Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff and Republican Rep. Mike Collins met Thursday night for the first of two debates in Georgia’s US Senate race. The hourlong exchange quickly turned into a string of deeply personal attacks that captured just how bitter this midterm campaign has become.
The debate was moderated by Atlanta News First anchor Rick Folbaum with a panel of journalists from around the state asking questions. The candidates were pressed on tariffs, healthcare, immigration, data centers, the war in Iran, and election integrity. More often than not, they used their time to attack each other instead.
The stakes are high. Ossoff, who took office in 2021, is facing his first reelection challenge. Collins, who represents Georgia’s 10th Congressional District, won the GOP nomination in a runoff after a late endorsement from President Donald Trump. Ossoff has held a polling and fundraising edge for much of the race, including a 56% to 43% lead in a Fox News survey released over the summer.
“The trial of Mike Collins”
Ossoff set the tone early, calling the debate “the trial of Mike Collins.” From there, Ossoff returned again and again to Collins’ loyalty to Trump. He repeatedly demanded that Collins defend the president’s tariffs, which have pushed up prices across the country.
“These tariffs have crushed families and small businesses in Georgia agriculture,” Ossoff said.
Collins didn’t back away. He defended the tariffs as a way to level the playing field with countries like China.
“We have bowed down to the rest of this world and took it from companies or countries charging us tariffs over and over again,” he said. “We shouldn’t be doing that.”
Collins instead blamed persistent inflation on “Bidenomics,” which he tied to Ossoff, and called for more domestic energy production. He also credited Trump’s tax cuts with keeping more money in Georgians’ pockets.
A closed maternity ward in Collins’ own district
One of the most striking moments came during a discussion of healthcare costs, when Ossoff accused Collins of letting a labor and delivery unit in his own district close because of cuts in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
“Mike Collins and Donald Trump passed the biggest Medicaid cut in history,” Ossoff said, adding that a hospital in Collins’ district had to shut down its labor and delivery unit, “citing those Medicaid cuts.”
Ossoff was referring to St. Mary’s Sacred Heart Hospital in Lavonia, which announced last year that it would close the unit, citing the Republican Medicaid cuts as one of the reasons. The closure has become a symbol of the strain facing rural hospitals across Georgia, where many expectant mothers already drive long distances to deliver.
Collins did not address the hospital directly. Instead, he blamed rising health care costs on the Obama administration and the Affordable Care Act.
“Half the Third Reich” vs. “trust fund kid”
The most heated moments of the night came when the two men traded the kind of personal attacks that have defined the race since the summer.
Ossoff accused Collins of having “hired half the Third Reich,” a reference to the string of scandals involving Collins staffers and associates who have publicly expressed racist and antisemitic views. Among them is Collins’ son-in-law, David Alan Scheer II, who has regularly posted white nationalist content online.
“Imagine running for the US Senate while neo-Nazi propaganda is disseminated to an audience of millions from your home,” Ossoff said. Later, in an exchange over voting rights, he went further: “If John Lewis were marching today from Selma to Montgomery, Mike Collins would be grabbing a billy club.”
Asked by a moderator about his son-in-law’s posts, Collins defended his family. He noted that a man had been arrested this week, accused of threatening him and his son-in-law. “I’ve condemned racism, anti-Semitism, hate. I don’t care where the source is,” Collins said.
Few direct answers
For all the fireworks, neither candidate answered most questions directly or offered much in the way of forward-looking policy. Ossoff tied nearly every question back to Collins’ relationship with Trump. Collins, in turn, worked to paint Ossoff as a “radical” who doesn’t represent Georgia values.
The two candidates will meet again on Tuesday, Oct. 13, at the Atlanta Press Club debate, airing live at 8 p.m. on Georgia Public Broadcasting. Early in-person voting begins the same day, and Election Day is Nov. 3.
