Former New York Rep. Chris Collins, who was pardoned by President Donald Trump in 2020 after pleading guilty to insider trading, is set to officially launch a campaign for Congress in Florida on Friday.
According to a source with direct knowledge of the announcement, Collins will launch the campaign in Florida’s 19th Congressional District, where he’ll enter a crowded Republican primary to replace Rep. Byron Donalds. His announcement will be accompanied by a six-figure ad buy set to debut during the NFL playoffs and the Super Bowl.
“We need to take our country back. We need to Make America Great Again. We need to be a country where our children and grandchildren can live the American dream like many of us did,” Collins says in the ad. “I’m Chris Collins, the original Trump conservative.”
The ad also has a clip from Trump saying, “Chris Collins, right from the beginning, he said, ‘Trump is going to win.’ Now, I love him.”
Collins was the first member of Congress to endorse Trump in 2016 when he first ran for president.
First elected to represent the Buffalo, New York, area in 2013, Collins served until 2019 when he resigned from office following a lengthy federal investigation into insider trading. He pleaded guilty to the charges in October 2019 and resigned from office. He was sentenced in January 2020 to 26 months in prison and was pardoned by Trump in December of that year.
Also running in the district is former North Carolina Rep. Madison Cawthorn, who was plagued with scandals during his only term in office, including allegations of sexual misconduct and insider trading and getting detained for attempting to bring a loaded gun onto a plane. As NOTUS previously reported, the White House and Trumpworld have no plans to back or help in the election.
Collins’ campaign, however, will be overseen by his former longtime chief of staff, Chris Grant, and his firm Big Dog Strategies, which has deep ties to Trumpworld, the source said. Grant was the general consultant to MAGA Inc., Trump’s main super PAC, in the 2024 election.
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