Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Chris Collins is officially back on the campaign trail.
The former Buffalo area Congressman told WBEN on Wednesday that he is officially making another run to occupy a seat in the House of Representatives, this time for Florida's 19th Congressional District.
Rep. Byron Donalds, who currently serves the people of FL-19 in Washington, has officially declared his intentions to run on the Republican ballot for Florida's gubernatorial election in 2026.
"I've got my website up, CollinsFL19.com, I've got the traditional palm card, if you will," said Collins while appearing with Joe Beamer to promote his new book, "My Remarkable Life". "I've got my team back together. Chris Grant, who many people [remember] was my Chief of Staff both as county executive and for my first few years in Congress, now has his own political consulting company called Big Dog Strategies, and he's going to be my campaign consultant."
Collins served the people of the former NY-27 Congressional District in Washington from 2013 until 2019 when he was convicted in an insider trading case. He was forced to resign from his Congressional seat, and was later sentenced to 26 months in federal prison for his role in the incident.
However, Collins was pardoned by President Donald Trump after only 10 weeks into his prison sentence in December of 2020, just days before the end of the president's first term in the White House.
Collins is hopeful to get the opportunity to not only serve the people of the 19th Congressional District of Florida in the House of Representatives, but also rekindle some old connections with President Trump.
"I certainly got to know him well, and I was his chief spokesman for a period of time as a member of Congress. Ultimately, he did appoint me to be the liaison to Congress. I spent a lot of time in the White House, and had the opportunity to fly on Air Force One and so forth. Then my world cratered and crumbled, and I ended up in federal prison," Collins said. "He pardoned me on December 22 after 10 weeks of hell, but he and I go back a long time. And I'm counting on his endorsement - can't take it for granted, but have some confidence I can have that for my election campaign here."
Back in early 2016 before Trump was elected the 45th President of the United States, it was Collins who was the first in Congress to formally back him for the White House.
"The concept of 'Making America Great Again' resonated with me," Collins noted. "He was a private sector guy, as I am. And when I ran for county executive, my slogan was 'Elected Chief Executive, not a Chief Politician'. And that certainly described Donald Trump in 2016 running for president, at that point, against 12 or 14 other candidates. I understood his concept of being private sector, not a career politician, and it was very fortuitous, as it turns out."
While serving NY-27, Collins represented the most Republican district in New York, at the time. He says FL-19 is probably the most conservative Republican district in all of Florida.
As he prepares for another run for Congress, Collins says he's upset when seeing the positioning of Democrats who hate everything about President Trump. He says some of their actions in Washington make them "bold-faced liars".
"Just yesterday, Nancy Pelosi saying there's no violence in Los Angeles. What? And all of the time they were saying Joe Biden was at the top of his game, people say, 'Well, no. I'm watching him. He's stumbling, he doesn't know who people are.' People realize that Democrats are a party not aligned with basic American values," he said.
"They're rudderless, no one knows who's even their spokespeople anymore. Nationwide, we need to get our country back together, and Donald Trump's doing that, but the noise on the left, it's embarrassing. Frankly, it should be for them, because people can watch TV and see what they're seeing. Those riots in [Los Angeles] are anything but peaceful, my God. But we'll see what happens. They're not on the comeback trail, that's for sure."
If Collins is elected on the Republican ballot to represent FL-19 in Congress, he would be the first Congressman to represent two different states in the House of Representatives since Ed Foreman represented both Texas (16th district, 1963-65) and New Mexico (2nd district, 1969-71).