Republican member of Congress Randy Fine has received widespread backlash after saying that ‘we don’t want Armenians to serve in Congress’. Fine is facing an already contentious primary challenge from Dan Bilzerian, a controversial figure known for his association with the so-called ‘manosphere’, as well as for his increasing dive into antisemitism and denial of the Holocaust. Bilzerian is an ethnic Armenian and has dual citizenship.

In an interview with the Jenny Beth Show on 30 April, Fine was asked about Bilzerian, and described him as a ‘little Armenian’ and a ‘terrible antisemite’.

Fine further added that Bilzerian had said, ‘President [Donald] Trump was a pedophile rapist who should be impeached. That’s not a winning argument. It may work in Armenia, where he’s from [sic], but that’s not an argument. That’s not gonna work in the United States’.

Bilzerian was born in Florida, and only obtained Armenian citizenship in 2018.

‘We don’t want Armenians to be able to serve in Congress. But I’m not gonna lose too much sleep about it’, Fine concluded.

In response, Gev Iskayjan, the advocacy director for the prominent lobbying group the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA), said that Fine’s comments were ‘not just racist’ but ‘disqualifying’.

‘Saying Armenians shouldn’t be allowed to serve in Congress is blatant bigotry. No elected official who traffics in this kind of hate should be running for office’.

Following the initial round of backlash, Fine appeared to double down in a post on Twitter on Sunday.

The spat was the latest incident in an already nasty primary campaign.

Earlier, Bilzerian called Fine a ‘fat Jew’, and has based much of his campaign around attacking Israel and Jews, as well as Fine’s staunchly pro-Israel positions. He has also denied the Holocaust and suggested Jews were behind the 9/11 attacks and the assassination of President John F Kennedy. One of the eight ‘plans’ listed on Bilzerian’s campaign website is to ‘End Jewish Supremacy’.

For his part, Fine has a long history of making bigoted comments about Muslims, and suggested in 2025 that nuclear weapons should be dropped on Gaza. He has also used racist and Islamophobic language towards Muslim politicians in the US, such New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, whom he called ‘little more than a Muslim terrorist’, adding that his citizenship should be stripped and he ‘should be deported to the Ugandan shithole he came from’.

Fine was first elected in 2025 and is heavily favoured to win the primary scheduled for August.