Lt. Gov. Jay Collins on why he'd be 'day one ready' as Florida's governor and more

The 2026 gubernatorial race is a crowded one, with more than 40 people eyeing the governor's mansion.

Current Lt. Gov. Jay Collins is one of them. The Tampa Republican is a decorated U.S. Army Special Forces combat veteran. As a Green Beret, he served in Iraq, South America and Afghanistan. He sustained injuries that would eventually lead to him losing a leg. Following his amputation, he served five more years, according to his campaign bio.

Collins was elected to the Florida Senate in 2022, representing part of Hillsborough County. He was appointed lieutenant governor last year.

Some prominent Republican contenders he's facing in this year's race include Congressman Byron Donalds (who is endorsed by President Donald Trump), former House Speaker Paul Renner and investor James Fishback. Those on the Democratic side include Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings and former Republican congressman turned Democrat David Jolly.

On "Florida Matters Live & Local," Collins explains why he thinks he's the best person for the job, his passion for helping veterans transition into the workforce and more.

The interview below was edited for clarity and brevity.

Why do you want to be the next governor of Florida?

It's important to know that this was never my dream.

Five years ago, I wasn't even in politics. I've been in politics for less than four years.

I've been a warrior and a leader my entire life. But here in Florida, we have 23 and a half million people, $1.8 trillion economy, the 14th largest in our planet.

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You've got to have somebody who's Day One ready. I am. I've been tested and tried, whether in business, in combat, or in my role in the Senate, and now as lieutenant governor. I'm the only person with executive office experience, and you got to be Day One ready.

There is no time for a warm-up.

I came into this race late. We're trickling up. And in the end, people get to choose.

Pick the person who's not going to be overcome by events the first time something goes wrong. You need someone who's got experience, who's ready and stands by to lead our people.

Florida is home to a lot of veterans. Nearly 1.4 million, but 106,000 of them live below the federal poverty line. What would you do to help lift those veterans out of poverty?

There are several things. First off, you have just under 1.5 million veterans, 1.2 million spouses, 2.2 million children of veterans, and an undetermined amount of people who are somewhat related veteran community from there. It's an incredible thing.

We are an incredibly and inherently veteran-friendly and focused state, so it's something near and dear to my heart for sure. So, as a 23-year veteran, my wife is also a veteran. We take this incredibly seriously.

When I got into the Senate, I had a four-year strategy for what I wanted to do with veterans. I wanted to find ways to bring them here and put them in connection as they transition with leaders in our community.

So I helped develop our Florida Department of Veterans Affairs Modernization Act to help them get recruited by our companies, by our state, and come in here and connect them with the right type of employers.

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I would love to see more opportunity using our SkillBridge Program, which is a federal program that helps draw people and gives a six-month internship and connects them with our community, businesses. Those types of things continue to happen. We've got our foot on the gas there.

I would love to see us as a state lean in and help drive and guide the discussion in terms of how we transition veterans. I think there's a lot more attention that could be tied into it in terms of nonprofits and for-profits partnering together to solve that exit strategy.

Sometimes people fall through the gaps, and unfortunately, that happens more than we want. But in the end, we've got to reward our veterans — people who signed their name on that dotted line — and provide them real opportunity, whether it's rebranding themselves through education, a bachelor's, master's, PhD or more opportunity in the trades.

This is a growing state. There's growing opportunity. We got to have room at the table for our veterans as they transition.

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We got to be a little less stoic sometimes. One of the biggest problems that I encounter across the state — and I talked directly to my veteran friends about this — is that you got to stop being stoic. You got to ask for help when you need it.

I didn't know what I didn't know, and when I transitioned, I was very worried about what opportunities I was going to have. I was an Army Green Beret. I did some pretty interesting things around the planet, but there was no direct correlation to what I wanted to do or what I thought I could do, necessarily.

I would encourage our business leaders to come together, whether it's in forums, opportunities in job building and job creation symposiums.

Give our veterans a chance. Understand that yes, they've been to combat, yes, they've seen hard things, but those moments don't define them.

They come out of this — more often than not — focused, driven and ready to solve complex problems, because they've been put out there solving those problems all over our planet. That's just a few of the things we can do for veterans, and we have been doing — whether in the Senate or as lieutenant governor.

What would you do Day One if you're elected governor to help Floridians kind of get a hand up and make a better life for themselves?

It's actually probably the No. 1 thing we hear from people every day across the state of Florida. I want to refocus the affordability conversation just a hair.

The American dream, and what I believe is American Exceptionalism, is not predicated on just getting by. It's on raising that up — bringing more opportunity, getting higher-paid jobs and salaries.

To do that, I think Marco Rubio talked about this 15 years ago in one of his first books. You've got to bring in more manufacturing, more of those mid-tier jobs. The average tradesman is 58 years old in Florida right now. That's a real issue.

I have a bachelor's. I have a master's [degree]. Nothing wrong with that, but not everybody wants to do that.

You've got to inject more opportunity for the younger people in trades and things like that. So those who want to go into other roles have those opportunities as well. We've got to bring in partners and businesses that raise the roof and bring in more real, long-term, stable, paying jobs — high-paying jobs.

You can listen to the full interview in the media player above. This article was compiled from an interview conducted by Matthew Peddie for "Florida Matters Live & Local." You can listen to the full episode here.

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