BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — Nearly seven years after Chris Collins resigned from Congress in disgrace, the former Western New York congressman is asking voters to send him back to Washington.
Just not from Western New York.
Collins is on the Republican primary ballot Tuesday in Florida’s 19th Congressional District, which stretches from Fort Myers to Naples along the Gulf Coast.
For Western New York political observers, it is a remarkable second act for a man who once said he expected to disappear from public life after admitting to federal felonies.
"This is a guy who said he’d never show his face in public again," said WKBW anchor and investigative reporter Ed Drantch.
The Collins comeback began with one of the most stunning political scandals in Western New York's recent history.
From the White House lawn to federal prison
In August 2018, Collins was arrested and accused of using insider information about an Australian biotechnology company, Innate Immunotherapeutics, to tip his son about the failure of a clinical drug trial.
The information came to Collins while he was attending a congressional event on the White House lawn in June 2017.
Collins called his son, Cameron, and prosecutors said Cameron subsequently sold Innate shares before the bad news became public.
Collins maintained his innocence throughout his 2018 re-election campaign. Despite the indictment, voters narrowly sent him back to Congress for another term that November.
"I am absolutely innocent," Collins told 7 News two days after winning re-election. "And I will be exonerated."
Less than a year later, his position changed dramatically. In October 2019, Collins pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit securities fraud and making false statements to federal investigators.
Then came his sentencing.
Drantch and I were both in the courtroom in January 2020 when Collins was sentenced to 26 months in federal prison. The man who had once insisted he would be exonerated was now accepting responsibility before a federal judge.
"I am standing here, probably the last time I will do anything in public," Collins told the judge. "I left Buffalo. I cannot face my constituents. People feel sorry for me. They shouldn’t. I did what I did."
"It was stunning to me to see the emotion," Drantch recalled.
Prison, pardon and a new explanation
After delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Collins reported to a federal prison camp in Florida in October 2020.
He described the experience to 7 News Political Analyst Bob McCarthy at the time as "very, very awful."
McCarthy said the experience represented an extraordinary fall for a man accustomed to a very different life.
"Here’s a guy who lives in a $7 million mansion in Marco Island, Florida," McCarthy said. "Here’s a guy who lived out in Spaulding Lake in Clarence in a beautiful home ... So this must have been the most degrading experience of his life, which is what prison is for everybody, but for him especially."
WATCH: Disgraced former WNY Congressman running in Florida
Collins served about 10 weeks before President Donald Trump pardoned him in December 2020.
Afterward, Collins increasingly portrayed the prosecution differently, arguing prosecutors had pressured him by pursuing his son.
In his book, My Remarkable Life, Collins wrote: "I had been persecuted and pressured into pleading guilty to a felony I would never have been convicted of in court."
That account represents a significant evolution from what Collins told the judge at his sentencing, when he said he was accepting responsibility for his actions.
From shame to a political comeback
Now, Collins is attempting something he once said he would never do again: return to public life.
He has turned the scandal that ended his congressional career into the launching pad for another run at Congress.
"It’s about two things: ego and redemption," McCarthy said. "He just figures that he has to do this to restore his reputation."
That comeback, however, faces significant obstacles.
Collins is one in a crowded field of Republican candidates seeking the nomination in Florida’s 19th District to replace incumbent Rep. Byron Donalds, who left the seat to run for governor.
Recent polling has shown Collins trailing several of his opponents, while outside groups have targeted him with attack ads, labeling him "Crooked Chris Collins".
He has also faced criticism for being a carpetbagger and technically lives outside the district lines.
McCarthy said that's why Collins is focused on pointing out he was the first member of Congress to endorse President Trump back during the 2016 campaign.
"He’s got money, he’s got MAGA and he’s got the Trump name," McCarthy said.
But in a major blow, President Trump recently endorsed one of Collins' opponents.
"Catalina Lauf has my Complete and Total Endorsement to be the next Congresswoman from Florida’s 19th Congressional District — SHE WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN!" President Trump said on Truth Social.
Collins declined a request for an interview this weekend.
“He said, ‘Sorry.’ He said, ‘I’m not giving any interviews. I’m just going to live this day by day till we get through it,’” McCarthy explained.
Florida voters will have the final say Tuesday.
The winner of the Republican primary is heavily favored to win the seat in November, giving Collins a chance to complete one of the more unlikely political comebacks in recent Western New York history.
