President Donald Trump may be campaigning in Georgia, but one of the candidates he is supposed to be stumping for, Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA), won’t be.
Collins, who is the Republican nominee running to unseat incumbent Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA), will remain in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday as the House barrels toward several votes on top Trump priorities, including a party-line defense spending bill.
“We have already accomplished so much — but the job is not finished,” Collins wrote on social media Wednesday. “While I wish I could be standing with the President today in Cobb county, the people of Georgia need me here in D.C. to make their voice heard.”
The decision to remain in Washington comes as the Collins campaign has faced several controversies in recent weeks.
Last week, CNN reported that Collins’s son-in-law, David Alan Scheer II, posted his support of the white nationalist group Patriot Front on social media, in addition to sharing Nazi imagery, calling for the deportation of Muslims, and amplifying antisemitic messages targeting Jews.
Collins has also contended with questions regarding his former chiefs of staff on Capitol Hill.
Brandon Phillips, a former Collins chief, was investigated last year by the House Ethics Committee after allegations against the congressman’s office that he improperly received taxpayer funds for campaign work and organized a paid internship for his girlfriend.
A second chief of staff, Kip Talley, was then criticized earlier this year after he reportedly told friends he intended to use “the levers of the legislative branch” to release a Holocaust denier from prison.
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Ossoff is leading Collins by an average of 5.5 percentage points three months before Election Day, according to RealClearPolitics.
Georgia represents a pickup opportunity for Republicans, who need to prevent Democrats from making a net gain of four seats in the Senate in order to continue controlling the chamber.