TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) – The state senate seat once held by Lt. Gov. Jay Collins is currently unoccupied. In response, a resident of Tampa has initiated legal action to urge Gov. Ron DeSantis to declare a special election for the vacant Hillsborough County position.

“The governor will address the matter when deemed appropriate,” Collins commented.

The Democratic Party views this vacancy as an opportunity to claim the seat in the upcoming election cycle.

“When I campaigned for the seat, it was considered a D+3 district. I managed to secure victory by 10 points. My strategy involved extensive door-to-door canvassing, meeting people at their level and understanding their circumstances,” Collins explained.

Collins noted that his campaign successfully swayed Democratic voters and also attracted support from individuals with No Party Affiliation in a district traditionally leaning towards Democrats.

Now, his sights may be set on the governor’s mansion.

“We are, I would say, coming into the final stages of making our decision,” Collins said.  

It’s a decision that he hopes will also come with the governor’s endorsement.

Online political website Florida Politics previously reported that an announcement was expected on October 1^st.  But a month before, the website published a report that showed a leaked text exchange between Collins and State Rep. Alex Andrade, who led the initial Hope Florida investigation.

Collins and the republican lawmaker seemingly agreed DeSantis has a high functioning form of autism. The governor has not publicly addressed the text exchange or the speculation from Collins and Andrade.

“I will never go quietly and allow those to be used as pejorative and negatives against people,” Collins said.

Collins said he was defending the governor, even commending the governor’s work as leader of the state. Andrade and Collins deny leaking it to the online publication. Collins even questions the reasons someone wanted the private exchange public.

“It’s repugnant. It’s wrong. I condemn their actions wholly and completely. I will always defend people,” Collins said.

The lt. governor also supports First Lady Casey DeSantis and her signature welfare charity, the Hope Florida initiative. However, he did not want to comment on a grand jury convening to investigate the Hope Florida Foundation, which is the fundraising arm for the initiative.

Collins has been making stops throughout Florida holding news conferences on a variety of topics and supporting several initiatives. He wants to be an active leader, as the governor’s right-hand man.

“Someone who unequivocally supports our governor, supports our people, and is going to be very aggressive on the ground to establish this is a new norm,” Collins said.

Collins has been helping lead in the state’s immigration enforcement effort, even traveling to California in August to help extradite a deadly crash suspect, he said, is in the country illegally. He stands by his administration’s efforts involving immigration.

“It doesn’t mean we don’t have empathy. This means that we have to follow through with what we told them we were going to do. People ran on the ballot to solve these problems. If they aren’t putting those words into action, what are they doing?,” Collins said.

Another key issue of his is getting counties and cities to reduce or eliminate property tax on primary homes and getting a measure on the ballot to make it permanent.

“6% TO 8% of the property tax dollars that come from the property tax at large come from homesteaded properties. That’s generally about the number per county. That’s not a huge number. That’s solvable,” Collins said.  

That’s where, Collins said, the Florida DOGE comes in to help.

“What we are trying to do is make sure we identify areas for conversation, understand there are gaps that could potentially be rolled back, and those savings could be passed on,” Collins said.  

Democrats have argued that the focus should be on property insurance, in fear cities and counties could risk a loss of essential services if there’s reform to property tax collection.

“Property insurance, there are things that happen federally that are far beyond our control,” Collins said. But the Lt. governor argues Florida’s efforts to crack down on excessive lawsuits against insurers in 2023 are bringing down costs. He also said there are now more than 15 insurers in the state, which is up from roughly 2 or 3 at one point.