When Gov. Ron DeSantis picked then-Sen. Jay Collins to be his Lieutenant Governor, he waxed poetic about Collins being the “Chuck Norris of Florida Politics.”
Yet as Collins’ campaign to succeed DeSantis struggles, the candidate is being left to fight an uphill battle without the Governor’s help. Asked in Collins’ hometown of Tampa whether DeSantis was ready to endorse, the Governor evaded the question.
“I think everybody knows that when I’ve got something on my mind that … I wanted people to know, that people know. So we’re not going to be shy about anything about what we’re doing,” DeSantis said.
“If I feel the need to do something, I do it. And so you guys can stand by and just watch.”
Collins has had to explain DeSantis’ unwillingness to endorse him in a race where DeSantis has already bashed front-runner Byron Donalds. Collins has even defended DeSantis by saying he had to prove he was relevant, competent and capable enough to do the job.
“If I had launched as soon as I was put in as a Lieutenant Governor, that would have not shown real success. It wouldn’t have shown that I was serious about earning the people’s trust. And frankly, I think you’ve got to stand and do that first. That’s why I spend months leading and standing and pushing on issues before I jump into the race. That’s a large part of that. You got to show you’re competent and capable first before you ask for a promotion,” he said on WFLA on April 1.
Collins said during the same interview that the appointment was essentially a soft endorsement.
“The Governor has been very clear on Day 1, when he appointed me, he said, Jay is Day 1 ready. He said, if something were to happen to me, he can step in and lead on these issues now. That’s a pretty strong endorsement stance, if you look at it that way,” Collins said.
But that “pretty strong endorsement stance” pales in comparison to DeSantis’ inability to take a stand on the succession question.
