ATLANTA, Ga. — Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff and Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Collins met Tuesday night for their second and likely last debate before the Nov. 3 election, on the same day early voting opened across Georgia.
The hourlong exchange, part of the Atlanta Press Club Loudermilk-Young Debate Series and held at a Georgia Public Broadcasting studio, again turned personal as both men worked to define the other for voters still making up their minds.
Collins, who has represented the 10th Congressional District in northeast Georgia since 2023, cast the contest as Georgia against Georgetown and portrayed Ossoff as an out-of-touch elite who has voted to make life less safe and more expensive.
Ossoff cast Collins as a puppet of President Donald Trump, attacking his support for the tariff policy and the war in Iran, and pressed him over a House ethics investigation into government funds allegedly used to pay for work that was not done. Collins has dismissed the ethics probe as politically motivated and said he denounces all forms of hate.
Immigration produced one of the sharpest moments. Collins, the primary author of the Laken Riley Act, argued Ossoff was weak on the border. Ossoff, one of 12 Senate Democrats who voted for the act, said Collins was misrepresenting his record, while arguing that parts of the law were overbroad and that federal enforcement has swept up people with no criminal record.
On Iran, Collins argued the war, now nearing its eighth month, made Americans safer by keeping a nuclear weapon out of Tehran. Ossoff questioned whether Iran had been close to a bomb. The Pentagon has reported 21 service members killed in the war.
Ossoff again said he has no interest in running for president in 2028 and committed to serving a full six-year term. Asked about impeachment, he did not give a yes-or-no answer but said he would weigh any articles sent by the House on their merits as a Senate juror.
Ossoff, who flipped the seat in a 2021 runoff, is the only Senate Democrat seeking reelection in a state Trump carried in 2024. The Georgia ballot also includes the races for governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state and other statewide offices.
