When a bullet shattered his arm during combat, Florida Lt. Gov. Jay Collins didn’t wait for an evacuation team. The former Green Beret operated on himself in the field to save his arm.
Now, after a midterm defeat that Gov. Ron DeSantis described as nearly catastrophic for Republicans, Collins says the party is badly wounded—but not finished. His advice: recover and keep fighting.
“What happens next is up to us as Republicans,” Collins said in an interview days after the losses. DeSantis has jokingly called him the “Chuck Norris of Florida politics.”
Collins said the results could prove fatal to the party if Republicans let them, but he remains committed to its principles and the country’s founding ideals. The party, he argued, needs to examine what went wrong, learn from it and refocus on serving Americans.
“Hard times happen,” he said. “Warriors and leaders get back up. That’s what we have to do now.”
For Collins, Florida’s shift from a competitive swing state to a Republican stronghold offers a model for the rest of the country. He served as DeSantis’ lieutenant governor during the final year of the governor’s second term.
Collins called Florida a proving ground for conservative policies and said Republicans in the state should help their party recover. The message, he suggested, is straightforward: take the loss, learn from it and get back to leading.
Republicans are still debating the causes of their steep national losses, including Democrats’ capture of Texas. Florida, meanwhile, has become the country’s largest Republican-leaning state and is seen as a major conservative base heading into 2028.
“Losing is tough, winning is great,” Collins said. “We need to figure out how to win again, and that’s achievable. I think Florida can be a blueprint, and we have a responsibility to lead.”
Collins pointed to his own state Senate campaign as an example of the importance of reaching voters who aren’t registered with either major party. Although Republicans turned out, he said, many unaffiliated voters did not support them. In his view, the party had not spent enough time communicating with those voters.
In his first race, in a Tampa-area district he described as not especially conservative, Collins said his campaign focused on unaffiliated and more moderate Democratic voters rather than Republicans. He won by 10 points, he recalled, while being open about his Republican affiliation and conservative views.
Collins said voters can find common ground with candidates who speak plainly and are willing to have direct conversations. He believes Republicans should be more welcoming and broaden their appeal without abandoning conservative principles.
Collins and DeSantis are both barred by term limits from continuing in their current roles after January. Collins hasn’t said what he plans to do next, whether in Florida or national politics. For now, he says, people should wait and see.
He also drew on his military service, saying he wore the American flag while serving in uniform and later while working for the state and the country. Republicans, he said, should unite once the party chooses its 2028 presidential candidate.
Collins recalled the sense of national unity after the September 11 attacks, saying Americans’ ability to work together had demonstrated the country’s strength. He argued that division leaves the nation vulnerable, while cooperation can help preserve its future.
Before deciding what comes next, Collins said, Republicans should carefully review the election results and understand what happened. As a young soldier, he said, he saw how trying to fight the previous war could be ineffective.
“Let’s not fight the last war,” he said. Republicans should assess the political landscape, identify their weaknesses and address them, he added, then move forward with determination.
