Five days before Florida’s Republican primary, congressional candidate Dan Bilzerian posted a campaign video that depicted his Jewish opponent with horns, called him “Shylock” and praised Adolf Hitler.

In the governor’s race, Republican candidate James Fishback openly courted the young, online far right, interviewed with antisemitic podcasters and has used the antisemitic term “goyslop” in addition to racist rhetoric against his Black opponent. He is a staunch opponent and vocal critic of Israel, as is Bilzerian.

Both of them lost their races on Tuesday by wide margins. Both of them also won more than 10% of the vote. Bilzerian got 19%

In a year when antisemitism has been at the center of American political discourse, the results in Florida send a mixed message: On one hand, they represent a ringing defeat for the movement known as “Groyperism,” a shorthand for the online, antisemitic far-right movement led by, and focused on, young men. Both candidates drew lots of attention online and in the press, but it didn’t translate into actual votes.

More broadly, their defeats are the clearest example yet that while large swathes of America’s electorate have soured on Israel — and anti-Israel candidates are winning elections — classical, blatant antisemitism is still considered out of bounds. A Democrat who spouted antisemitic rhetoric lost in Texas earlier this year, and now two Republicans have lost in Florida.

On the other hand, the results aren’t totally reassuring for opponents of antisemitism. After all, “Pro-Hitler candidate loses election” is hardly a novel achievement in American politics. Neo-Nazis have lost many elections in American history — but Bilzerian got almost one-fifth of the vote.

And neither of these candidates is going away. Following the election, Fishback is celebrating his performance, claiming he exceeded expectations. Bilzerian is claiming without evidence that votes were stolen from him. Both are sure to continue building their followings online, where Fishback has more than 250,000 followers on X, and Bilzerian has more than 2 million. His antisemitic campaign ad was viewed more than 1.5 million times.

In an era when most Republicans under 50 dislike Israel, and signs abound of the growth of antisemitism among young people, Fishback and Bilzerian’s fight isn’t over.

“I don’t think that we conservatives can think the threat from the Jew-haters and racists of the far right has gone away,”........

© The Times of Israel