Collins blasts Ossoff, talks immigration in Columbus ahead of GOP primary runoff
Two weeks ahead of the Republican primary runoff election for a spot in the Senate race against U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, U.S. Rep. Mike Collins (R-Ga.) visited Columbus for a meet-and-greet Monday at the Doubletree Hotel.
Collins faces former football coach Derek Dooley in the runoff. Collins garnered 41% of the Georgia Republican primary vote May 19. Dooley received 30%, and Eric Carter 25%. With no candidate winning a majority, the race advanced to a runoff between the top two finishers.
Originally from Jackson, Georgia, Collins founded a trucking company in the 1990s. He has served as the representative for Georgia’s 10th Congressional District since 2023. Collins’ father, former U.S. Congressman Michael “Mac” Collins (R-Ga.), represented the northern part of Columbus in Georgia’s 3rd Congressional District in the House of Representatives from 1993 to 2003.
After capturing 61.1% of the Republican primary vote in Muscogee County last month, Collins said he stopped in the city to connect with the large veteran community in the area.
“The veterans here in this community understand that one of the main reasons I’m up there is for our veteran community to make sure that they get everything that they were promised and they are owed,” Collins said.
Collins has been campaigning for the Senate amid several internal controversies. The congressman last week fired one of his aides after a Mike Collins campaign account posted a controversial comment about a woman who accused former NBC Today Show host Matt Lauer of assault.
Collins denounced the post. He also faces a House Ethics Committee probe over the misuse of government funds to allegedly pay former chief of staff Brandon Phillips and Phillips’ girlfriend. When questioned about the investigation at a May 31 primary debate, Collins dismissed the investigation as a “nothing burger.”
Having branded himself as a “conservative workhorse,” Collins reiterated his commitment to conservative values and supporting President Donald Trump’s policies during his speech before 30 people at the Doubletree Hotel.
He affirmed his support of Georgia’s heartbeat law for abortions and spoke about what he believes is the threat of immigrants taking American jobs, citing the awarding of commercial drivers licenses to noncitizens working in the trucking industry as an example.
“That is a prime example of how these foreigners breaking into our country are killing our country,” Collins said.
Instead of speaking about Dooley during his Columbus visit, Collins criticized the incumbent senator he hopes to run against this fall. This midterm race is the only Democrat-held Senate seat up for re-election in a state Trump won in 2024, making the race key in the partisan fight for control of the Senate.
Collins told the crowd Ossoff’s campaign has been funded by “those crazy people” in California and New York and questioned the veracity of Ossoff’s election wins.
“This guy ain’t ever had a real job in his life,” Collins said. “This guy shouldn’t even be there. He didn’t win that race. He doesn’t represent us. He doesn’t represent anything about the state of Georgia.”
In an interview with the Ledger-Enquirer at the event before Collins spoke, former Muscogee GOP chairman Alton Russell said Collins would be a “conservative voice in the U.S. Senate, which we don’t have now” if he were to win the runoff and go on to beat Ossoff.
Russell also praised Collins’ perspective on the state of Georgia.
“We need somebody that’s gonna look out for Columbus,” Russell said. “I think Mike Collins will. He’s not an Atlanta person. It’s not that that’s bad or good. It’s just that he will think that Columbus is an important part of Georgia.”