Florida Lt. Gov. Jay Collins has a message for a Republican Party lying bloodied on the field after a midterm cycle that Gov. Ron DeSantis called a "near extinction-level" event: get up.
Collins, a wounded combat veteran and Green Beret whom DeSantis dubbed the "Chuck Norris of Florida politics," told Fox News Digital in an interview just days after the midterm "bloodbath" that the GOP's path forward is a choice between collapse and resilience. The interview was published Wednesday, two hours before this report.
"Where we go from here is up to us as a Republican Party," Collins said. "This can be a definitive death blow if we allow it to be, but I believe in what we stand for."
He continued: "I believe in our Constitution. I believe in our founding fathers' vision. I believe that God blessed this nation. I think we have to knuckle down, learn, apply this, and we have come out with a relentless dedication and fury to focus on what matters: To lead our state, to lead our country, and be what we need to be for the American people. That is what we should choose to do."
Collins' biography is the metaphor. When an insurgent's bullet shattered his arm in combat, the Green Beret performed emergency surgery on himself to save the limb rather than wait for an evacuation team. He learned to walk on a prosthetic leg. After Tuesday's elections, he sees a national party in the same position.
"Hard times happen. Warriors, leaders get up and fight. That's what we have to do now," he said.
FLORIDA AS THE ROAD MAP
Collins served as DeSantis' No. 2 during the final year of the governor's two four-year terms, and he pointed to Florida as the model Republicans should study rather than abandon.
"Florida's been the road map," Collins said. "I think we've been what I call the conservative proving grounds. I think that it's time for many here in Florida to use our voice and to be out there and help our party get back on their feet. Be resilient. Yeah, man, you got popped. You got hurt. Get back up, dust it off, and let's go lead. Let's learn."
The national picture Collins is responding to is grim for Republicans. Democrats won landslide midterm victories, including capturing Texas, according to Fox News Digital's reporting. Congressional Republicans are scrambling to assign blame for the losses.
Florida was the lone red flag still flying. Voters there elected Rep. Byron Donalds as the state's first Black governor and Ashley Moody to the U.S. Senate, though both won by margins under 3%, according to The Guardian. The outlet reported that Democratic upsets in South Carolina, Texas, Ohio and elsewhere framed the Florida results, and described the state as facing political retrenchment as President Trump's power wanes nationally during the final two years of a lame-duck presidency.
The Guardian also reported that Florida Democrats are unexpectedly rejuvenated, making even the Sunshine State's Republican victories feel less like a mandate than a hold.
DEMOCRATS' CELEBRATION MAY BE SHORT-LIVED
The left's midterm landslide has come with a complication. The Daily Mail reported Wednesday that bitter divisions are already threatening to tear the new Democratic congressional majority apart as a flood of divided new lawmakers pours into Washington. Democrats have celebrated wildly since the victory, the outlet reported, but are set for a brutal reality check.
Collins' advice to his own party — learn, apply, stay true to conservative values and reach more voters — arrives as Republicans decide whether the midterm rout was a message to change principles or a message to change tactics.
Our Take
Jay Collins is not a consultant with a PowerPoint or a think-tank fellow with a book to sell. He is a Green Beret who cut into his own arm to keep it, and a lieutenant governor who watched his state's governor build the most copied conservative agenda in America. When a man like that says the party got popped and needs to get back up, Republicans should listen.
The GOP's instinct after a loss is to panic, purge and rebrand — to decide the Constitution is the problem and the base is the enemy. That is the coward's version of learning. Collins is offering the warrior's version: learn from the loss, apply the lessons, and keep fighting for the same principles with more skill.
Florida is the proof it works. Donalds and Moody won while Republicans across the map were getting wiped out, because Florida has spent years actually governing conservatively instead of apologizing for it.
Meanwhile, Democrats are already knifing each other over the spoils of a majority they barely understand they won. Their celebration is a countdown.
So here is the question for every Republican officeholder and every patriot who knocked doors this cycle: Will you get up and fight like a warrior, or will you lie there and let the Left call it a death blow?
