Jay Collins

[upbeat music] Hello and welcome to Veterans Corner Radio Podcasts, information for and about veterans.

For this podcast, host Joe Mulberger has a conversation with retired United States Army First Sergeant Jay Collins.

Born during our nation's bicentennial year in rural Montana, Jay's journey through to our semi-quincentennial has been an amazing one, from service as an Army National Guard soldier, to a Green Beret, and retiring after 23 years of service.

He is the recipient of two Purple Hearts for wounds received in combat.

I'm your host, Joe Mulberger, and you're listening to Veterans Corner Radio.

Well, today it's, um, no surprise when you hear the name, but we have a true badass that we're gonna be r- having an interview with today.

We have retired United States Army First Sergeant Jay Collins with us.

Sir, welcome to today's show.

Yeah, NBC News

has James at 10.5%, Jay Collins at 25.2%, and Byron Donald's at 47.8%.

Right.

And then you had Paul Renner was fourth place.

And I don't know that Byron Donalds was his favorite going in.

I think he preferred Jay Collins.

And, you know, he's doing what Republicans should do at this point, which is to endorse the nominee.

But he I. I don't know how in the world, unless Byron just literally follows Ron DeSantis's path 100 percent, he just needs to continue doing what Ron DeSantis did.

So the other interesting thing about the most recent Florida primary on August 18th was the gubernatorial primary for the Republican Party.

And even though I think that on its surface, it seemed to be between Byron Donalds and James Fishback, I think Fishback came in third after Collins, right?

Yes, Jay Collins, a relatively no-name state senator that really had cosmically low levels of juice and aura, very aura-challenged.

Still

more than doubled up fishback, which I think was remarkable.

... himself as a conservative Republican, was demolished by a former state senator named Mike Mazzie, who started at 2% in the polls, but with Donald Trump's endorsement, uh, not only made the runoff, but then won the runoff.

We saw in Florida, where Byron Donalds, who was a endorsed candidate, uh, for governor, decimated a sitting lieutenant governor, Jay Collins, who's not a bad fellow at all, and another gadfly candidate by the name of Fishback, I still can't quite figure out, uh, and Paul Renner, who's a very formidable guy, former speaker of the house, a credible candidate, but this wasn't even close.

Donald Trump's endorsement packs more clout in American politics.

I worked for Ronald Reagan.

Then you had two figures who were generally aligned with Governor Ron DeSantis.

One is current Lieutenant Governor Jay Collins, and the other is former Florida Speaker of the House Paul Renner.

I don't know as much about Renner.

Collins, a former military guy, as I recall— was a member of the state legislature.

Trump came and endorsed Donalds.

Collins is very pro-Israel.

Full disclosure, I was at a conference once that was a sort of pro-Israel leadership conference, and I heard Jay Collins speak at it right before he announced his gubernatorial run.

Okay, so this is not an anti-Israel candidate by any means.

won the yep

um he just won the republican primary over 10 other candidates and jay collins um No, not Jay Collins.

Sorry.

Oh, I thought that was the...

... drag-out, uh, with, with, uh, Congressman, uh, Byron Donalds, uh, coming out on top a- as your nominee.

Uh, what were your... wh- what, what happens next with, uh, those other folks, like Lieutenant Governor Jay Collins, and, and, and, and former Speaker of the House Paul Renner, and, and, and even James Fishback? I mean, where, where's their role in, in, in helping, uh, you know, you all, uh, try to claim victory in November?

Well, like I said, we're in that, we're in that funny week right now af- oh, after the primary where everybody has to go lick their wounds and come back and, and try to play nice again.

Um, but, but there's a lot of hurt feelings along the way.