Doug Collins (politician)
Douglas Allen Collins is an American politician serving as the U.S. Representative for Georgia's 9th congressional district since 2013. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served in the Georgia House of Representatives from 2007, representing the 27th district, which includes portions of Hall County, Lumpkin County and White County. Collins also serves as a chaplain in the U.S. Air Force Reserve with the rank of lieutenant colonel.
Collins is a candidate in the 2020 United States Senate special election in Georgia, challenging incumbent Republican Kelly Loeffler in the state's open primary.
Early life, education and early career
Born in Gainesville, Georgia, Collins is a graduate of North Hall High School. He attended North Georgia College & State University, where he received a Bachelor of Arts in Political science and Criminal law, in 1988. He attended the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, receiving his Master of Divinity in 1996. Collins also earned his Juris Doctor from Atlanta's John Marshall Law School, in 2007.Collins worked as an intern for Georgia U.S. Representative Ed Jenkins before working as a salesman, selling hazardous material safety products to Georgia's state and local governments. From 1994 to 2005, Collins was a senior pastor at Chicopee Baptist Church, while co-owning a scrapbooking retail store with his wife, Lisa. Collins worked as a lawyer, and has been a managing partner at the Collins and Csider law firm since 2010.
Military service
In the late 1980s, Collins served two years in the United States Navy, as a navy chaplain. After the September 11 attacks, Collins joined the United States Air Force Reserve Command, where he presently serves as a chaplain. As a member of the 94th Airlift Wing at Dobbins Air Reserve Base in Marietta, Georgia, Collins was deployed to Balad Air Base for five months in 2008, during the Iraq War.Georgia House of Representatives
Elections
Collins served three terms in the Georgia House of Representatives, representing Georgia's 27th district from 2007 to 2013. After Republican incumbent state representative Stacey Reece decided he would run for the Georgia State Senate, Collins announced he would run for the vacated seat. He won both the primary and general elections unopposed. He was unopposed for reelection in 2008 and 2010.Tenure
In 2011, Collins sponsored a plan proposed by Governor Deal to reform Georgia's HOPE Scholarship program. The bill allowed for a 10% cut in scholarships and raised the level of SAT test scores and GPA required to obtain a scholarship, saving the state $300 million. Collins argued that the program would be insolvent without the cut, saying that "If you look at it at the end of the day, Georgia still leads the way in providing hope—educational hope—for those wanting to go on to post-secondary education." In 2012, he supported amending Georgia's Constitution to establish a statewide commission authorizing and expanding charter schools.Collins supports the death penalty, voting in favor of allowing juries to use the death penalty, even when there isn't a unanimous verdict, if the defendant has committed at least one “statutory aggravating circumstance. He is against physician assisted suicide, voting in favor of making it a felony for anyone who "knowingly and willingly" assists someone in a suicide. Collins voted for the failed Pre-Abortion Ultrasound Requirement, requiring doctors to give women who are undergoing an abortion the option of a free ultrasound, or to listen to the fetal heartbeat. He also voted in favor of Georgia's law to prohibit abortions past the 20th week, being one of the most restrictive early abortion bans in the country.
In 2012 Collins signed a pledge sponsored by Americans for Prosperity promising to vote against any Global Warming legislation that would raise taxes.
Collins supported President Donald Trump's 2017 executive order to impose a temporary ban on entry to the U.S. to citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries. He stated that “The executive order allows re-entry to lawful permanent residents and does not represent a comprehensive ban on entry to people from certain countries. In this temporary measure, President Trump has given us the opportunity to get refugee policy right going forward.”
Committee assignments
In the 2011–2012 legislative session, Collins was one of three administrative floor leaders for Georgia Governor Nathan Deal. Collins served on the committees for:- House Appropriations
- Judiciary Non-Civil
- Public Safety & Homeland Security
- Health & Human Services
- Defense and Veterans Affairs
U.S. House of Representatives
2012 election
In 2012, Collins ran for Congress in the redrawn 9th congressional district. The district's incumbent, Tom Graves, opted to run in the newly created 14th district, where his home was located. Collins faced local media personality Martha Zoller and retired principal Roger Fitzpatrick in the Republican primary. The 9th is the most Republican district in the Eastern Time Zone, with a Cook Partisan Voting Index of R+27. It was understood that whoever won the Republican primary would be the district's next representative in Congress.Collins finished first in the primary with 42 percent of the total, but just 700 votes ahead of Zoller. Because neither had a majority, a runoff was held on August 21, 2012, and Collins defeated Zoller in that contest 55 percent to 45 percent. In the general election, he defeated Democrat Jody Cooley 76 percent to 24 percent.
2018 election
After running unopposed in the 2016 election, Collins faced Democratic challenger Josh McCall in the 2018 election. Collins overwhelmingly defeated McCall with 79.6% of the vote, compared to McCall's 20.4%.Committee assignments
- United States House Committee on Rules
- United States House Committee on the Judiciary
- * Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property and the Internet
- * Subcommittee on Regulatory Reform, Commercial and Antitrust Law
- Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
- * Subcommittee on Federal Workforce, U.S. Postal Service and the Census
- * Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Job Creation and Regulatory Affairs
Caucus memberships
- U.S.-Japan Caucus
United States Senate
2020 election
In January 2020, Collins announced his candidacy for the United States Senate. Collins will run in the special election set to take place in late 2020 to complete the final two years of the term of retiring Senator Johnny Isakson, who stepped down on December 31, 2019 due to his announced health issues. Collins will face the incumbent Senator Kelly Loeffler, a Republican appointed by Georgia Governor Brian Kemp to fill the seat until the special election is held. Collins had been favored for the appointment by President Donald Trump. Collins faced some initial resistance to his candidacy from senior Senate Republicans as well as from the Senate Leadership Fund and from the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which are backing Loeffler. Per Georgia election law, all candidates for that Senate seat will compete in a nonpartisan blanket primary. If no candidate successfully earns over 50% of the vote, the top two finishers will participate in a runoff election next January.Political positions
Health care
Collins supports repealing the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. He called it an "experiment has continued to fail America" and "costly for my neighbors". Collins said the passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 would not result in anyone losing health coverage although critics in the media, think tanks and academia assailed the law, mainly based on forecasts of its adverse impact, although it has disproportionate impact on certain states and professions, although misrepresentations were made by its advocates, although some of the reforms have become controversial within key states, particularly the $10,000 cap on state and local tax deductibility, and although polling shows Americans net oppose the law.Donald Trump
Collins has been described as an "ardent Trump ally."Collins did not publicly comment on sexual misconduct accusations against Donald Trump in the wake of the Access Hollywood tape being released.
Election interference
In his opening statement of Robert Mueller's testimony to Congress on July 24, 2019 Rep. Collins stated, "We will need to... ensure that government intelligence and law enforcement powers are never again used and turned on a private citizen or a political candidate as a result of the political leanings... If we carry anything away today it must be that we increase our vigilance against foreign election interference while we ensure our government officials don’t weaponize their power against the constitutional rights guaranteed to every US citizen." People called to testify in impeachment hearings suggested that Trump held up delivery of Congressionally legislated aid to Ukraine in order to pressure Ukraine to investigate his political rival. On October 31, 2019 Rep. Collins stated, and repeated on other occasions, that the impeachment hearings enacted to investigate Trump's use of his authority to pressure a foreign government to investigate his political rival, were a "sham".Tax reform
Collins voted in favor of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. He said the bill would encourage businesses to create more jobs and that the economy and communities would strengthen. He said, "We're making the IRS less ravenous and putting more money back in the hands of American families so that they can pursue more of their ambitions on their own terms." This position although critics in the media, think tanks, and academia assailed the law, mainly based on forecasts of its adverse impact, although it has disproportionate impact on certain states and professions, although misrepresentations were made by its advocates, although some of the reforms have become controversial within key states, particularly the $10,000 cap on state and local tax deductibility, and although polling shows Americans net oppose the law.Interest group ratings
Collins has an "A" rating from the National Rifle Association Political Victory Fund.Collins has an "F" rating from the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws for his voting history regarding cannabis-related causes.
The American Conservative Union gave him a 100% in 2012 and a 91% evaluation in 2017.
Civil rights
Collins co-sponsored a bill to award the Freedom Riders the Congressional Gold Medal.Collins opposes same-sex marriage. He co-sponsored the Marriage and Religious Freedom Act and the State Marriage Defense Act.
Collins also opposes the Equality Act, a bill that would expand the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. He voted against the bill in 2019.
Collins has written letters in defense of military chaplain Wes Modder, who the Navy attempted to fire after he had allegedly berated students at the Naval Nuclear Power Training Command who had gone to him for counseling. Modder allegedly made anti-gay comments and berated students for engaging in premarital sex.