Gubernatorial candidate Jay Collins is pushing back against accusations his wife attacked Gov. Ron DeSantis online for not endorsing his candidacy. Collins denied his wife had anything to do with the posts during a campaign stop Tuesday in St. Petersburg.
Christina Pushaw, the governor's communications specialist, posted on X that Layla Collins, the candidate's wife, attacked DeSantis through anonymous online accounts.
Layla Collins is a member of the Florida Board of Education.
Multiple X accounts critical of DeSantis were deactivated after the accusation.
Jay Collins says they found no proof of his wife's involvement, including no texts showing she reset her password. You can choose not to receive a text when resetting your password on X and instead get an email.
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"I can tell you, not my wife, not her account, and as proof we went through her entire text," he said. "So when you reset a password, it creates a text message, an SMS (the technology used to send text messages). And that shows on your text log. On that day, my wife's phone received zero text messages. That's not a hyperbolic statement. That's the truth that came from AT&T."
"It's unfortunate what goes on on Twitter," Collins said, "but Twitter is not real life, last I checked."
Gov. DeSantis appointed Collins his lieutenant governor, but he has declined to endorse anyone in the race.
Also on Tuesday, a judge set a date for a lawsuit that will soon decide whether one of Collins' challengers for the Republican nomination for governor can stay on the ballot.
A Leon County judge set a hearing for July 21 and 22 on whether James Fishback meets the qualifying requirement to have lived in Florida for at least the past seven years.
Collins filed the suit, saying he's trying to uphold the integrity of the election.
"If we don't have faith in our fair elections, there's a problem," he said. "That is the most fundamental part and the most fundamental thing that we can talk about and protect."
Fishback denies having his primary residence out of state, saying he only had a temporary home in Washington, D.C.
