Georgia: what the candidates said, in their own words

Election day: Nov 3, 26 days

Statewide U.S. Senate Governor

U.S. Senate

Mike Collins R

25 answers from 3 videos

Jon Ossoff D

101 answers from 10 videos

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Where they stand, issue by issue

Each card sums up what the candidate said across every video we indexed. Each sentence links to the clip it comes from.

Trump and Washington

Mike Collins R
  • Collins says Democrats like Ossoff are keeping the government shut down to back illegal immigrants while TSA, FEMA and Coast Guard workers go unpaid. ▶ 5:00
  • Collins opposes any Democratic demands and wants the government reopened, saying ICE and Border Patrol were already funded. ▶ 6:00
  • Collins says a Trump endorsement means the world to any candidate, but he would not speak for the President on endorsing him. ▶ 0:00
“I'd just go and open up the government. It doesn't make any sense while Democrats like Jon Ossoff are willing to keep this government shut down.”
Interview · 11Alive
“No. They just need to reopen the government. They need to reopen DHS and get those ICE and Border Patrol are out there doing their job.”
Interview · 11Alive
Jon Ossoff D
  • Ossoff argues Trump has turned government into a tool of personal vengeance and enrichment, citing family deals tied to foreign money and federal financing. ▶ 1:40 ▶ 12:00 ▶ 10:20
  • Ossoff says the Iran war was built on lies, killed 18 Americans and cost tens of billions, while Iran keeps its uranium. ▶ 35:20 ▶ 6:20 ▶ 5:20
  • Ossoff pledges a Democratic Senate would use subpoena power to make Hegseth and Kushner testify under oath about corruption. ▶ 5:40
“You see our government transformed into a tool of one man's personal vengeance and power and enrichment.”
Speech · Jon Ossoff
“who deposited $2 billion in Trump's crypto firm just after the administration granted his government access to the most sensitive American AI chips.”
Speech · Jon Ossoff

Elections and voting

Mike Collins R
  • Collins says Georgians lack confidence in elections and supports the FBI investigation in Fulton County. ▶ 4:20
  • Collins cites Georgia's voter roll cleanup and fewer drop boxes as steps already taken. ▶ 4:20
“people don't have confidence in our elections. We've done a lot to clean up the voter roles here.”
Interview · 11Alive
Jon Ossoff D
  • Ossoff proposes ending Citizens United, by constitutional amendment if needed, arguing secret and corporate money steers national policy. ▶ 15:00 ▶ 14:20 ▶ 44:00
  • Ossoff says Trump sent agents to seize Fulton County ballots, with Tulsi Gabbard overseeing, and that Georgia voters will not be deterred. ▶ 18:00 ▶ 27:40 ▶ 56:40
  • Ossoff says the president's allies are redrawing maps to dilute minority power after the Voting Rights Act was weakened, and pledges a voting rights mobilization. ▶ 25:20 ▶ 9:00
“Citizens United was the most destructive Supreme Court decision in modern American history.”
Speech · Jon Ossoff
“if it takes a constitutional amendment to end Citizens United, we'll deliver a united Georgia to ratify it.”
Speech · Jon Ossoff

Immigration and the border

Mike Collins R
  • Collins says the Laken Riley Act has removed over 17,500 criminal illegal aliens, and that Ossoff initially voted against it. ▶ 0:40 ▶ 13:00
  • Collins backs ICE and Secretary Noem, and blames Minnesota's problems on local leaders who keep police from working with ICE. ▶ 1:40 ▶ 1:00 ▶ 3:00
  • Collins says the Social Circle facility is a DHS decision, and that DHS will self-contain its water and waste if needed. ▶ 4:20 ▶ 3:20 ▶ 0:40
“over 17,500 people, illegal alien criminals, have been taken off the streets by DHS. And that is a huge success.”
Interview · 11Alive
“Jon Ossoff initially voted against that bill, but he voted to give amnesty to illegal immigrants convicted of a crime”
Speech · Associated Press
Jon Ossoff D
  • Ossoff says Trump cut health care to fund a federal paramilitary force whose masked agents enter homes without warrants and demand papers. ▶ 15:20 ▶ 2:20
  • Ossoff says he and Warnock demanded DHS transparency and local briefings on the Social Circle detention facility that the city opposes. ▶ 7:20
  • Ossoff argues Trump uses blood-and-soil rhetoric about immigrants, and says Americans are united by shared convictions, not ethnicity. ▶ 24:40
“he also cut our healthcare to fund the creation of a huge federal paramilitary force.”
Speech · Jon Ossoff
“You see masked federal agents kicking down doors without so much as a warrant from a judge dragging Americans”
Speech · Jon Ossoff

Taxes and cost of living

Mike Collins R
  • Collins proposes removing policies that fuel high prices, and says his Permit Act would cut red tape for infrastructure, housing and development. ▶ 9:40
  • Collins argues Ossoff was the deciding vote for Biden's spending bill that raised prices and voted against eliminating taxes on tips and overtime. ▶ 11:20
“It's going to cut red tape for infrastructure, housing, and smart development to lower cost, spur growth”
Speech · Associated Press
“Jon Ossoff was he was the deciding vote for Joe Biden's”
Speech · Associated Press
Jon Ossoff D
  • Ossoff says rent, groceries, power and health care hit all-time highs under Trump, citing higher gas, diesel, coffee and ground beef prices. ▶ 5:00 ▶ 34:00 ▶ 1:20
  • Ossoff argues Trump's tariffs drive prices up, and that premiums doubled and Medicaid was cut to fund tax cuts for the ultra rich. ▶ 7:40 ▶ 5:20 ▶ 34:00
“Ground beef's up 25% since Trump was sworn in. Coffee, 40%. The price of gas, 33%.”
Speech · Jon Ossoff
“Gas is up 30% since inauguration. Diesel 47, coffee 35, ground beef 23%.”
Speech · Jon Ossoff

Health care

Mike Collins R
  • Collins proposes more price transparency and lower prescription drug prices to cut health care and child care costs. ▶ 10:20
  • Collins proposes expanding health savings accounts as part of the same cost plan. ▶ 10:20
“we're going to lower child care and and health care costs by by creating more price transparency, lowering prescription drugs”
Speech · Associated Press
Jon Ossoff D
  • Ossoff proposes repealing the Medicaid cut that he says Trump and Collins passed, restoring ACA benefits and expanding Medicaid under a Governor Bottoms. ▶ 11:40 ▶ 21:00
  • Ossoff says premiums doubled for over a million Georgians, 300,000 lost insurance, and Georgia lost 21 hospitals in 20 years. ▶ 11:40 ▶ 7:40 ▶ 18:40
“This is a choice that our governor and Republicans in our state legislature have made.”
Speech · Jon Ossoff
“when you elect a Medicaid expanding Governor Bottoms in November, together we can get Georgians covered with great health care”
Speech · Jon Ossoff

Jobs and the economy

Mike Collins R
  • Collins says he went to Congress because his kids lacked the chance he had to start a business in his mid-20s. ▶ 6:20
  • Collins says Trump's first-term policies lifted boats for everybody. ▶ 6:20
“one of the reasons I went to Congress was because my kids didn't have the opportunities that I had when I was their age to start a business in my mid-20s.”
Interview · 11Alive
Jon Ossoff D
  • Ossoff says the economy lost tens of thousands of manufacturing jobs since Trump's tariffs, and that inflation and unemployment are higher. ▶ 6:00 ▶ 8:00
  • Ossoff pledges to keep federal budget resources flowing to excluded Georgia communities for workforce, infrastructure and public health. ▶ 24:00
“the economy's lost tens of thousands of manufacturing jobs since he launched the big illegal tariffs.”
Speech · Jon Ossoff
“American manufacturing jobs have shrunk nearly every single month since Trump rolled out his tariffs.”
Speech · Jon Ossoff

Tech and AI

Mike Collins R

No answer on record about this in the 3 videos we indexed.

Jon Ossoff D
  • Ossoff says Trump rescinded an AI safety order, and the Emirates won rights to buy sensitive AI chips after investing in a Trump family business. ▶ 33:40
  • Ossoff says tech leaders warn AI could cause mass joblessness or human extinction while Congress debates ballrooms and youth sports. ▶ 60:00
“And four months later, the Trump administration granted the Emirates the rights to buy our most sensitive AI chips.”
Speech · Jon Ossoff
“Tech titans dig bunkers and warn us the new intelligence they're training could lead to mass joblessness or human extinction.”
Speech · Jon Ossoff

Gas and energy

Mike Collins R
  • Collins proposes expanding President Trump's energy policies with an all-of-the-above approach to lower costs. ▶ 10:00
“we're going to expand President Trump's energy policies to to to continue to unleash American energy”
Speech · Associated Press
Jon Ossoff D

No answer on record about this in the 10 videos we indexed.

Crime and public safety

Mike Collins R

No answer on record about this in the 3 videos we indexed.

Jon Ossoff D
  • Ossoff says Trump pardoned former Honduran president Hernandez, sentenced to 45 years for cocaine trafficking, because he was a political ally. ▶ 14:00
“Donald Trump pardoned a man who helped the cartels make billions of dollars trafficking vast amounts of cocaine into the United States.”
Speech · Jon Ossoff

Climate and environment

Mike Collins R

No answer on record about this in the 3 videos we indexed.

Jon Ossoff D
  • Ossoff says plastic is now in human blood and breast milk, and toxic forever chemicals are in half the country's drinking water. ▶ 30:20
“Soon enough, they'll learn there's now plastic in human blood and breast milk.”
Speech · Jon Ossoff

Water and wildfires

Mike Collins R

No answer on record about this in the 3 videos we indexed.

Jon Ossoff D
  • Ossoff says the budget sends over a million dollars to East Point for storm water infrastructure the south side long lacked. ▶ 4:00
“It matters whether your community has storm water infrastructure, and for decades the south side of Atlanta just did not get the federal and state investment that it needed.”
Interview · Attorney Robert Hillard Patillo, II

Record and trust

Mike Collins R
  • Collins says he and his wife built a trucking company with nearly 100 employees, and argues Washington needs more business people. ▶ 6:40
  • Collins cites two bills signed by presidents of both parties: the TRAIN Act on synthetic opioids and the Laken Riley Act. ▶ 8:00
  • Collins says the race pits a businessman who delivered results against Ossoff, whom he calls a far-left liberal who raised taxes. ▶ 13:20
“my wife Leanne and I, we started our our little trucking company a little over 30 years ago, hiring, making payroll.”
Speech · Associated Press
“to this day that bill has led to the deportation of over 20,000 illegal criminals IN THIS COUNTRY.”
Speech · Associated Press
Jon Ossoff D
  • Ossoff says Collins is pro-war, pro-tariff and pro-cutting health care, and calls him an election denier. ▶ 1:20 ▶ 24:00
  • Ossoff says Collins is under federal investigation over tax dollars paid to a staffer's girlfriend, and broke the law hiding crypto trades. ▶ 11:40 ▶ 40:40 ▶ 15:20
  • Ossoff wants Collins to release all communications between his office and white supremacists it briefed on efforts supporting a Holocaust denier. ▶ 50:20 ▶ 26:40 ▶ 21:20
“And of course, to begin with, he is pro-war. He is pro-tariff. He's pro-cutting your health care.”
Interview · Jon Ossoff
“I cannot in good conscience vote for Mike Collins. He is unfit for office.”
Speech · Jon Ossoff

Videos we used

Each of these shows the candidate speaking.

How we pick and mark clips