Sophie Rain won a five-figure bet on Tuesday night as Republican Rep. Byron Donalds bested James Fishback in Florida’s governor primary, putting an end to the campaign of a candidate whose policy called for a 50% tax on half of her income.
“looks like i am keeping my money,” she tweeted, adding two emojis of herself laughing heartily.
Donalds, a Trump-backed Naples congressman, won the Republican nomination with around 48% of the votes, based on incomplete results. Fishback came third with roughly 10%, behind Lt. Gov. Jay Collins with about 25%. Paul Renner, Florida House Speaker, took fourth with 9%.
In November, Donalds will run for office against David Jolly, a winner of the Democratic primary with some 61% of the votes needed to succeed term-limited Ron DeSantis as Florida’s governor.
The story of the bet dates back to April, during an appearance on “Piers Morgan Uncensored,” when Fishback and Rain argued over the latter’s proposal to impose a 50% “sin tax” on adult-content creators in Florida.
While the interview went on, Morgan offered Fishback a bet for charity of £10,000, worth some $13,000, that he would not win the governorship of Florida.
“I don’t want you giving money to abortion clinics, Piers!” Fishback responded.
While watching the interaction unfold, Rain tweeted: “i will match that bet.”
With Fishback’s loss in the Republican primary, Rain’s position has become clear.
The confrontation between the 23-year-old adult content creator and the 31-year-old financier started in January when Fishback called on Rain in a tweet asking her to “pay up or quit OnlyFans,” saying that as the governor, he will not allow “a generation of smart and capable young women to sell their bodies online.”
As Rainfire tweeted soon: “sounds like you subscribed and got buyers remorse after dropping your annual salary on an OF girl.”
She said she already paid 37% in federal taxes and wondered why adult content creators are targeted, especially since Florida has no personal income tax.
“I would be more than happy to pay that, if multi-billion dollar corporations were also being properly taxed,” she said. “But surprise, they’re not.”
On Morgan’s show, Rain called the policy “ridiculous.”
“Florida already has no income state tax. It doesn’t exist,” she said. “So, it seems very selective and it seems like it’s a punishment.”
However, Fishback rejected such claims.
“It’s not a punishment at all. What it is is a deterrent,” he said, claiming the state “was better off when young women aspired to be teachers, small business owners, doctors, and lawyers rather than creating adult content.” He also explained the tax revenues would fund teachers’ salaries and children’s lunches.
However, she told Holly Madison on a podcast that producers told her Morgan would give her a one-on-one interview.
“They straight up lied to me,” she said. “It was so embarrassing. I looked so confused because I was.”
But she believes the confrontation turned out to have a good outcome: “It ended up being really good because Piers Morgan was on my side.”
Fishback, born in Florida and founder of an investment company, entered the race as an outsider with his attention-grabbing idea of “DOGE dividend” payments funded by cuts in federal spending.
With endorsement from Tucker Carlson and support among young online conservatives, Fishback never came close to Donalds in public polls.
Also, his campaign was notorious due to his racial remarks about Donalds, who is black, calling him a “slave” to special interests and saying that he wants to turn Florida into a “Section 8 ghetto”.
Donalds, supported by Trump and a war chest approaching $100 million, led all major polls of this race from day one.
