This article originally appeared in the Georgia Recorder.
Democratic U.S. Sen Jon Ossoff and Republican Congressman Mike Collins met face to face on the debate stage Tuesday for their second and likely final confrontation before the Nov. 3 midterm elections.
The two candidates for Georgia’s U.S. Senate seat clashed over issues including immigration, the war in Iran and the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein at Georgia Public Broadcasting’s Atlanta studio in a fiery debate that again veered into personal attacks.
Collins, who has represented Georgia’s 10th Congressional District in the northeastern part of the state since 2023, attempted to paint Ossoff as an out-of-touch elite who is more aligned with Hollywood than Georgia.
“This is a race between Georgia and Georgetown,” Collins said. “Somebody that’s created jobs and opportunities right here in Georgia on this red clay versus a globe-trotting trust fund kid who got to the Senate and then at every turn has voted to make our life less safe, more expensive and worse off.”
Ossoff took office in 2021, flipping the seat blue after a close runoff. He targeted Collins as a “puppet” of President Donald Trump and bashed Collins for his support of the president’s tariff policy and war in Iran. Ossoff also hammered Collins over a House ethics investigation into government funds allegedly used to pay a longtime advisor’s girlfriend for work she did not do and a series of scandals involving bizarre and racist online posts from family members and former campaign staff.
Ossoff repeatedly pressed Collins to denounce his son-in-law, an online influencer who has posted antisemitic material from Collins’ property, according to the campaign.
“You stand here and say you’re going to be a champion for Black Georgians when you elevate to positions of leadership in your political organization people with ties to the Ku Klux Klan,” Ossoff said. “You want to explain that to folks across Georgia? Did you accidentally put people with Klan ties in your political organization?”
Collins has called the ethics investigation a politically motivated “nothingburger” and said he denounces all forms of hate.
Ossoff is the only incumbent Democratic senator up for reelection in a state Trump won in 2024. Bolstered by that win, some Republicans were optimistic that he could be easily defeated and his seat would help protect their Senate majority. Instead, Ossoff has maintained a steady lead in the polls, to the point where the GOP has reportedly considered moving resources to other states they feel more optimistic about. The Collins campaign denies this, pointing to million dollar-plus ad buys from Senate Republicans.
Early voting is underway for the Nov. 3 election, where voters will determine Georgia’s next U.S. senator, governor, constitutional officers like lieutenant governor and secretary of state and other down-ballot seats.
