The US senator for Georgia Jon Ossoff, a Democrat, has slammed a “disgraceful and disqualifying” report that a former staffer for his Trump-backed Republican challenger Mike Collins shared images online of a swastika and depicting himself in Ku Klux Klan robes.
It is the latest instance of someone in Collins’s orbit facing scrutiny over racist or white nationalist conduct. Ossoff called the report “stunning” and said it “should shock the conscience of every Georgian”.
The report “confirmed yet more extensive ties between Congressman Mike Collins and white nationalism, and Congressman Mike Collins and neo-Nazi ideology”, said Ossoff. “Mike Collins needs to hold a press conference this afternoon, and he needs to release all the communications between his office and these white supremacists.”
Meyer Siegfried, a spokesperson for Collins, said: “Preston Parra has no affiliation with Mike Collins’ office or campaign. The posts are vile, completely unhinged, and Mike Collins unequivocally condemns them.”
Siegfried also attempted to highlight other cases of extremism, claiming there had been a “rise in antisemitism and hate among younger Americans” and “Jon Ossoff’s allies”, and describing this as “equally abhorrent”.
On Thursday, the Washington Post reported that an ex-staffer for Collins, Preston Parra, who has described himself as a “twink fascist” on his X account, shared images in June and July of a swastika and one that depicts himself in Ku Klux Klan robes. The posts are still there, along with others in which Parra repeatedly casually uses the N-word, quotes Nazi song lyrics and uses the phrase “White Power”.
Reached for comment, Parra responded with a racial slur.
According to the Post, Parra, ۲۴, interned for Collins for two months in ۲۰۲۴ before working as a contractor for his leadership political action committee the next year. He was paid $۷,۷۰۰ for fundraising consulting in May ۲۰۲۵, according to Federal Election Commission filings, and in an interview with the Post said he worked for the group for several months, shortly before Collins announced his US Senate bid.
Responding to the Post’s reporting, Parra told the paper that many of his posts – including the KKK one, which he said he made using Grok AI – were “satirical”. He also said he was not a white supremacist, but added: “I do think that the white race contributes more to the world.”
According to Parra, Collins was not aware of Parra’s personal X account when he worked for him because he had made it private.
It is just the latest episode in an ever-growing scandal that has embroiled Collins’s bid in the high-stakes Georgia race, which will be critical to control of the Senate.
Last month, CNN revealed that Collins’s son-in-law, David Alan Scheer II, is a white nationalist and social media influencer with a history of sharing antisemitic material and sentiment and Nazi imagery on the internet.
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Among them are posts from the neofascist, white supremacist hate group Patriot Front, which descended on Washington DC this Fourth of July wearing white masks and brandishing the Confederate flag.
Scheer is registered to vote at a Collins-owned property in Georgia, has been featured in Collins’s campaign photos and was at Collins’s victory party after the candidate won the Republican primary in June, according to CNN’s report.
Collins, a trucking executive, has been the GOP representative for Georgia’s ۱۰th congressional district since ۲۰۲۳. In that time he has been plagued by a string of such controversies, drawing scrutiny over his associations with far-right and extremist figures, incendiary social media activity and accusations of antisemitism, which he has denied.
Having won the Republican nomination in June, Collins faces rising Democratic star Ossoff in November’s midterm elections.
Several Georgia Republicans told the Post that they were increasingly worried about what they see as a pattern of troubling associations and behavior from Collins.
“In the south, we have a saying: You lay down with dogs, you get up with fleas,” Debbie Dooley, a prominent conservative activist in Georgia and one of the original Tea Party founders who backed Collins’s rival in the primary, told the paper. “Well, Mike Collins has got a lot of fleas on him.”
