Florida CFO Jimmy Patronis says he is “excited” and ready to launch his 2022 reelection bid and that his loyalty for President Donald Trump is unwavering.
In an exclusive sit down interview with The Floridian, an emotional CFO Patronis said that after the personal struggles his family endured, and having to deal with the aftermath of Hurricane Michael in 2018, whoever Democrats run against him will have to kill him in order to take “the coolest job ever” away from him.
“So, I mean there's been some there's been some emotional experiences for me that we had on the campaign trail,” said Patronis. Whether it be, you know in 2018 in the final stretch Katie's fighting breast cancer, Hurricane Michael, you name it, it was a full year, and sh*t, if that didn't kill me in 2018, nothing's going to kill me now.”
Patronis added, “whoever wants to come and challenge me, I say bring it. You know they're going to have kill me to take it from me.”
Patronis pointed to the gesture and commitment to rebuilding that Trump made when he traveled to his hometown and promised to rebuild storm-damaged Tyndall Air Force Base, adding that the former president could have easily made the case to closed the base because “we can spread the missions out about other installations around the United States," but chose to help Floridians rebuild.
"I think Trump will still be the flavor of the day in 2022, he is a citizen of the state of Florida and there's no question that I've got a loyalty to the president —how hard he worked and helped the state of Florida,” said Patronis.
"Yeah you know he was my president, and I don't shy away from that.” CFO Jimmy Patronis
The Job
“What's the coolest element of this job is being able to take my 10-year-old and 12-year-old with me to see things, my attitude was you know. Governor Scott asked me then to do this job and I went and asked my wife for permission — first, she signed off, and then I told us it well make sure the boys get an experience of a lifetime.
And they’re going to get to see things that they wouldn’t have got to see otherwise. And over the next 18 months we drove 90,000 miles, we spent an enormous amount of money, lived in a lot of Hotel rooms, the boys thought it was camping out, but you know and they were all about getting to go and they would both have done at one time or another, they wanted to introduce their dad.
So I mean there's been some emotional experiences for me that we had on the campaign trail whether it be, you know in 2018 in the final stretch Katie's fighting breast cancer hurricane Michael, you name it it was a full year and sh*t if that didn't kill me in 2018 nothing’s going to kill me now.”
