Patricia Murphy
Winning at all costs comes at a cost.
Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mike Collins speaks at his primary election watch party at The Carmichael House in Jackson on May 19, 2026. Collins, who in his second term in the U.S. House representing the 10th Congressional District, advanced to the June 16 runoff that will determine which Republican will face incumbent Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff. (Arvin Temkar/AJC)
Something is off with U.S. Rep. Mike Collins and the company he keeps. Although he is the front-runner for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in Georgia, he keeps making headlines for all the wrong reasons.
Nearly all of them are blunders, offenses or revelations about the people Collins has put in top positions in his House office, his campaign office or both.
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Winning at all costs
Republican operative Brandon Phillips, left, speaks with another colleague. (AJC file photo)
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Questions of judgment
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It starts at the top
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Patricia Murphy is the AJC’s senior political columnist. She was previously a nationally syndicated columnist for CQ Roll Call, national political reporter for the Daily Beast and Politics Daily, and wrote for The Washington Post and Garden & Gun. She graduated from Vanderbilt and holds a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University.
Patricia Murphy is the AJC’s senior political columnist. She was previously a nationally syndicated columnist for CQ Roll Call, national political reporter for the Daily Beast and Politics Daily, and wrote for The Washington Post and Garden & Gun. She graduated from Vanderbilt and holds a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University.
