Why was GA Senate candidate accused of associating with 'Neo-Nazi'?
Why was GA Senate candidate accused of associating with 'Neo-Nazi'?
Irene Wright, USA TODAYFri, July 17, 2026 at 4:33 PM UTC
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Representative Mike Collins is locked in a difficult Senate race in Georgia, hoping to unseat incumbent Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff and keep Republican control of Congress.
It's going to be an uphill battle, though, as Ossoff has a commanding lead in early polling and has out-raised Collins by a factor of 40 to one in the time since the Republican runoff.
Collins has faced high turnover inside his office, a previous House ethics investigation and accusations of corruption by his opponent throughout the campaign.
He has also aligned himself closely with the Trump Administration as the Trump-endorsed candidate and continued to spread the conspiracy Trump won the 2020 election in Georgia, a message Trump himself continued to spread in a national address on July 16.
In the latest hurdle for the Collins campaign, a CNN investigation has found Collins' son-in-law, David Alan Scheer II, spreads white nationalist rhetoric on social media and associates with white supremacist groups.
Here's what the report found.
Collins' son-in-law has large social media following
Sheer, who is married to Collins' daughter Summer, uses the handle "@scheereddzz" on social media and has more than 293,000 followers on Instagram. He has an additional 346,000 subscribers on YouTube where he describes himself as a "Christian, Husband, Father, Carpenter."
He is registered to vote at a property owned by Collins, CNN reported, and has appeared in family photos used for campaign websites, at election-night events and created promotional materials for Collins' trucking company.
His social media posts range from workout routines to Bible verses to anti-Semetic messages.
In a post made in June of last year on Instagram, Sheer said the "deep state" is "the same old Synagogue of Satan that killed our Lord Jesus. Nothing new under the sun." The image with the post showed a meme depicting a Simpson's character holding another character hostage with a gun, as "AIPAC" holding "U.S. Politicians" hostage.
He has also shared posts promoting the White supremacist group Patriot Front, and said "Gen-Z doesn't hate Hitler" in a now-deleted video that was saved by CNN. He also responded "There's nothing wrong with White Nationalism" on a YouTube comment that called his content "disturbing."
The posts and messages span years, according to CNN, and include Nazi imagery, claims that Jews were responsible for porn, the death of JFK and the 9/11 attacks.
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Collins defends record supporting Israel
In a statement made to CNN by a Collins campaign spokesperson, the representative defended his record.
"Rep. Collins' lifelong support for Israel is unquestionable and backed by his consistent record in Congress of standing up for Israel and her people," the spokesperson said.
Dov Wilker, the regional director for the American Jewish Committee, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution Collins has attended multiple Jewish events and has supported the Jewish community. But, Wilker would expect the representative to denounce antisemitism more directly.
"As American Jews know all too well, antisemitism rarely exists in isolation," Wilker told the outlet. "It is often intertwined with broader ideologies of white supremacy and bigotry that threaten the safety and dignity of many communities."
Collins has faced widespread criticism for some of his more fringe comments before, including sharing pro-Israel counterprotestors making ape-like movements directed toward a Black woman at the University of Mississippi in 2024 and telling a Venezuelan migrant he could "buy him a ticket on Pinochet Air," referencing a Chilean dictator who threw opponents from helicopters.
Collins' former chief of staff, Kip Talley, was also accused of participating in a group chat with far-right figures Nick Fuentes and Richard Spencer who discussed helping a Holocaust denier who is currently jailed on contempt charges.
'Neo-Nazi propaganda,' Ossoff says
In response to the reports of Collins' son-in-law's online presence, Ossoff criticized the "close ties."
"Only a known bigot and antisemite like Mike Collins would enable the ongoing spread of neo-Nazi propaganda. How much has Mike Collins paid neo-Nazi David Alan Scheer and is Scheer still based on Collins' property? Mike Collins must apologize immediately for his and his office's disqualifying ties to neo-Nazi ideology and notorious white supremacists," Ossoff said in a statement Thursday.
Ossoff also appeared with Jake Taper on CNN Thursday, and said "this is a pattern with Mike Collins," and that there "is a very good reason that Governor Brian Kemp worked so hard to try to deny Mike Collins the Republican nomination in this Senate race."
Kemp endorsed Derek Dooley, the former college football coach, in the Republican primary and runoff for the nomination, and threw his significant policital weight and donor base unsuccessfully into Dooley's campaign.
Irene Wright covers Georgia politics and elections as the Atlanta Connect reporter with USA TODAY’s Deep South Connect team. Find her on X @IreneEWright or email her at ismith@usatodayco.com.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Is Mike Collins' son-in-law a white nationalist? What CNN report found
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