{"id":374223,"date":"2026-08-18T02:00:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T02:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/374223\/"},"modified":"2026-08-18T02:00:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T02:00:11","slug":"hours-before-election-day-jay-collins-taps-kevin-guthrie-for-running-mate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/374223\/","title":{"rendered":"Hours before Election Day, Jay Collins taps Kevin Guthrie for running mate"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lt. Gov. Jay Collins<\/a> will run with Division of Emergency Management<\/a>\u00a0(DEM<\/a>) Director\u00a0Kevin Guthrie<\/a>,\u00a0should he get the Republican nomination for Governor.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve seen Kevin operate when the stakes are real, and I know exactly who I want beside me when Florida faces its next challenge,\u201d Collins said.<\/p>\n

Collins\u2019 campaign promoted \u201ca top official in the Ron DeSantis<\/a> administration\u201d would be running with him, and in Guthrie he delivered, choosing someone known for a no-nonsense approach to handling disasters in the state throughout his career.<\/p>\n

\u201cKevin and I didn\u2019t meet at a fundraiser. We met on a mission. He\u2019s spent his career running toward the problem, from 23 years in law enforcement to leading Florida through hurricanes, disasters, and some of our toughest moments,\u201d Collins said on X, acknowledging that history.<\/p>\n

Guthrie has spent much of his career in DEM, becoming Chief of Staff under former Gov.\u00a0Rick Scott\u00a0after having guided a major city and a more rural county in similar functions. The\u00a0first day for Guthrie on the job was the day\u00a0Hurricane Michael<\/a>\u00a0made landfall in North Florida, devastating the Panhandle and Big Bend region.<\/p>\n

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

DeSantis tapped him to be Deputy Director in 2019 under current U.S. Rep.\u00a0Jared Moskowitz. DeSantis then elevated Guthrie, the former Emergency Preparedness Coordinator with the Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Office and Flagler County Public Safety and Emergency Management Director, to the top job in 2021.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I say this ticket backs law enforcement, one of us carried a badge in Jacksonville for 23 years,\u201d Collins said. \u201cWhen we talk about protecting Florida, we mean protecting our communities, our infrastructure and our people. Kevin has spent his career doing exactly that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guthrie was also key to the administration\u2019s efforts in mass vaccinations against COVID, with the state\u2019s \u201cSeniors First\u201d approach to inoculation at the center of the public health strategy. More recently, he played a central role in immigration detention efforts at \u201cAlligator Alcatraz.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis office will not be ceremonial. Together, we will protect our infrastructure, protect our people, and make sure Florida is ready for whatever comes next. Kevin Guthrie is an operator ready to serve, ready to lead, and ready to continue the mission,\u201d Collins added.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m an operator at the end of the day,\u201d Guthrie said. \u201cI\u2019ve spent my career solving problems, responding when people need help and getting the job done. I\u2019m honored to join Jay in this mission and ready to serve the people of Florida.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

The choice from inside the administration comes as Collins has faced battles with Executive Office of the Governor staff, related to his seeming belief that his appointment last year by DeSantis would lend him the Governor\u2019s political operation and capital.<\/p>\n

Allegations swirled about how he regarded trusted DeSantis staffer Taryn Fenske<\/a> as a traitor for not getting the Governor\u2019s donors and supporters to back him months after DeSantis plucked him from the Senate. Collins denied that.<\/p>\n

Further allegations swirled about how Second Lady Layla Collins<\/a> used burner social media accounts to attack the Governor.<\/p>\n

And then there was a text message thread with state Rep. Alex Andrade<\/a> where Collins seemed to agree with the loquacious lawmaker that DeSantis is on the autism spectrum.<\/p>\n

Also, there was the ill-advised decision to attack Republican mega-donor\u00a0Ken Griffin<\/a> for backing Donalds<\/a>, the likely nominee. The dirty delete may have vaporized the offensive social media post, but questions swirled about the decision to blame a volunteer who somehow took control of the LG\u2019s X account.<\/p>\n

Collins has tried and failed to get DeSantis to endorse him, and has offered various rationalizations of why that mission failed. At one point, the LG said the Governor was leery of a \u201cproxy war\u201d with\u00a0Donald Trump<\/a>. Our sources say DeSantis wanted to see if Collins could prove himself as LG. In that context, the silence speaks volumes.<\/p>\n

Indeed, DeSantis has expressed frustration that the candidate he most aligns with, House Speaker\u00a0Paul Renner<\/a>, could have been a \u201cgood Governor\u201d but was unable to get traction in the state, with many media markets and a high financial threshold for real viability, particularly with low-information voters.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, DeSantis and Collins haven\u2019t appeared together since April.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lt. Gov. Jay Collins will run with Division of Emergency Management\u00a0(DEM) Director\u00a0Kevin Guthrie,\u00a0should he get the Republican nomination…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":374224,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[150974,5187,412,232,234,233,150975],"class_list":["post-374223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tallahassee","tag-2026-florida-governors-race","tag-jay-collins","tag-ron-desantis","tag-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee-headlines","tag-tallahassee-news","tag-taryn-fenske"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374223","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=374223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374223\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/374224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=374223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=374223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=374223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}