Florida gubernatorial candidate Jay Collins, the lieutenant governor, is proposing strict measures against artificial intelligence (AI) expansion; however, it appears that during his time as a state senator, he was a vocal proponent of AI.
Collins has proposed a “Florida Strong Plan” that would heavily regulate AI data centers by requiring operators to fund their own infrastructure needs.
The Collins War Room has made AI a key issue to attack the Trump-endorsed candidate, Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL):
The Collins War Room video portrays a dystopian future created by the rise of the burgeoning technology.
“Please don’t allow any more data centers. My electricity bill has already gone up four times and we don’t have any more clean water,” a man pleads to an AI version of Donalds.
However, despite this aggressive anti-AI stance, Collins was a vocal supporter of AI during his time in the state Senate.
In 2025, Collins advocated for SB 1264 that created tax incentives for AI data centers and removed the sunset provision on tax exemptions for data centers.
In March 2025, he said that the continuation of the tax exemptions would entice “significant investment (in) job creation to communities, both directly through the data centers and indirectly through customers they serve.”
“We’re talking about mega-watt, it’s a huge investment… and they need time to plan,” Collins said.
“For us to be competitive they want to make sure that ultimately the landscape isn’t going to get ripped out from underneath them,” he said.
He even claimed that bringing data centers to the Sunshine State would create significant revenue.
“So even if we hit one out of three, that’s a significant investment in our future,” he said later that year.
“Shameless hypocrisy from a desperate single-digits candidate who is painfully aware that political irrelevancy is right around the corner,” a source familiar with the Florida Republican primary commented to Breitbart News.
A spokesperson for Collins’ campaign told Breitbart News in a written statement, “There’s no contradiction. This is the Free State of Florida, and Jay isn’t out to stifle the private sector. He wants growth and innovation on Florida’s terms: meet real thresholds, protect the grid, and don’t stick families with the bill. That’s the DeSantis standard: build here, but build on Florida’s terms, and Jay is running to carry it forward.”
The spokesperson added, “It’s worth noting that this story surfaces as the AI industry spends $5 million to elect his opponent.”