Mike Collins Questioned Over Racist And Antisemitic Posts By Ex-Staffers
Rep. Mike Collins
Rep. Mike Collins, the Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate seat held by Georgia Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff, is facing questions about a family member’s and former staffers’ white supremacist and antisemitic statements and images.
Former Collins staffer William Paul, a son of Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, worked as the digital director for Collins from January to June 2025. In May 2026, the Washington Sun, then called NOTUS, reported that Paul had yelled antisemitic comments at Republican New York Rep. Mike Lawler at a bar in Washington, D.C.
Reese Gorman, a reporter for NOTUS, wrote that he was a witness to the younger Paul interrupting a discussion of a Kentucky primary and telling Lawler that if Rep. Thomas Massie lost it, it would be because of “your people.“ To Lawler’s question, “My people?” Gorman wrote that Paul responded, “Yeah, you Jews.” When Lawler said he wasn’t Jewish, Paul said, “Oh wow, I’m so sorry for calling you a Jew.”
According to Courthouse News Service, Lawler told reporters: “He goes, ‘oh, I’m sorry to accuse you of that,’ which is just a remarkable statement in and of itself. … At one point, [he] said that he hates Jews and hates gays and doesn’t care if they die. And I think that’s f ***ing disgusting.”
Paul publicly apologized for his tirade on May 13: “Last night, I had too much to drink and said some things that don’t represent who I really am,” he wrote on the social platform X. “I’m sorry, and today I am seeking help for my drinking problem.”
In July, CNN reported on social media posts by Collins’ son-in-law David Allen Scheer that the outlet said contained antisemitic and anti-Muslim comments and conspiracy theories and promoted white supremacist groups.
On August 3, a group of Georgia faith leaders held a press conference outside of a church in the Sweet Auburn District of Atlanta to demand that Collins answer for his son-in-law’s comments.
“Maya Angelou once said, ‘If you want to know who somebody is, ask them.’ So today we’re asking you, Mr. Mike Collins — who are you? Who do you represent?” said the Rev. Dr. Gerald L. Durley, pastor emeritus of the Providence Baptist Church of Atlanta and a former dean at Clark Atlanta University. “We cannot stand –- not with all the diversity in this city — for you to be connected, or even have ties.”
“He [Scheer] has had no role in my campaign whatsoever,” Collins said in a statement to Capitol Beat in August, “and I don’t believe or support those views and I have always condemned racism and antisemitism regardless of the source.”
In August, the Washington Post reported that a former staffer of Collins by the name of Preston Parra had posted on X a photo of himself in a Ku Klux Klan robe, an image of a swastika, a song lyric associated with the Nazi party, the N-word, and “White Power” — all of which he said were meant to be satire.
“Preston Parra has no affiliation with Mike Collins’ office or campaign,” Meyer Siegfried, a spokesperson for Collins, said, according to The Guardian. “The posts are vile, completely unhinged, and Mike Collins unequivocally condemns them.”
Additionally, as reported by Slate, Kip Talley, another one of Collins’ staffers who was fired, was in a group chat with far-right antisemite and white nationalist Nick Fuentes and Richard Spencer, a neo-Nazi leader in the alt-right movement and a promoter of the August 12, 2017, Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, a march to oppose the removal of Confederate monuments.
The Georgia Independent reached out to the Collins campaign for comment for this story, but did not receive a response.
Reprinted with permission from The Georgia Independent
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