Gentry Collins

Gentry Collins co-founded Bright Future Iowa, a bipartisan group advocating for solar energy in Iowa, in December of 2021. He is the Chief Executive Officer of the American Free Enterprise Chamber of Commerce and a partner at CAP Public Affairs. He also co-founded NewRepublican.org, built to reshape the way Republican campaigns and party committees understand brand management.

At CAP Public Affairs, Collins has worked successfully with large-scale advocacy efforts in the healthcare, automotive, infrastructure, mental health, veterans affairs, and energy sectors. He has also managed a variety of large-scale Super PACs and Independent Expenditure Units for Senatorial and Gubernatorial campaigns around the country.

During the 2010 election cycle, Collins served as the National Political Director at the Republican National Committee, tasked with building get-out-the-vote infrastructure nationwide. Under his direction the Republican Party made more volunteer voter contacts than any other cycle in history. The unprecedented ground game in 2010 played a major role in returning a Republican majority to Congress.

Before the RNC, Collins served as the Midwestern Regional Campaign Manager for McCain-Palin 2008 where he helped carry Missouri, the only target state Senator McCain won. Prior to his post with Senator McCain, Collins served as former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney’s Iowa State Director and advisor. In that role he directed the Iowa Straw Poll and Caucus efforts. His team helped take Romney from single digits in February 2007 to national frontrunner for the Republican nomination just one year later.

During the 2006 cycle, Collins served as National Political Director for the Republican Governors Association, engaging in gubernatorial races and independent expenditure efforts in 36 states. He has also served as Executive Director and Deputy Chairman of the Republican Party of Iowa. While there he helped carry Iowa in 2004 for Bush-Cheney, one of just two states that switched from Gore in 2000 to Bush in 2004. It was also the first time a Republican won Iowa since Ronald Reagan’s 1984 re-elect.

Collins was named Politico’s ‘Top Presidential Staffer Get’ for 2012, and The New York Post has called him “ … one of the most highly regarded operatives in the party.” In 2009 he received the Liberal Arts & Sciences Young Alumnus Award from Iowa State University. Collins serves on the boards of several organizations, including Soldier Strong, First Freedom Network, Hayek Foundation for American Renewal, and Iowa State University’s Political Science Alumni Advisory Board. Collins is married with six children and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa. He is also an instrument-rated private pilot and enjoys skiing and cycling.