BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — Former U.S. Representative Chris Collins, a Republican who represented New York’s 27th Congressional District before resigning in disgrace on the day he pleaded guilty to federal insider trading charges, now hopes to return to Congress.
He’s officially running in Florida’s 19th Congressional District, which includes the Naples area in Southwest Florida, he told Joe Beamer on WBEN Wednesday morning.
“Trump’s back in office,” Collins said. “I’d like to go back and be his sidekick, if you will.”
He has hired campaign staff and has a website up and running. It boldly proclaims that he has been “standing with President Trump since day one” and accurately notes that he was the first member of Congress to endorse Trump in 2016.
Collins served about two months of his 26-month federal prison sentence before President Trump pardoned him in December 2020.
During his sentencing in federal court in Manhattan, he sobbed while apologizing to the court, his family and his constituents in Western New York, Collins said he brought shame upon himself and would disappear from public life.
The former Erie County Executive will run in the Republican primary for Congress in FL-19 next year, months after he releases a book that’s due out in December.
