Once-obscure Rep. Chris Collins sees his star rise with Trump

WASHINGTON — Rep. Chris Collins was sitting in an eye doctor’s chair in Clarence, N.Y., a couple weeks ago when he got an unexpected call from a blocked number. It was President Trump, wanting to know how things were going and whether his people were treating Collins well.

The stunned eye doctor wondered whether telling his wife would break any patient privacy laws.

“I said, don’t worry,” Collins recalled in an interview. “You go home and tell your wife that your patient talked to the president.”

A year ago, Collins was simply a congressman representing western New York and the Finger Lakes with no leadership roles or national profile to speak of.

That all changed after Feb. 24, 2016, when he became known as the first member of Congress to endorse Trump.

Since then, Collins served at Trump’s behest as the congressional liaison to the transition team. And he became one of Trump’s top defenders in more than 200 national television appearances.

Before Trump, “He was kind of a back-bench Republican — solid, but not noteworthy on any particular grounds,” said James Campbell, a University at Buffalo political science professor.

Now he is a partner to the president.

“The president appreciates loyalty,” said Nick Langworthy, Erie County GOP chairman. “I think they forged a relationship very early on and that’s continued, and it will provide a strong partnership in governing.”

Never mind Trump’s challenges with courts, nominees, leaders of allied nations or allegations of Russian influence. Trump gets an “A-plus-plus” rating from Collins, who says Republicans who are concerned should just “chill out.”

Collins' regular defenses of Trump have even gotten him mocked on late night comedy shows. But Collins shrugs that off.

“If you can’t get up in the morning and laugh at yourself, don’t get out of bed,” he said.

In the past month, Collins’ loyalty has yielded personal rewards. He boasts that he was the only rank-and-file member invited to the private lunch after Trump’s inauguration. And he and other early supporters — the “Trump caucus,” as he calls them — got to spend an hour with Trump in the White House last week. Collins, who sat beside Trump, arranged the meeting after Trump suggested getting "the team back together” during the call Collins received in the eye doctor's chair.

“I really appreciate you folks, you folks have been so great, right from the beginning,” Trump said of those early supporters in the Roosevelt Room, including Reps. Tom Reed of New York, Duncan Hunter of California, Scott DesJarlais of Tennessee and others.

Collins said the meeting with supporters was a way for Trump to “relax.”

“He knows we’re all in 100%, have been from Day One, defending him, promoting his agenda and his accomplishments,” he said.

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He views his relationship with Trump as an asset for his district.

“If push comes to shove, I can get a message into the president or his Cabinet pretty quickly,” he said during an interview.

Collins initially endorsed former Florida governor Jeb Bush in the 2016 presidential primary but made a quick pivot to Trump days after Bush dropped out and began work to assemble the Trump caucus.

“They share a lot of philosophies on the direction of the country, things like trade and our efforts to bring jobs back to Western New York,” Langworthy said.

Like Trump, Collins became a politician after decades in the private sector and he still retains controversial ties to his business dealings, including his role as a director and majority shareholder of an Australian biotechnology company, Innate Immunotherapeutics.

He and Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, a former Georgia congressman, purchased stock in that company last year, transactions that raised questions about “insider trading” during Price’s confirmation hearing. Collins also authored a measure, pending before Congress at the time of the purchase, to speed up clinical trials of drugs. Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., filed a complaint with the Securities and Exchange Commission, asking the commission to investigate possible insider trading by Price and Collins.

But Collins says there is no news in those transactions. He's invested in the company for years and says he constantly brags to everyone about it. His involvement has been cleared by ethics officials, and the stock purchase was “no special deal.” He told Price about the non-public stock offering but didn’t encourage him to invest.

Former Erie County Democratic chairman Len Lenihan said Collins has been “incredibly arrogant” in dealing with his constituents. Collins hasn’t adequately addressed concerns about his stock trades, he has refused to hold town hall meetings, and he has dismissed concerns about Trump’s administration on a range of issues, he said.

But even Lenihan admits that such grievances aren’t likely to impact Collins politically. Trump won the reliably red district by nearly 60%, the highest percentage in the state, and Collins was re-elected by nearly 68%.

“He’s got an extremely gerrymandered district and the fact is, he can probably get away with what he’s doing,” Lenihan said.