Less than one month into Georgia’s U.S. Senate General Election, local media is highlighting the “growing scrutiny” around GOP U.S. Senate nominee Mike Collins, who has lost two top aides in less than two months, exposing the growing controversy surrounding Collins’ office’s ties to prominent white supremacists and efforts to free a Holocaust denier from jail.
The staffing “shake-up” follows multiple headlines on the scandals involving Collins, putting his operation in repeated turmoil.
See more below on the white nationalist scandal leading to more turmoil for Mike Collins:
- [Frank Sulkowski, WJCL] […] Congressman Mike Collins has hired his third chief of staff in just a year — that’s according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
- [Frank Sulkowski, WJCL] His campaign against incumbent Senator Jon Ossoff faces growing scrutiny. Collins announced Thursday Andrew Eisenberger will now lead his congressional office.
- [Frank Sulkowski, WJCL] Two previous top aides resigned after separate controversies.
- [Frank Sulkowski, WJCL] Collins is the Republican nominee for Senate, challenging Jon Ossoff this fall.
AJC: Another staff shake-up for Mike Collins as top aide departs amid scrutiny
By: Greg Bluestein | July 9, 2026
- U.S. Rep. Mike Collins, the Republican nominee challenging Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, has hired his third chief of staff in a year after the departures of two predecessors mired in controversy. […]
- Ossoff has repeatedly labeled Collins a “notorious bigot, antisemite and extremist,” citing, in part, his ties to former aides Brandon Phillips and Kip Talley.
- Collins cut ties with Phillips earlier this year after he mocked a Republican operative whose wife attempted suicide after accusing former NBC host Matt Lauer of rape.
- The House Ethics Committee is also reviewing allegations that Phillips misused taxpayer funds in Collins’ office and arranged a no-show internship for his girlfriend. […]
- Talley, who was brought on to succeed Phillips, also drew scrutiny. Slate reported in May that Talley told friends in a group chat he will “try to use the levers of the legislative branch” to try to help secure the release of a Holocaust denier from prison.
Puck News: Collins Staff Chaos
By Leigh Ann Caldwell & Marianna Sotomayor | July 9, 2026
- Republican Senate nominee Rep. Mike Collins has appointed his third chief of staff to his Capitol Hill office in just the past six months, continuing the high turnover among his senior advisors—never a good sign for a high-profile candidate.
- Brandon Phillips, Collins’s longtime confidante, left the office in January to focus on the Senate campaign. Months later, after Phillips mocked a political operative whose wife had accused former NBC host Matt Lauer of rape, Collins fired him.
- Phillips’s replacement, Kip Talley, also brought baggage: According to Slate, Talley participated in a group chat with white nationalists Nick Fuentes and Richard Spencer about securing the release of Holocaust denier Charles Johnson from prison. […]
- Collins, who won a runoff to take on incumbent Jon Ossoff for a U.S. Senate seat in Georgia, also continues to face scrutiny over his own history of racist and antisemitic posts on X.
Raw Story: MAGA candidate’s office in disarray as yet another senior staffer exits
By: Matthew Chapman | July 9, 2026
- In yet another humiliation to Georgia Senate candidate Mike Collins, he is losing his second congressional chief of staff, forcing him to open hiring for a third one. […]
- Collins, a MAGA-aligned member of Congress, makes the staff shakeup as he prepares for a tough campaign against Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff, who has “repeatedly labeled Collins a ‘notorious bigot, antisemite and extremist,’ citing, in part, his ties to former aides Brandon Phillips and Kip Talley,” […]
- This comes after Collins has been forced to answer to extremist behavior expressed on his behalf by some of these former staffers;
- Talley, for example, tried to have an infamous Holocaust denier freed from prison, and Phillips was let go after a post attacking an opposing candidate’s staffer’s wife for being sexually assaulted.
- Collins has also come under fire for reposting antisemitic attacks on a reporter, and for suggesting immigrants should be thrown out of helicopters.