{"id":136381,"date":"2026-01-29T15:23:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T15:23:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/136381\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T15:23:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T15:23:14","slug":"with-jay-collins-jilted-paul-renner-plays-long-game-in-wooing-ron-desantis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/136381\/","title":{"rendered":"With Jay Collins jilted, Paul Renner plays long game in wooing Ron DeSantis"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former House Speaker\u00a0Paul Renner<\/a> knows that any path he has to the Governor\u2019s Mansion is contingent on earning the endorsement of the man in office now.<\/p>\n

To that end, he says he\u2019s willing to work and wait for Gov. Ron DeSantis<\/a> to back him in August\u2019s Republican gubernatorial Primary, he told friendly interviewer Jenna Ellis<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Renner, a Palm Coast Republican, said his rival for the Governor\u2019s support, Lt. Gov. Jay Collins, is misleading voters by claiming he\u2019s joined at the hip with DeSantis.<\/p>\n

\u201cA campaign is a monthslong job interview, and we get to observe people under pressure,\u201d Renner said. \u201cWe get to observe and look deeply into their leadership experience and their record. And, you know, I\u2019ve seen them post a lot of videos where the Governor was saying nice things that are six months old. And so our perspectives on people change over time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, DeSantis has said himself that \u201cpersonal loyalty<\/a>\u201d doesn\u2019t move him, saying a \u201cbest friend\u201d one day could be jettisoned the next.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

DeSantis used to call Collins the \u201cChuck Norris of Florida Politics,\u201d but that catchy description hasn\u2019t been used for months. Moreover, DeSantis has not endorsed Collins to succeed him, raising further questions about the former Green Beret\u2019s suitability for service in the current Governor\u2019s eyes.<\/p>\n

As DeSantis takes a wait-and-see<\/a> approach to doling out his endorsement, Renner agreed with Ellis\u2019 assertion that DeSantis has \u201cleveled the playing field\u201d in the endorsement sweepstakes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no question about it, that he\u2019s not picked anybody in this race,\u201d Renner said.<\/p>\n

Renner believes \u201cit\u2019s right for anyone in the Governor\u2019s position to wait until people start paying attention more to this race.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMany people probably are not focused on the race yet. Those of us that are in politics and active in politics are. And so as that develops and we see that this is becoming a two-person race between me and Congressman (Byron) Donalds, which I believe it is already, then at that point, we hope to obviously have the Governor\u2019s support, and most importantly, the support of true conservatives in this state.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Polls<\/a> and fundraising<\/a> show Donalds is the prohibitive front-runner, and without DeSantis\u2019 backing, it\u2019s unclear how a Donalds challenger overcomes structural advantages and the endorsement of President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

DeSantis once called Renner\u2019s candidacy \u201cill-advised\u201d and mocked him as running for \u201cGovernor of what?\u201d But DeSantis has warmed to Renner in recent comments. Time will tell how far the thaw goes, given the Governor\u2019s penchant for making friends and then forgetting them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former House Speaker\u00a0Paul Renner knows that any path he has to the Governor\u2019s Mansion is contingent on earning…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":136382,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7380,445,28,30,29,5187,7381,412],"class_list":{"0":"post-136381","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-2026-governors-race","9":"tag-byron-donalds","10":"tag-florida","11":"tag-florida-headlines","12":"tag-florida-news","13":"tag-jay-collins","14":"tag-paul-renner","15":"tag-ron-desantis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136381\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}