Congressman Mike Collins (left) and Derek Dooley debate each other Sunday as part of the Atlanta Press Club Loudermilk-Young Debate Series. Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder
The two candidates competing for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate traded jabs on the debate stage Sunday over a U.S. House ethics investigation and immigration policy.
The debate, organized by the Atlanta Press Club and hosted by Georgia Public Broadcasting, featured Congressman Mike Collins and former football coach Derek Dooley, who are running in the June 16 primary runoff to be the nominee who will run against U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff in November.
Collins came out on top in last month’s election, walking away with about 41% of the vote. Dooley placed second with 30%, edging out Congressman Buddy Carter for a spot in the runoff.
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As Collins and Dooley sharpened their attacks on the debate stage, Ossoff shared a different stage with former Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, the Democratic nominee for Georgia governor, at a joint campaign event in a show of Democratic unity.
Collins, who largely focused on attacking Ossoff during the debate, jumped on the opportunity to ask Dooley about recent comments that suggest he would be open to allowing immigrants who lack permanent legal status but have worked and paid taxes in the U.S. to stay in the country. He claimed Dooley said he supports “amnesty” for immigrants, though Dooley did not explicitly say that.
Dooley forcefully pushed back by clarifying that he was blaming the U.S. Congress for failing to act on passing immigration policy over the last four decades, calling it a “broken immigration system.” He also hardened his stance on immigration, saying that he “in no way” supports any amnesty for people who came here illegally.
“There are hundreds of thousands of people, thousands of illegal immigrants, who are out there wreaking havoc on our country. They’re grifting off our government, stealing taxpayer money and we got to get them out of the country,” Dooley said after saying that he does not support a pathway to citizenship for immigrants lacking permanent legal status.
Collins pushed back, saying that Dooley was on the record and that voters “deserve somebody that’s going to stand up for them, not someone who has the same immigration policies as Jon Ossoff.”
Dooley also pounced at the opportunity to target Collins over a pending U.S. House Ethics Committee investigation into Collins and his then-chief of staff, Brandon Phillips, over allegations that they improperly used government funds to pay a woman romantically linked to Phillips as an intern even though she did no actual work.
Collins, who parted with Phillips after a controversial, now-deleted social media post that Collins later called “despicable and unauthorized,” called the investigation a “nothing burger.”
When asked about why he kept Phillips as an aide after the investigation was made public and what that said about his judgement, Collins commended his team but said that he’s addressed the situation.
“I’m proud of the work that my team has done. They’re part of the reason that I’ve been able to go to Washington, D.C., and to be successful, but when they fall short of expectations, as the businessman that I am, I’ve taken actions to correct that,” Collins said.
But despite the personal attacks, both Collins and Dooley showed unwavering support for President Donald Trump, with both candidates voicing support for a $1 billion Secret Security funding proposal that includes $220 million for security for Trump’s White House ballroom as well as a $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization fund” to compensate people who claim they are targets of political investigation by the federal government.
Ossoff, while rallying near downtown Atlanta with Bottoms, did not focus so much on his GOP opponents. He only briefly discussed the ethics investigations into Collins and Phillips and the allegations that Dooley’s family benefited from school contracts his brother secured under Gov. Brian Kemp’s administration, though Ossoff did not miss the opportunity to take a dig at both Collins and Dooley.
“We’re left with a congressman who’s only a congressman because his daddy was a congressman and a coach who’s only a coach because his daddy was a coach,” Ossoff said.
Georgia Recorder Deputy Editor Ross Williams contributed to this report.
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