Gov. Ron DeSantis says Kevin Guthrie has resigned his position leading Florida’s Division of Emergency Management (DEM) in light of the announcement that he is the running mate of Lt. Gov. Jay Collins in the Governor’s race.
DeSantis said Jared Perdue, the current Secretary of Florida’s Department of Transportation, will be taking over Guthrie’s former role.
While DeSantis said Guthrie did a “great job” managing a “robust” portfolio that included hurricane response, distribution of monoclonal antibody treatments during the pandemic, and immigration enforcement, he also affirmed that Guthrie made a choice that forced a change in leadership.
“If people want to choose politics, more power to them. I didn’t necessarily think that was something that Kevin aspired to, but given that he’s doing that, I think it’s important that we have emergency management just focused on emergency management. So I have accepted his resignation as the Director of the Division of Emergency Management,” DeSantis said.
DeSantis, who did not endorse Collins or any other candidate in the Governor’s race, said the “well-oiled machine” at DEM “wouldn’t miss a beat” before making it clear that a political run was a deal-breaker for this particular appointed official.
“I don’t want to be in a situation where there’s politics and emergency management. I think you got to choose one or the other. And so this is something that I think he believed in and wanted to do, and I wish him all the luck in the world,” DeSantis said.
It’s exceedingly unlikely that Collins emerges from the Primary, where U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds is heavily favored.
Guthrie spent much of his career in DEM, becoming Chief of Staff under former Gov. Rick Scott after having guided a major city and a more rural county in similar functions. The first day for Guthrie on the job was the day Hurricane Michael made landfall in North Florida, devastating the Panhandle and Big Bend region.
DeSantis tapped him to be Deputy Director in 2019 under current U.S. Rep. Jared Moskowitz. DeSantis then elevated Guthrie, the former Emergency Preparedness Coordinator with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office and Flagler County Public Safety and Emergency Management Director, to the top job in 2021.
Assuming Collins doesn’t win, Guthrie’s job prospects are murky in Florida and D.C.
Neither Donalds nor Democrat David Jolly, the likely General Election opponents, are likely to have much to do with him now given his political play.
As plugged-in Marc Caputo noted on social media, Guthrie was considered to head the Federal Emergency Management Agency, but a White House source said Trump was underwhelmed by him.
Collins has clashed with members of the Governor’s team since soon after his appointment to the LG role, with his ambitions for his boss’s job being the reasons why. With his campaign coming to a close, the Tampa Republican and former state Senator has managed to do damage yet again, forcing an organizational scramble with just months to go in this administration and just weeks to go before September and October storm uncertainty.
A.G. Gancarski has been the Northeast Florida correspondent for Florida Politics since 2014. His work also can be seen in the Washington Post, the New York Post, the Washington Times, and National Review, among other publications. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter: @AGGancarski
August 18, 2026 at 5:56 pm
Running mate for Collins will be a short-lived role, LOL!
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