The Democratic senator hit GOP Rep. Collins over accusations of ties to white nationalists. “You’ve hired half the Third Reich,” Ossoff said.
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Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Georgia) and his Republican challenger, Rep. Mike Collins, exchanged attacks on the debate stage Thursday over inflation, health care and Collins’s associations with people who have expressed white nationalist views.
Collins sought to tie Ossoff to his party’s left wing, saying the senator has promoted progressive candidates whose views are at odds with those of many of his constituents in Georgia.
The hour-long debate, which took place in Atlanta, was hosted by Atlanta News First and Gray Media. It marked the first of two times Ossoff and Collins will meet ahead of the Nov. 3 election. They will face off again on Tuesday. Early voting starts Oct. 13 in Georgia.
Here are our takeaways:
Ossoff attacked Collins over his ties to people accused of embracing white supremacy or making racist and antisemitic remarks.
“Mike Collins has brought dishonor to our state through his personal bigotry and his widely documented ties to white nationalists,” Ossoff said in his opening remarks.
The Washington Post reported in August that a former staffer for Collins shared images in June and July on his X account of a swastika and one that depicted himself in Ku Klux Klan robes. CNN reported in July that Collins’s son-in-law, David Alan Scheer II, has shared Nazi imagery online.
Collins has faced scrutiny over his own social media feed where he has shared posts that were called racist and antisemitic.
“You’ve hired half the Third Reich to staff your congressional office and you have promoted neo-Nazi content online,” Ossoff told Collins. “If John Lewis were marching today from Selma to Montgomery, Mike Collins would be grabbing a billy club.”
When asked by one of the debate moderators how he talks to his family at the dinner table about his son-in-law’s social media posts, Collins did not directly answer but said he has “condemned racism, antisemitism, hate.”
Collins labeled Ossoff a “radical,” slamming the senator over his endorsement of Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic candidate for Senate in Michigan who has embraced progressive policies and who is an outspoken critic of Israel.
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“Imagine being a U.S. senator and out there recruiting, endorsing and supporting these people,” Collins said. “They want to see Israel wiped off the map.”
Ossoff pressed Collins on his backing of President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which included cuts to Medicaid and the nation’s largest food assistance program.
“If you want to understand whether the Trump-Collins budget has helped you, just go fill up a tank of gas,” Ossoff said. “Diesel prices are at their all-time high in American history under Mike Collins and Donald Trump. It costs more than ever to buy a tractor for your farm, or to plant an acre of cotton.”
The two lawmakers also clashed over rising health care costs, and the closures of rural hospitals in Georgia. While touting Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill, Collins said the measure brought funding to rural hospitals and blamed the closures on Democrats’ policies, including the Affordable Care Act. He suggested Ossoff wouldn’t understand what it’s like to worry about health care costs because he was born in a wealthy family.
For Ossoff, the debate was an opportunity to address a national audience as speculation swirls about whether he might seek to run for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2028.
Ossoff is seen by many Democrats as one the party’s most effective messengers. Throughout the night, Ossoff put Trump’s policies at the center of his attacks on Collins.
“Diesel is up 70 percent since Donald Trump was elected president,” Ossoff said. “Ground beef and coffee are up 30 percent. These tariffs have crushed families and small businesses and Georgia agriculture. The war in Iran has sent gas prices near their all-time high.”
He also criticized the tactics of the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement under Trump.
“They promised to go after the worst of the worst. Instead, they’ve rounded up people at jobsites, with no suspicion of any criminal history,” Ossoff said.
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