debate and said, I'll send it to the commission. This would be something for them to talk about. But quite frankly, we know where we need to go, and we can look at this in partnership with the NFIB to make sure we're getting rid of every regulation that doesn't truly protect a life or has a true safety component. Thank you. Not just to regulate, to regulate.

Jay, 30 seconds, please.

Yeah, look, I think you're going to hear a lot of the same thing from everybody here. Deregulation is critical. I think we have to go through all of our statute over a four-year span and understand the second, third, and fourth order effects of all of it, clarify everything that we have to. Number two, we've got to make sure that we have Live Florida, which is a model that helps our business owners understand where everything's at. It's very hard sometimes to get critical data. That has to be an extension of commerce. And the third piece is this. I want to have radical transparency for everything that the government does. I want to have a dashboard-based system. I want to make sure that we are an ROI-driven enterprise. If things are going to be put out in the government, it has to be clear. It has to be given there and easy to access. And that's why Live Florida is such a critical thing. It empowers people to make choices.

Thank you. James. Is this something that's personally affected you?

Myself and my brothers just recently relocated from Wisconsin to Florida. You bring some cheese curds with you? That's right. So we have felt Wisconsin, and we'd like to have a governor in the state of Florida that is a champion of entrepreneurs.

Well, as a young Florida entrepreneur myself who started a business at 21, let me tell you right now that we need to do whatever it takes to inspire the next generation of businesses here, and it will be enough. Here's how you do it. Number one, we need someone who's going to work 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, who's going to work for you. I'm going to appoint a small business commissioner. The first time it's ever been done in Florida history. And their job is to answer your calls, emails, meet with entrepreneurs from Miami to Jacksonville, Jacksonville to Pensacola, and understand what you guys need. We're going to roll out the red carpet. If you want to come here and you want to hire and you want to build things and you want to write the next great chapter of American history in Florida, you are going to have a friend in me.

Beautiful. Thank you, James. All right. So we are coming to the end. each candidate 90 seconds final thoughts before we wrap it up paul i'll start off with you please

uh closing closing statements you got it you got it well listen um i've spent my entire life as a battle tested leader and when i led the legislature conservatives won every battle but ultimately this race is not about any candidate it's about every floridian which is why we've been leaning into a florida first agenda from day one and what that means is we're going to stand up for every man woman, and child that calls Florida home, that really calls Florida home. And in some ways, Florida has become a victim of our own success. With all the people moving in, we've seen the price of things skyrocket. I recently met with a woman by the name of Peggy, and she and her husband were public school teachers on fixed income, and they were contemplating after 30 years making Florida their home of leaving our state because they cannot afford the taxes, the insurance, the electric rates. And the situation for young people is very similar. I met with Megan in Miami, and she had just bought her first home, something I want to see happen when I'm governor. But she was paying two to three times what the other residents in her area were paying in property taxes because the way of our property taxes is structured. And so we need good leaders who listen. And I've been doing that to build out a Florida First agenda with our contract with Florida. I suggest you take a look at it at voterenter.com. And what we're going to do is make sure we eliminate property taxes for those who need it most, cut insurance rates by 20% and lower electric rates. We will ban at the state level hyperscale data centers, period, full stop. We will stop public corruption and inhuman trafficking. We will make sure that we are a gold standard for election integrity and also stand up for parental rights and the Second Amendment. and we will stop and reform our AI Bill of Rights that is just as strong or stronger than what was put up in this last special session. Thank you, Paul. Thank you, Paul.

Thank you. Make some noise for Paul. Thank you.

Jay. What we're discussing here is the American dream. We are the greatest nation in the history of this planet. We live in the greatest state among the 50. We should all wake up grateful every single day to be a citizen of these United States of America in living here in the great state of Florida. Friends, we can never allow the American dream to be diminished or broken down. We can't allow the next generation to have less than we do today. We have to fight for the future of this great state and this great nation. Like many veterans, I would do everything and anything to serve our state and nation again, even if

it came down to the cost of the last full measure of devotion we love that nation that much but friends this election is the time for choosing we can choose to go the easy method and allow byron donnells to pick who's going to be the next governor and just say that it's over or we can do as florida has always done and stand strong and vote for people that inspire us that make a a difference in our community and want to earn their vote. Friends, this state matters. Have you looked around the world? There is no place like America. There's no place like Florida. If we are not leading and we are not the conservative proving grounds of America, who is going to step up? Not now, not ever, will we ever let the American dream diminish. And in Florida, under my watch, friends, we'll leave it better than we got it. We'll make sure that our children have every opportunity to live their life live their dreams and imagine things that we can't even comprehend right now but more than anything else my hope and prayer is that as you move forward you know that in the free state of florida we will honor your individual liberties your rights your freedoms as we know that you make a choice and you have a voice make some noise thank you jay thank you

thank you all right james fishback 90 seconds closing thoughts please thank you patrick for hosting us thank you jay and paul i know we saw some fireworks tonight it's because all three men on this stage love this state and love our country i want to speak directly to the voters who are watching from home thank you for tuning in to tonight's important debate this election is not about the who. This election is about the what. What vision for Florida do you want? I'm going to stand up and ban data centers. I'm going to fight for our citrus growers and our cattle ranchers. I'm going to stand up for your First Amendment right and your Second Amendment right because I'm a principled conservative. Nowadays, people say they're principled conservatives, but ask them, where do they draw their principles from? Me, I draw them from two places, the U.S. Constitution and the gospel of Jesus Christ. And I believe what we need right now is a revival in this state. I've visited all 67 counties, and even though I'm the highest polling person on this stage, if I haven't heard from you, I want to hear from you tonight. My personal email is james at fishback2026.com. Send me an email, and I guarantee you're going to hear back from me. We need someone. As the sun sets on Governor DeSantis' incredible eight years, We need someone to stare down the new challenges on the horizon. And I'm asking you for the honor of a lifetime to do that for you, your family, and the state that we love.

Thank you, James. Make some noise. Let me do the following. Folks, if you're watching this, this entire thing was for you, especially the Florida audience that's watching this. Whoever you'd like to support, we have intentionally put their links to their website below. go show your vote by supporting these individuals remember we want byron donald's on this stage i think there's like 50 something days left in order for that to happen they need your support go show your support to whichever candidate this was and the discussion is still continuing on x hashtag vt debate would love to hear from you the audience you were amazing you ended up doing very good at the last 50 minutes thank you for that for all of you we have a guest that came from every single one of the different camps we have a book called future looks bright with the florida sign on the side. That's a gift for everybody for showing up. God bless everybody. Take care. Bye-bye, bye-bye.

We'll see you next time.

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