WASHINGTON

U.S. Representative Mike Collins, the Republican nominee for Georgia's 2026 Senate race, is banking on internal polling to unseat incumbent Democrat Jon Ossoff, claiming the Democrat lacks genuine voter backing.

"We're gonna send this guy packing," Collins said, pointing to an analysis of Ossoff's campaign funding sources as evidence of weak grassroots support from Georgia voters. He did not elaborate on the specifics of that analysis.

Collins has represented Georgia's 10th congressional district since 2023. He is the son of Mac Collins, who served in the House from 1993 to 2005, giving him a family foothold in state politics.

A businessman, Collins co-founded a trucking company with his wife, Leigh Ann, in the early 1990s after graduating from Georgia State University in 1990. He also chaired a major Georgia credit union and led his local chamber of commerce before running for Congress.

Collins won election to the House in 2022 and was re-elected in 2024. During his first campaign, he made unverified claims that Joe Biden stole the 2020 election. A campaign advertisement featured Collins with a gun, stating that Donald Trump won Georgia before he fired shots at a voting machine.

The ad resurfaced in discussions of Collins' gun stance following the 2024 Apalachee High School shooting in his district. His tenure has also drawn scrutiny: both his initial chief of staff and a successor faced public criticism over personal conduct.

In December 2023, Collins voted to formalize the impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden. That year, he also called for the impeachment and resignation of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

Collins was among 71 House Republicans who voted against the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023, demonstrating his fiscal conservatism and readiness to break with bipartisan deals.

At a campaign rally in Augusta alongside fellow Republican Representative Rick Allen, Collins framed the race as "common sense vs communism crazy people" and attacked Ossoff for past support of Abdul El-Sayed, a Michigan Democrat.