Republican leaders rallied behind U.S. Rep. Mike Collins and his bid to unseat U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff Friday, after a news report that the GOP was moving money to other states to support candidates thought to be more competitive.
“I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t think that we can win the state of Georgia,” U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune said.
Politico reported Wednesday that anonymous sources who had been briefed by the leader of the National Republican Senatorial Committee had said the top Republican super PAC was shifting its focus from Georgia.
But Thune, R-S.D., said there had been “significant investment” made to encourage voter turnout for Collins and that the fund had been the biggest spender to date on that effort.
Thune, speaking with Collins at the Cross Creek Cafe in Atlanta, also dismissed Democrats’ long-running attacks against Collins over his reported connections to white supremacists.
“In any campaign there are a lot of allegations, and a lot of them turn out to be unfounded,” Thune said, adding that Ossoff’s focus on the issue was a “desperate attack” to draw attention away from his own voting record.
News outlets have reported that a former Collins chief of staff tried to use his position to get a Holocaust denier released from prison, that a former Collins staffer posted a swastika and shared an image of himself in what appeared to be a Ku Klux Klan robe, and that Collins’ son-in-law, who lives on Collins’ property, has repeatedly made social media posts that promoted white nationalism and antisemitism, sometimes with Nazi imagery.
For weeks, Ossoff has been hammering Collins over those reports. Ossoff routinely brings them up in interviews, pivoting back to the issue when answering nearly every question.
In a virtual press briefing Thursday, Ossoff responded to a reporter’s query about whether Collins had a winning strategy by running with President Donald Trump rather than distancing himself from the president like some Republican candidates in other states.
Ossoff said Collins had voted to support Trump’s war in Iran, his tariffs, and policies that he said had made health insurance premiums unaffordable.
“He is Donald Trump’s puppet, and we will be sure to remind voters of that over the next 40 days,” Ossoff said, before pivoting back to his criticism of Collins’ associations: “In addition to being Donald Trump’s puppet, Congressman Mike Collins is a known bigot with extensive ties to white nationalism and neo-Nazi ideology.”
In early August, Collins addressed the issue by saying no one speaks for him, including his son-in-law, who Collins said had no role in his campaign. Collins also said he did not “believe or support those views” and that he condemned antisemitism and racism.
Before he and Thune talked with reporters Friday, they both attended a fundraiser for Collins Thursday.
Democrats welcomed Thune to Georgia by sending a vehicle with a billboard to roll around Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.
“Thune: Denounce Collins’ neo-Nazi ties,” the billboard said.
The war with Iran is one reason Republicans elsewhere have backed away from Trump. The related rise in fuel prices have been hitting voters in the pocketbook, particularly the rise in diesel prices. Farmers use diesel to run equipment, and trucks use it to deliver produce to market.
The price increases have been hitting agricultural areas that have been strongholds for Trump. Many Republican candidates reportedly see the increases as an election problem while many Democratic candidates, Ossoff included, see a political opportunity.
“We need to end this war. And it’s a war that Donald Trump and Mike Collins lied us into,” Ossoff said.
They were lying that Iran’s nuclear program posed an imminent threat, he said. “And now Georgians are paying the price.”
Collins said Friday that he backs Trump and the attacks on Iran.
“I support the administration’s efforts to make sure that Iran never has a nuclear weapon,” Collins said. “I’ve got seven grandkids. The last thing we need to do is hand them an Iran with a nuclear weapon.”
Collins pushed back against Ossoff, blaming rising costs on the senator’s support for the policies of former President Joe Biden.
State Republican Party Chairman Josh McKoon reinforced Thune’s message about ongoing support for Collins.
“I think there’s been a lot of loose talk — as there often is around this time of year — about reshuffling of funds and priorities,” McKoon said. “But it doesn’t get any better than having the Senate majority leader in your state, in this city, letting people know he’s 100% in support of Mike Collins.”
McKoon, talking outside the cafe where Collins and Thune had just spoken with reporters, said Republicans were committed to executing the same “battle plan” they used to put Trump back in the White House in 2024.
“We’ve got hundreds of thousands of voters that voted for Donald Trump in 2024 that have never voted in a midterm election,” McKoon said. “And at the Georgia Republican Party, we are laser-focused on getting those people off the couch and in the voting booth. If we turn those people out, we’re going to win these elections.”
