U.S. Rep. Mike Collins, already considered the underdog in his race to unseat incumbent U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, is now facing a new controversy surrounding white nationalist and antisemitic statements by his son-in-law who lives on his property.
A spokesperson for Collins pointed to his record supporting Israel in response to the multiple social media accounts, first reported on by CNN, in which the congressman’s son-in-law used Nazi imagery and posted videos and images using white nationalist tropes. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution confirmed the posts, which are still active on various social media platforms.
“Rep. Collins has always condemned all forms of antisemitism, including this, and always will regardless of the source,” the spokesperson said. “Collins’ lifelong support for Israel and the Jewish people is guided by his personal beliefs and backed by his consistent voting record.”
CNN first reported that the son-in-law, David Alan Scheer II, is a white nationalist and social media influencer with over 1.5 million follows on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Telegram and other channels. He is married to Collins’ daughter, Summer, and featured in a family photo on Collins’ campaign website.
The couple lives in a home on property owned by Collins adjacent to his main residence in Jackson and attended Collins’ primary election-night victory party. CNN said it also appears that Scheer has produced videos for Collins’ trucking company.
CNN found multiple examples of problematic posts from Scheer, including expressing support for the Patriot Front, a white nationalist hate group whose members recently marched through Washington. On podcasts and in social media posts, he has also shared antisemitic conspiracy theories and posted white nationalist slogans and propaganda.
In one post from 2025, Scheer posted a German Nazi Party propaganda poster from the 1930s with the text “I want to make babies, Not die for Israel.”
Along with the post, Scheer wrote, “If you haven’t noticed, we all have a common enemy” and invited users to follow his account on Telegram “for uncensored content.”
On his Telegram channel, Scheer wrote, “We’re going to retake America for Christian White men!”
Collins’ team responded to the CNN report by pointing to his votes on legislation over the years supporting Israel, including opposing a recent effort backed by Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massie to block security funding for Israel. That amendment failed when 98 Democrats and every Republican voted against it.
Collins also defended Israel’s decision to declare war on Hamas after the Oct. 7, 2023, attack.
“Hamas not only attacked the peaceful people of Israel that day, but they launched an assault against the idea of free and fair democracies in the Middle East,” he said at the time.
In a June 22 post to his Telegram channel, Scheer wrote, “If we were really interested in saving the west we should be deporting all Muslims.
“Let Israel fend for itself and move our troops from the Middle East to Europe where they can protect our kindred,” he concluded.
State Rep. Esther Panitch, the only Jewish member of the Georgia Legislature, said Collins’ past support for Israel “is not a hall pass for antisemitism.”
“It is not a shield you hide behind when the hatred is in your own family, on your own property, with your own name attached,” the Sandy Springs Democrat wrote on X.
The Democratic Party of Georgia held a press call Thursday afternoon featuring Jewish voters expressing outrage over the CNN report. Larry Auerbach, a retiree who lives in Atlanta, said there is “real danger” in the antisemitism expressed by Collins’ son-in-law and his votes support Israel don’t ease it.
“It does nothing to make my granddaughters safer when they go to religious school,” he said.
This is not the first time Collins or someone surrounding him has been accused of antisemitism. He faced criticism last year for attending the New York Young Republicans gala even after a group chat related to the organization was disbanded when Nazi jokes and comments praising Hitler were exposed.
In 2024, Collins replied to an account widely considered to be racist and antisemitic, indicating he agreed with a post labeling a journalist a “garbage human.”
Slate reported in May that Collins’ chief of staff, Kip Talley, told associates in a group chat he used his congressional position to attempt to free a Holocaust denier from prison. White national activists like Nick Fuentes and Richard Spencer were in that chat, although Talley said he wasn’t aware.
Dov Wilker, the Atlanta-based regional director for the American Jewish Committee, said Collins has stood in support of Israel and been a frequent attendee at local Jewish events. Still, Wilker said, he wants the lawmaker to make it clear he has no tolerance for antisemitism.
“As American Jews know all too well, antisemitism rarely exists in isolation,” Wilker said. “It is often intertwined with broader ideologies of white supremacy and bigotry that threaten the safety and dignity of many communities.”
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