The battle for Georgia’s closely watched Senate seat is increasingly becoming a fight over the company the candidates keep, as Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) and GOP challenger Mike Collins trade accusations of racism and antisemitism fueled by controversial figures who are close to each other.
The latest salvo came Thursday after the Washington Post reported a former Collins staffer posted images dressed in Ku Klux Klan garb, racist remarks, and Nazi imagery online, adding to a list of controversial people associated with the Republican congressman.
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Preston Parra, whom the outlet reported worked in Collins’s congressional office for two months in 2024 and later as a contractor for his leadership PAC, posted an image depicting himself in what appeared to be KKK robes and another resembling a swastika. Parra also repeatedly called himself a “twink fascist,” used the N-word, and posted nearly nude photos.
A spokesman for Collins’s campaign, Meyer Siegfried, told the Washington Examiner that Parra has “no affiliation with Mike Collins’ office or campaign,” calling his posts “vile.”
“The posts are vile, completely unhinged, and Mike Collins unequivocally condemns them,” Siegfried said.
Ossoff responded to the reports of Parra having worked for Collins, characterizing the former staffer as another controversial figure in Collins’s orbit.
“Swastikas and the Klan. Another week, another scandal for the bigot Congressman Mike Collins and his collapsing Senate campaign,” his campaign said in a statement.
Last month, reports emerged that Collins’s son-in-law, who has been in close proximity to his Georgia Senate campaign, had shared posts promoting white supremacy and antisemitism. Collins said his son-in-law does not have a role in the campaign and condemned his remarks.
Collins, however, moved to point the finger at Ossoff for having “allies” such as Hasan Piker and Michigan Senate candidate Abdul el Sayed in his party.
“Rep. Collins believes the rise in antisemitism and hate among younger Americans and among Jon Ossoff’s allies like Hasan Piker and Abdul El-Sayed is equally abhorrent and, unlike Ossoff, has condemned it from all sources directly,” Siegfried said.
However, on Thursday, Ossoff disavowed Piker’s controversial comments, including that Jews invite violence by supporting Israel and other remarks in which Piker said he sides with Hamas, a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, over Israel.
Ossoff, a potential 2028 presidential candidate, said he rejects the “dangerous rhetoric suggesting that policy advocacy invites violence against the Jewish community or any community.”
Collins responded to Ossoff’s statement in a social media post, noting that Piker had floated Ossoff as his pick for the Democratic nomination in 2028.
“Ossoff wouldn’t want to bite the hand that boosted him,” Collins said.
JON OSSOFF, GEORGIA’S FIRST JEWISH SENATOR, FACES ANGRY JEWISH VOTERS
Each candidate is targeting sects of voters who may prove crucial to winning in November, but Ossoff has an edge as he paints Collins as a racist. Black voters heavily favored Ossoff in 2021, with 9 out of 10 casting their ballot for him, and black lawmakers have condemned Collins, calling him a “man of poor character,” for his alleged ties to white supremacists.
Jewish voters make up a small portion of Georgia’s electorate, about 150,000 registered voters, but analysts say the group is large enough to have a sway in elections.
