Christopher Carl Collins (born May 20, 1950) is an American politician, pardoned felon, and businessman. He is a member of the Republican Party.

Collins served as president and CEO of Nuttall Gear Corporation, located in Niagara Falls, New York. In 2007, he was elected as county executive of Erie County, New York. He held that position for one term and was defeated in his 2011 bid for re-election. Collins was elected U.S. representative for New York's 27th congressional district in 2012. In 2016, Collins became the first sitting U.S. representative to endorse Donald Trump for president of the United States; he served on Trump's first presidential transition team.

Collins and his son, Cameron Collins, were arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation on August 8, 2018, and charged with insider trading and making false statements. Three days later, Collins announced that he was suspending his bid for a fourth term in Congress; however, on September 17, 2018, he resumed his re-election campaign. Collins was narrowly re-elected to Congress on November 6, 2018. On October 1, 2019, he resigned from Congress and pleaded guilty to insider trading and lying to the FBI (both felonies). Collins began serving a 26-month prison sentence in October 2020. He was pardoned by President Trump on December 22, 2020.

In 2026, Collins ran for the U.S. House of Representatives in Florida's 19th congressional district and finished fifth in the Republican primary.

Early life and education Collins was born in 1950 in Schenectady, New York, the son of Constance (Messier) and Gerald Edward Collins. Collins moved around the country with his family, as his father was transferred several times by General Electric. Collins graduated from Hendersonville High School in Hendersonville, North Carolina, in 1968.

Collins earned a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from North Carolina State University, where he was a member of the Sigma Pi fraternity, in 1972. He then earned a master's degree in business administration from the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 1975.

Collins was inducted into the North Carolina State University Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department Hall of Fame in November 2015.

Business career Collins worked as a mechanical engineer at Westinghouse Electric. Collins also served as president and CEO of Nuttall Gear Corporation located in Niagara Falls, New York. Nuttall Gear was a 1983 leveraged buyout of the Westinghouse Electric Gear Division located in Buffalo, New York. In 1997, Collins sold Nuttall to Colfax Corporation, based in Annapolis, Maryland.

Erie County Executive

Elections Collins ran for Erie County Executive in 2007 on a platform of smaller county government, lower taxes and Six Sigma. His campaign slogan was "Elect a Chief Executive, not a Chief Politician." Collins defeated Democrat James P. Keane, the deputy county executive of the Dennis Gorski administration, with 63% of the vote; his win was considered an upset.

On November 8, 2011, Collins lost his bid for re-election in a race that he was predicted to win. He was defeated by Democratic candidate Mark Poloncarz, the Erie County Comptroller. In a county with 140,000 more Democrats than Republicans, Collins won 39 of the 44 municipalities. Poloncarz won the five remaining municipalities, including the City of Buffalo, by a margin of 81% to 19%.

Tenure

When Collins became Erie County Executive, he inherited from his Republican predecessor, Joel Giambra, a nearly bankrupt county that had state-imposed fiscal control with a budget of $1.2 billion. Collins spoke for three minutes at the 2008 Republican National Convention on September 3, 2008. By June 2009, the state-imposed strict oversight of the Erie County budget ended.

Collins recruited a Six Sigma Master Black Belt from the University at Buffalo who had previously worked as an executive at Delphi to implement Lean Six Sigma across all county departments under the direction of the county executive to improve efficiency and reduce costs. The position's $115,000 salary plus associated costs was funded by a grant of taxpayer money from the Erie County Control Board.

In October 2009, Collins compared New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (who is Jewish) to Adolf Hitler, Napoleon, and the antichrist. Collins later apologized for his comments.

Collins sued the county so that he could unilaterally increase the county attorney's salary. The State Supreme Court Judge presiding over the case ruled in favor of Collins and awarded the higher salary to the incoming County Attorney.

Collins was sued by the United States Department of Justice for repeated civil rights violations of prisoners held in county facilities, including juveniles and prisoners with developmental disabilities. The Department of Justice and Erie County co-signed a stipulated settlement of dismissal in August 2011. He was also sued by the County Legislature for refusing to issue payments to Erie Community College that had been included in the county's budget.

As County Executive, Collins created the Brighter Future Fund, donating his county salary to local non-profit organizations for the first 18 months of his tenure.

In February 2008, Erie County experienced a potential Hepatitis A emergency when an infected employee handled produce at a popular supermarket. Over the course of several days, the County vaccinated and inoculated 10,000 people to protect the public.

In January 2010, two Republican Members of the New York State Assembly (including Republican Assemblyman Joseph Errigo), claimed that Collins had behaved inappropriately at Gov. David Paterson's State of the State address. According to the two assemblymembers, the event was crowded, and Collins made the following comment to a female attendee: "I'm sure if you offer someone a lap dance you can find a place to sit.""The Daily Politics", "Collins' Foot-In-Mouth Disease?", New York Daily News, December 18, 2010; retrieved January 15, 2017. Collins denied making the comment, and claimed that there was a "political smear campaign" going on against him.Zremski, Jerry, "Bellavia attacks Collins, controls Google search", The Buffalo News, June 23, 2012; retrieved January 15, 2017.

During his lame duck period as Chief Executive, Collins proposed spending $6 million to upgrade housing for polar bears at Buffalo Zoo at the same time as he proposed to lay off 155 workers.

U.S. House of Representatives Elections 1998

In 1998, Collins challenged 24-year incumbent Democratic U.S. Congressman John J. LaFalce in New York's 29th congressional district. During the campaign, Collins was one of the first congressional candidates to call for President Bill Clinton's resignation in the wake of the Monica Lewinsky scandal. LaFalce touted his record of bringing home the bacon and defeated Collins by a margin of 58% to 41%.

2012

After losing his County Executive re-election campaign in 2011, Collins initially ruled out a future bid for elected office. In January 2012, he was reported to be considering running for Congress and on March 25, 2012, Collins announced he was running in New York's newly drawn 27th Congressional District. The district had previously been the 26th District, and had long been a Republican bastion. However, Democratic Erie County Clerk Kathy Hochul won the seat in a May 2011 special election.

On June 26, 2012, Collins won the Republican primary, defeating Iraq War veteran David Bellavia by a margin of 60%–40%. Collins had the Republican and Conservative party lines for the November general election and defeated Hochul 51%–49%, a difference of 4,312 votes.

2014

Collins won re-election to a second term by defeating Democratic opponent Jim O'Donnell 72%–28%.

2016

Collins won re-election to a third term by defeating Democratic opponent Diana K. Kastenbaum 220,885 (67.7%) to 107,832 (32.3%).

2018

On August 11, following his arrest on federal charges of insider trading, Collins announced that he was suspending his reelection campaign; he added that he intended to serve out the balance of his term. Under New York election law, Collins would remain on the ballot for the November election unless he died, accepted a nomination for a different office, moved out of state, or was disqualified. According to CNN, Republican officials considered nominating him for a town clerk position; this move would allow Collins to be removed from the ballot and replaced with a different candidate. In either case, the eight Republican county chairs in the district would then select a replacement in a vote weighted by county population. Twelve Republicans were mentioned as potential replacements for Collins on the general election ballot.

On September 17, 2018, Collins reversed his decision about the upcoming election, stating that he would remain on the ballot and campaign for another term in office.

Collins was re-elected by a much narrower margin than he had been in prior years, defeating Democrat Nate McMurray, 49.1% to 48.8%.

Tenure 113th Congress Collins was sworn in on January 3, 2013. Prior to taking the oath of office, House Republican leadership appointed him to serve on both the Agriculture and Small Business committees in the 113th Congress. Soon after taking office, House Small Business Committee Chairman Sam Graves tapped Collins to chair the subcommittee on Healthcare and Technology.

On March 20, 2014, Collins chaired a field hearing, titled Expanding Broadband Access and Capabilities to Small Businesses in Rural New York. This field hearing was held at the Orleans County Legislature in Albion, New York, examining access to broadband in rural communities, and the role of the federal government in expanding these capabilities to small businesses. Following the field hearing, Collins hosted a roundtable discussion with local community leaders to continue the discussion on the importance of access to broadband in rural communities.

In announcing his committee assignments, Collins said one of his top goals as a member of Congress would be to work with his colleagues to pass a new Farm Bill. On May 15, 2013, Collins voted to approve the 2013 Farm Bill. On January 29, 2014, Collins voted to approve the Conferenced Farm Bill, known as the Agricultural Act of 2014. President Obama signed the 5 year Agricultural Act of 2014 into law on February 7, 2014.

In response to a proposal by New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo to provide state prison inmates with a publicly financed college education, Collins introduced the Kids Before Cons Act in February 2014. The bill would prohibit states from using federal funding for the purpose of providing a college degree to convicted criminals. Collins called the Governor's proposal an insult to law-abiding taxpayers who are struggling to put themselves or their children through college. Collins' bill would allow federal dollars to be used for GED and working training programs in prisons and correctional facilities. Cuomo later abandoned his proposal to use public money to fund his initiative.

Committee assignments Committee on Agriculture Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities and Risk Management Subcommittee on Horticulture, Research, Biotechnology, and Foreign Agriculture Committee on Small Business Subcommittee on Health and Technology (chair) Subcommittee on Investigations, Oversight and Regulations Committee on Science, Space and Technology Subcommittee on Research and Technology Subcommittee on Space

114th Congress