Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA) accused Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) of treating his Georgia Senate seat as a stepping stone toward a 2028 presidential campaign, during an appearance on Breitbart News Saturday.
“In six years, nobody questioned him about his radical votes that he took or why he was taking them. We’re doing that now, and we’re exposing, the real fact is this guy is running for president. He is using Georgia as a platform. That’s it. He doesn’t care what we think or how our values are,” Collins said.
Collins pointed to Ossoff’s fundraising base as evidence of outside influence on the race. “His money — where it comes from: only 20 percent of his money comes from Georgia. The people of Georgia don’t agree with this mess, so he has to go and get these far-left activists out of California and New York to help him fund his campaign,” Collins said. “Jon Ossoff wants to be the DSA (Democratic Socialists of America) candidate for the president in 2028. He’s going to take that mantle from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) who he votes 90 percent of the time with. He’s going to run with it. Georgia’s just here for him to raise money off of. That’s it.”
The Georgia Senate contest is expected to be close and could factor into which party controls the chamber during the back half of President Donald Trump’s second term. Ossoff, elected in 2021, has previously been labeled the “most vulnerable” Senate Democrat up for reelection. Collins, who represents Georgia’s 10th congressional district and has toured all 159 of the state’s counties during his campaign, built a career running a trucking company before entering politics and helped lead passage of the Laken Riley Act, which Trump signed into law in January 2025.
Asked about Ossoff’s recent pitch for international cooperation on artificial intelligence governance through an “AI Treaty,” Collins framed the issue as a matter of national competitiveness against China.
“We’re in a race against China on AI — now Jon Ossoff, he’d rather us be in bed with the rest of the world,” Collins said. “They want that global elitist to run every aspect of your life. It doesn’t matter if it’s health care or how you get up and down the road. Jon Ossoff doesn’t even care if you have high gas prices. He doesn’t want you riding in a gas vehicle. He really doesn’t want you in an [electric vehicle]. He wants you in mass transit. It’s just so that they control everything and every aspect of your life.”
Collins added, “If we don’t shut Jon Ossoff down in Georgia this time around, this guy is going to be a huge problem for this country.”
Collins also drew a sharp contrast between his own background and Ossoff’s, describing himself as a businessman who spent three decades building a trucking company from scratch.
“Jon Ossoff — this guy’s a trust fund kid, y’all. He’s never had a real job in his life. You think he’s ever had to sit down at the kitchen table and look over his options for health care? Nah. He doesn’t have to do that.”
Collins said that disparity shaped his view of Ossoff’s political motivations. “That’s because he’s never had to deal with that. He never will. But what he is, is he is an elitist who thinks that he wants this power, and they’re all power hungry. They want to have control over your life,” he said.
He also tied his decision to run for Congress to concerns about declining economic opportunity for the next generation. “I didn’t think that my kids had the opportunities I had when I was growing up… It’s because we’ve had decades and decades of Democrats in power, and they’ve been eroding our opportunities through regulations and taxes to the point where people are just squeezed,” Collins said.
