Jay Collins may be the “Chuck Norris of Florida politics.” But he’s not yet the Governor’s preferred successor.
Gov. Ron DeSantis says the new Lieutenant Governor could be a strong candidate in 2026. But the current Governor continues to balance his support for his latest appointee with the still-live possibility of First Lady Casey DeSantis running for the same office, while suggesting there’s plenty of time to resolve the issue.
“Politics will take care of itself. I mean, we have a whole year before we even have a Primary, and so that’s a lifetime in politics,” DeSantis said while speaking at the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office.
The Governor’s comments left open a lot of possibilities between now and qualifying for next year’s elections, depicting the Tampa Republican he elevated as someone who could catch on with voters as a potential opponent to current front-runner U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, but offering no guarantees.
“I have confidence that he could do the job as Governor and do it well,” DeSantis said of Collins. “Now, when you talk about someone running, you know, there’s people that could be a good Governor who may not be able to be a good candidate. There are some candidates who could be good, who’d be lousy Governors. It doesn’t necessarily go one or the other, right?”
That said, DeSantis gave Collins a strong performance review from Tuesday’s appointment event, saying “a lot of people that didn’t know much about him were really blown away by his story” and that DeSantis is “happy to have him as part of the administration.”
“We put out a video, they just kind of introduce him. People are like, ‘Man, that’s our guy.’ So he definitely has the ingredients of what it would take to be a compelling candidate that can grab attention,” the Governor added.
Regarding the First Lady, the Governor said “people have asked her to do things because they know she’s a dynamic speaker, very eloquent, very accomplished,” but added that being Governor is “not anything she … has ever outwardly sought.”
Furthermore, the First Lady was “excited and inspired with what we saw yesterday when Jay was announced.”
“So she’s going to be serving, continuing to help make a difference, in one way or another,” the Governor said.
Casey DeSantis said earlier this Summer that people were “tired of politics” when reporters asked if she would run.
Regardless of whether people are tired of politics or not, the First Lady, the Governor and the new LG will have decisions to make soon.
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