There are less than 100 days until the midterm elections in Georgia, but one question plaguing Republican Senate candidate Mike Collins is unlikely to go away before voters hit the polls in November.
Representative Collins, who serves in Georgia's 10th congressional district, is up against incumbent Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff for a nationally important seat. Collins was endorsed by President Trump shortly before the Republican primary runoff and the national GOP has started to pour more money into Collins' campaign in the hopes of unseating the sitting senator.
In recent weeks, Ossoff has created space between himself and Collins with a clear lead in multiple polls. The Center for Politics "Crystal Ball" has gone as far as to say Georgia, which
previously leaned Democrat, is now a "likely Democratic" win in the midterms.
Collins' roadblocks lie outside policy debates, and are instead centered around a House ethics probe and reporting that the representative's son-in-law is a white supremacist who may have been paid by Collins' trucking company.
Now, at a campaign stop in central Georgia on Thursday, Collins was asked directly about his family member's rhetoric and he said the issue had already been addressed before cutting off the press conference.
Collins asked about son-in-law after hospital visit
Collins visited Monroe County Hospital on Thursday to discuss a string of rural hospital closures in Georgia and the Working Family Tax Cuts, which Collins said provided $220 million for rural hospitals in the state.
Healthcare has been a central issue for both Collins and Ossoff, who have spared over the expansion of Medicaid in Georgia and federal cuts that led to more than a million Georgian's losing their health coverage.
Collins spoke to press following the visit, and after discussing his plans to "double our investment in rural healthcare, increase price transparency, and lower prescription drug prices," he took questions.
It wasn't long before he was asked about recent reports that his son-in-law, David Alan Sheer II, has spread white nationalist and anti-Semitic rhetoric to a large social media following, and that Sheer, Collins and members of his staff have collaborated with members of white supremacist groups.
When asked, Collins said "we fully addressed that, but Jon Ossoff refuses to disavow these Democrat socialist movements." Multiple reporters chimed in to ask Collins to address the question of whether he will acknowledge the white supremacist comments, or if he will share details about his campaign's relationship with his son-in-law.
"Can you address the question please?" one reporter said.
Collins instead again called on Ossoff to denounce Democratic socialists, and said that ideology did not belong in Georgia. When pushed again to talk about his relationship with Sheer, Collins abruptly left the podium and walked away from reporters.
Collins has been asked about his ties to white supremacists multiple times, and in one statement to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Tia Mitchell, Collins said "nobody speaks for me, and I don't speak for anybody else. I think it's pretty clear on where I've always stood with Israel," likely referencing anti-Semitic posts shared by his son-in-law on social media.
He went on to say it's hard to speak out about family, and "you know it always is. You love your family," according to Mitchell.
'Georgians have a right to know,' Ossoff says
In virtual press calls and when stopped in Washington, Ossoff has said "Georgians have a right to know the answers" to Collins' association with Sheer, who he calls a "neo-Nazi."
"And today, facing these questions from the press corps in Georgia, Congressman Mike Collins ran away. He is refusing to answer questions," Ossoff said to reporters Thursday. "He is seeking a six-year term in the United States Senate. He needs to release all of his office's communications with these white supremacists. He needs to apologize for his ties to white nationalism and neo-Nazi ideology, and he needs to say whether he or his businesses have paid this neo-Nazi."
Aside from opposing Collins in the Senate race, Ossoff is also Georgia's first Jewish senator.
Accusations come amid House probe
At the same time that the recent CNN reporting has been surrounding Congressman Collins, he is still under a House ethics investigation for possibly misusing taxpayer funds to pay a staffer who did no work for his office.
Collins, and his former chief of staff who was later fired for comments he made on social media, were accused of paying the chief of staff's girlfriend a salary, and possibly giving her preferential treatment despite her not performing any official duties for Collins' office. The investigation was opened in the fall, and a January report found there was "substantial reason to believe that Rep. Collins used congressional resources."
The future of the investigation is unclear should Collins with the Senate seat. The House would lose jurisdiction over Collins, but if the board believes federal law was violated, the investigation could be passed to the Department of Justice.
During a press call Thursday, Ossoff told USA TODAY simply losing the Senate seat is not holding Collins accountable for the new accusations or the previous alleged misconduct. But, until the full scope of the investigation is revealed and Collins shares more about his associations, there is not a clear action that should be taken against Collins, win or lose the Senate race.
Irene Wright covers politics in Georgia as the Atlanta Connect reporter with USA Today’s Deep South Connect team. Find her on X @IreneEWright or email her at ismith@usatodayco.com.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Collins refuses to answer questions on possible white supremacist ties
