Rick Hampson

USA TODAY

NEW YORK — What did U.S. Rep. Chris Collins, the first member of Congress to endorse Donald Trump for president, see in Trump that most of his Republican House and Senate colleagues did not — and apparently still don’t?

First, he saw himself. “I’m a private sector guy, and so is he," Collins says. “The next president has to have chief executive experience. … We’re electing a chief executive, not a chief politician."

Second, he saw someone who knew what to blame for the economic fall of western New York. “There’s only one solution to the problem," Collins says. “Fair trade."

Collins represents the region between Buffalo and Rochester, which has suffered from one of the nation’s biggest industrial declines. But if the U.S. renegotiates advantages enjoyed by Chinese and other foreign companies, he says, “our jobs will come back. Every toaster you use and pair of jeans you wear can be made here again."

Last year, Collins’ definition of chief executive was expansive enough for him to support Jeb Bush’s presidential candidacy until the former governor — “Florida’s chief executive,’’ as Collins puts it — dropped out after the South Carolina primary.

Then he endorsed Bush’s arch-enemy – “a really big leap," says Kevin Hardwick, an Erie County legislator who supports John Kasich but was a Collins ally when he was county executive.

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Most Republicans were surprised. “Either Chris Collins sees something nobody else sees, or everyone else sees something that Chris doesn't," Anthony Gioia, a GOP contributor and former U.S. ambassador to Malta, told the Buffalo News.

But Collins is hardly swimming against the political tide. Trump has the support of regional GOP power broker Carl Paladino, the party’s nominee for governor in 2010. Eleven days before Collins’ endorsement, Trump won a GOP Erie County straw poll with 57%.

He’s favored to win the New York primary Tuesday and leads polls in Pennsylvania and other Northeast states with upcoming primaries. Only eight of 246 Republican House members have endorsed the front-runner, but four come from a roughly contiguous area of New York and Pennsylvania that’s suffered from globalization and associated trade agreements.

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Reaching out

Collins says Trump didn’t call him about an endorsement; he called the Trump campaign. Given Trump’s stated disdain for endorsements, he says, “We were concerned he might not want it."

He did. Trump’s campaign has named Collins co-chair of his congressional effort and of his New York state campaign. Collins also has been put to work as a Trump surrogate, appearing on national TV dozens of times.

It hasn’t always been easy. Collins disagrees with Trump’s proposed ban on Muslim immigration and deportation of millions of illegal immigrants, and he even disapproves of the front-runner’s use of foul language. “I’ve had to defend some things that were hard to comment on," he says.

He also discounts Trump’s complaints about the fairness of the convention delegate allocation process: “I have to agree (with national party leaders) that those have been the rules and those are the rules." He says Trump is merely “speaking to his base," voters who haven’t been political and don’t understand the rules.

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Collins says he can identify with Trump’s transition from business to politics.

After making a fortune building, reorganizing and managing various companies, in 2007 he was elected executive of Erie County, which has more than 900,000 residents and includes Buffalo and more than 40 of its suburbs.

Collins applied business management principles to government, reduced payroll and held down taxes. But he was defeated for re-election in 2011.

Buffalo News columnist Donn Esmonde called Collins “his own worst enemy" — a politician who was “as cuddly as a cactus and as warm-and-fuzzy as a polar cap." James Campbell, a Republican who teaches politics at the state University at Buffalo, says, “I never saw a picture of him smiling, even in his own ads."

But since winning election to Congress in 2012 in a much more Republican and conservative district, Collins seems less stiff.

Gioia, who supports Ted Cruz, says that “losing (the county race in 2011) had to be a blow, but he seems to enjoy Congress. He has a healthy humility now. He seems comfortable in his skin. … He realizes he’s not going to be speaker any time soon.’’

A political evolution

Collins acknowledges that Trump has been through a “rough patch” in his campaign, including his comment (which he later backed off) that he favored punishing women who have illegal abortions.

But now, he says, Trump is “pivoting’’ and “transitioning" to focus on general election voters.

He points to signs of Trump’s “evolution" as a candidate: hiring experts in delegation selection; appearing on a town hall meeting with family, which Collins said would “personalize" the blustery tycoon; and admitting, “he’s gotta be more careful with the words.’’

“In the private sector," on the other hand, “if someone asks you a question, you give them an answer. You’re not worried about political correctness."

Campaigning, Collins said, “has been a learning experience for Donald Trump."

As, he admits, it was for himself.

In 2012, for example, he was quoted as saying that “People now don’t die’’ from prostate and some other cancers “because of innovations … that didn’t exist 10 years ago." Critics pointed out that tens of thousands died yearly from prostate cancer alone, and that innovations Collins mentioned were introduced decades ago.

But Collins says nothing will distract voters from Trump’s message on trade, which is not one western New York — which has never recovered from the closing of Bethlehem Steel’s vast Lackawanna works decades ago – is used to hearing.

Government has responded to the trauma of de-industrialization with big projects, like a hospital, a civic center — and transfer payments for dislocated workers — Medicare, unemployment pay, Social Security — not a change in trade policy.

“People are fed up with the political speak about free trade," Collins says. “Now we’re talking about fair trade. They’ve not heard anyone speak that way because it sounds like protectionism. But there’s nothing wrong with Donald Trump saying, ‘America First.' "

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Elections 2016 | USA TODAY Network