Hello again everyone.

I'm Jeff Hullinger, executive producer of local content for Georgia Public Broadcasting.

And welcome to the Atlanta Press Club.

Loudermilk Young debate series.

From the studios of Georgia Public Broadcasting.

The 2026 debate series was made possible by grants to the Atlanta Press Club from the Arthur M Blank Family Foundation and the Robert Charles Loudermilk Senior Foundation.

This is the debate for the Republican candidates running for U.S.

Senate.

We have two journalists who will question the candidates.

Abby Kousouris is a reporter at w a n f here in Atlanta.

And Tia Mitchell is the Washington bureau chief at the Atlanta Journal.

Institution.

I'm going to kick off today's debate, asking each of the candidates to introduce themselves and tell viewers why they should be the next U.S.

Senator from Georgia.

Candidates will have 60s to introduce themselves.

We will go in alphabetical order, starting with Buddy Carter.

Thank you to our veterans and our active military.

Thank you for your service to our country, to those in South Georgia who are suffering through the wildfires right now, know that we are with you and we will continue to be with you.

I'm Buddy Carter.

I'm a father.

I'm a I'm a husband.

I'm a grandfather.

I'm a pharmacist, I'm a businessman.

And I am running for the United States Senate so that I can go to the Senate and be a warrior for Donald Trump and his America First policies.

My opponent, John Ossoff, does not represent Georgia values.

John Ossoff voted for open borders.

John Ossoff also wanted to give health care benefits to illegal immigrants.

John Ossoff will not fund the Department of Homeland Security, even though we need them now.

He voted against the Working Families Tax Cuts Act.

We need to get rid of John Ossoff, and we need to win this seat back.

If I'm elected to the Senate, I promise I'll fight for you.

I'll fight for you, and I'll make sure that we, along with President Trump, put more money in your pocket.

That's what we want to try to do.

I'm asking for your vote for the United States Senate.

Thank you.

Mike Collins is next.

Good evening.

It's a privilege to be here.

I am Mike Collins, and I'm asking for your vote for U.S.

Senate because Georgia does not have a voice.

Our current senator, John Ossoff, doesn't represent us.

He votes like his California donors want men and girls sports.

No tax cuts for the middle working class against farmers who toil to clothe and feed us out there.

And he.

He takes up for all these criminal immigrants, even shutting down the government, cutting off services for his own constituents, all to protect illegals.

That's not a Georgia senator.

When I'm there, we'll change that, just like I've done in Congress.

We're going to move forward an agenda that takes Americans and puts them first.

We're going to protect our people.

We're going to get the government off the backs of the hard American men and women out there.

And we're going to do it in a bipartisan way that does not compromise our conservative values.

John Coyne you're next.

Yes, sir.

Thank you very much.

Atlanta Press Club.

My name is John Coyne.

I've run several times, started back in 2006, ran against Hank Johnson and Cynthia McKinney.

Actually got Hank elected.

There's a lot of things going on in the world today.

And the reason I'm running is I'm trying to protect the people of America.

The last thing I've done here recently is I sent a package to the president of the United States, Donald Trump, to do an executive order to eliminate Hoa's and declare them unconstitutional.

Now, my past, I've covered it before.

Um, it's, uh, basically in the real estate business.

I was in real estate development.

I do real estate due diligence for large real estate investment trusts.

And anytime you come across homeowners, that's the people that you're working for.

The list is long.

I've known John Ossoff for a long time.

He ran in 2006 against, uh, Karen Handel, and he raises a lot of money.

So, uh, that's why I'm here.

Mr.

Coyne, you're going to have to wrap it.

Derek Dooley.

You are next.

I'm Derek Dooley, and I'm a political outsider.

I grew up right down the road in Athens, Georgia.

And after going to Georgia law school.

I started a brief career practicing law.

But I grew up in a football family, and I wanted to follow my father's legacy of service.

So after a year and a half of billing hours, I quit my job and went on a 28 year career coaching football where I spent 19 years in college, nine in the NFL, and as a coach, just loved the impact you made on young people every day.

Well, I'm here for two reasons.

Number one is we got to get the right candidate to beat John Ossoff and get this Senate seat back to the people of Georgia.

But secondly, it's time we start sending a different kind of leadership to Washington, because Congress is not working for the people the way it used to.

We've seen a rise in careerism.

We've seen a rise in corruption.

But mostly it's the inaction where we're yelling and screaming, and we're not working together to deliver results for the people of Georgia.

And so that's why I'm running.

And I hope you earn your vote tonight.

And I look forward to telling you more.

Jonathan McColumn, it's your turn.

Thank you.

Good afternoon.

My name is retired Brigadier General Jonathan McColumn, and I'm asking you for your vote for the Georgia U.S.

Senate seat.

Uh, progressivism is harming Georgia in a big way.

We're told that, uh, that black people and women cannot use ID cards or acquire ID cards, things to vote that protect our voting.

We're told so many other different things that harm Georgia.

But I want you to know that finally, to the 700 000 veterans in Georgia, you finally have someone to stand up for the things that you need and to all the others, to the 62% of Christians, you also have a representative.

I'm retired Brigadier General Jonathan McColumn.

I've commanded 6,000 soldiers.

No one has executive level of experience that I have.

I have managed more than $6 billion of contracts.

In other words, I bring what we need for Congress now executive leadership.

I'll be the best senator that you've had, and I'm ready to show you within the next few minutes why.

All right.

For the full set of debate rules, please visit Atlanta Press club.org.

So now let's go to the panel.

We are starting with Abby Kousouris, who will ask a question for everyone to answer.

And once again, candidates, you will have 60s for your response.

Hi all.

A lot of you guys mentioned President Donald Trump in some of your opening speeches.

He is term limited.

This is a six year term in the Senate.

So how do you think his influence will continue going forward?

And is there anything different that you would like to see from the Republican Party during that time?

In those six years?

Derek Dooley you get the first response?

Well, I'm going to start with probably the number one issue that we're all facing.

As I've driven around this state.

It's been cost of living.

And so I think it's important that Congress does a much better job in addressing this major issue.

It's the top issue.

And we got to really focus on three things.

It starts with the stopping this government spending addiction that we have going on in Congress.

We haven't balanced a budget in 25 years, and we're paying $1 for every $5 that comes in.

We're throwing it away to pay off debt.

It puts tremendous pressure on every segment of the economy.

But the second thing is we got to get government out of the way.

So many business leaders say, how can I ask them, how can I how can the federal government help you?

And they say, get out of the way.

We have too much regulation.

It creates too much cost on us, and a burden gets passed on to the consumer.

But the last thing is it's not just about lowering cost, it's about redeveloping our workforce.

We told a lie to a whole generation that it was college or bust.

We got to start developing skills back in high schools and technical schools to build this workforce so that they can have opportunity for a lifetime.

Mike Collins you're next.

Thank you for the question.

Yes, we need to continue Donald Trump's America First agenda.

It's one of the reasons that I ran.

I mean, I was in the private sector during that first administration and understood not just what those tax policies did for me, but for my company, my community in this country.

And we have gotten back to a lot of those with the tax cuts that we did last year, but we've got to continue cutting regulations.

Permits are another big issue that we've had out there.

As a matter of fact, it's one of the biggest problems that we've got today.

We get our regulations under control.

Get this permitting, under control, make affordable people's lives again.

The affordability issues out there are a huge issue, especially for our younger people.

That's another reason I ran, because the young people out there today just do not have the opportunities that we had when I was their age.

So we continue to look at America first, always, and then we make sure that we get the government off the backs of these hardworking men and women out there.

Jonathan McColumn your response?

Thank you.

National security is vested, is under the National Security Strategy, we can find that there is an American first theory or plan that's done by.

That's part of the president's plan.

But there are two other than what the other gentlemen have.

Gentlemen have stated, I believe that there are two areas that we need to really follow up on to ensure that we have responsibility and accountability in the government.

One is oversight.

I want to develop a strategic oversight that leads us, that helps us find the funds so that we can look at decreasing funding or spending as a result of having this deficit of $39 trillion.

It's unaccountable, it's unresponsible, and we have to do something about that.

The next part is the national security strategy.

I support what the president is doing overseas in Iran right now.

As a veteran, I know that Iran has maimed and killed so many U.S.

Soldiers, and I support this strategy.

And I have a plan and a vision to help continue that.

But to fortify it.

John Coyne it is your turn to respond.

Well, you've got to get back to.

Jon Ossoff.

Jon Ossoff been around a while, raised a tremendous amount of money.

He's raised $57 million so far in this campaign.

And Actblue has raised in the last quarter, about $565 million.

And when somebody raises that kind of money, it makes it impossible for people to compete with them, compete with them.

The problem is otherwise, and you look at the national debt and such, our our expensive have gone up, but we're we're handling over 25 million additional people that have moved here since the Biden administration took over.

That's a big responsibility.

But with the inflation, the values have gone up substantially, are UN shown.

Uh, assets are $220 trillion against a $40 trillion debt.

So the Democrats are not going to stop spending money.

All right, Mr.

Coyne, I have to stop you there.

Buddy.

Carter, you are up next.

When President Trump was reelected in 2024, he promised two major things.

First of all, that he would make this country more prosperous and that he would make it safer.

I would submit to you that he's done both of those things.

Obviously, he's made us safer.

He's made the world safer.

He negotiated over eight peace treaties in the world.

Right now, he is addressing the leading state sponsor of terrorism in the world, a 47 year war that Iran has waged against America and the world.

He is addressing that, making our world safer in our country safer.

He's also made us more prosperous.

He's made us more prosperous by leading the fight on the Working Families Tax Cut Act, putting more money in your pocket.

And that's important right now.

People are struggling, and we all understand that.

But we're putting more money in your pocket.

Look at what the IRS says.

They says they are telling us that refunds are up 11%.

That's significant.

We've got to make sure that we continue with these policies of America First policies that President Trump has started.

We need to finish them in the next two years of his of his administration.

All right.

We are moving along nicely.

Our panel will now ask a question to an individual candidate.

We're going to start with Tim Mitchell asking a question for Jonathan McColumn.

Once again, you will have 60s for a response.

Hi, Mr.

McCollum.

I was looking through your campaign materials and your website, and I saw that you said you were an an advocate for health care for all.

And I wanted to ask you, how do you think Congress should accomplish ensuring that every American citizen has health care?

Okay, just to reiterate and specifically, I believe my words were health care availability for all.

And the the way that we can do this, I believe that we need to finally do something really big on health care.

Let's tear down the borders.

Let's create five regions in Georgia, composed of ten states.

Each one of these states, individuals can compete within these ten states.

I believe that the competition will lower the cost of insurance, and I believe that the companies will pass on the oversight.

I mean, the overhead that they pay in building headquarters in 50 states.

So I believe as a result, we can expect lower price insurance, and we can expect those people who need insurance to have to compete, to have to compete with more or have access to more competitors or more health insurance providers.

Lowering the insurance rates.

Abby.

Kousouris, a question now for Buddy Carter.

Congressman Carter, you introduced legislation called the Red, white and Blue Land Bill renaming Greenland.

As such, there were people in your own district who said it was unserious and that you might have been carrying it as well for for the president.

Um, what would you say to those people, and especially those who are concerned when we're dealing with an affordability crisis here in the state of Georgia?

Well, first of all, I applaud the president for what he's trying to do with Greenland.

We need Greenland is strategically located to where we would be protecting ourselves from Russia and China.

And that's extremely important.

We also need their critical minerals, all of those things.

And I applaud the president for attempting to try to see if we could work out a deal where we could apply, where we could obtain that land.

That is important.

Now, as far as the naming goes, you know, it doesn't matter what the name of it is, but it would be a win-win situation.

It would be a win for them.

They would become a part of America.

That would be a win for them.

It would be a win for us because we would get a strategic location and that would help us militarily.

It would help our defense.

All of that's extremely important, and that's why I applaud the president for his attempts to do this.

Jon Ossoff, of course, is opposed to that, as you would fully expect.

But the people that I hear from, they are telling me, hey, that's the kind of leadership that we need from this president.

All right.

The questions continue.

Tia, it's your turn for John Coyne.

Mr.

Coyne, I you mentioned that you've run for office before when you ran for Senate ten years ago.

It was as a Democrat.

Can you tell us what of your policy positions changed in that time to lead you to switch parties?

Well, you know, um, back in 2016, it was a different parameters that were there.

Johnny Isakson was on his way out of, um, politics.

And, uh, I ran as a Democrat because I'm a centrist.

Okay.

You got to look at everything on both sides.

When I ran before, previously, you could divide the room of 1,000 people, 50, 50.

And to get a few from this 500 over to this 500 is a task.

And I used to say, if you can get somebody to move over, take less, or do something they've never done before, you've accomplished something.

And that's what I tried to do.

Um, I thought I had a great chance until the party brought in Mr.

Barksdale with the hat and his $10 million.

And it gets back to money.

But I I've been on both sides.

I've had a relationship with six different presidents and all, but.

Well, actually two were Democrats.

So, um, with that, that's, um, my position.

We're going to have to look at what's out there today.

All right.

Thank you sir, we have a question now from Mike Collins from Abby.

Abby.

Congressman Collins, your office faces an ethics violation about your chief of staff hiring an intern who he was reportedly in a romantic relationship with.

Uh, that intern being called a ghost intern.

Uh, now that those allegations have come out, has your office taken any steps towards accountability?

And what do you think that that says to about your leadership going forward?

Listen, it's a bogus claim.

It's an anonymous person filed it.

Anybody can file a complaint.

The ethics committee hasn't even decided to take it up.

And if they do, we'll be glad to answer any questions that they may have.

But in the meantime, I'm going to stay out there and I'm going to talk about what's really affecting Georgia.

And that's affordability issues with our younger people out there.

It's about our farmers who need help with a level playing field.

It's about workers out there that have been infringed on and getting the government off their back and helping the American people.

Tia, it is your turn to ask Derek Dooley.

Mr.

Dooley.

Um, you were talking about listening to constituents and they are concerned about the economy and the size of the federal government.

What do you think is the single most wasteful government agency or government program, and how do you think Congress should fix it?

Well, there's a lot of waste going on, for sure.

Tia.

And but I would say where we need to really get going is on the health care issue.

As the father of a type one diabetic and a husband of a physician in a rural area, I can really understand everybody's frustration with the cost of health care.

And we got to do three things.

Number one is we got to open up transparency.

This is the only industry where you find out how much something costs after the service is delivered, and it just kills competition.

But the second thing is we got to put patients and doctors back in charge.

Health care decisions should be made by patients, doctors and families, not by insurance companies, not by government employees.

But the last thing is we need innovation.

Innovation.

This old system is broken.

It's not working.

And we can use our job creators and entrepreneurs to drive down costs.

Get a lot of this bloat out, but most importantly, deliver quality access of health care.

No matter what zip code you're in.

So that concludes our first round.

The candidates will now ask a question to an opponent of their choice.

So you will have 30s to ask the question, 60s to respond.

And the person who asked the question will get a 32nd rebuttal, and I'm going to play the role of the stern timekeeper here.

So, Mike Collins, you get the first question for one of your opponents?

Thank you.

I'm going to ask my question to Mr.

McCollum.

Mr.

McCollum.

We both talk a lot about our veterans and our veteran issues out there, and I just want to know if there's any federal issues that you see out there that we can engage in that will help make the veterans care that they deserve a lot better.

It's as a veteran, it's very important to the veterans, to the 700,000 veterans in Georgia that we pay close attention to their health benefits and the time it takes to award their disability claims.

Uh, once, once disability claims are submitted, uh, sometimes it can the process is cumbersome and sometimes bureaucratic.

It is better and has improved a bit more.

But I think that if we paid attention to that piece, their health care and where they can access health care without the the impediment of time, meaning the amount of time between an appointment is set and between and it being executed.

Those are the critical pieces.

So if I was to really draw this one line and put a box around that, I would say, let's look at their health care.

They deserve it.

They've served the time.

They've given what only 1% of the population is given.

And I think that we will do better if we can support their health benefits overall.

All right.

Derek Dooley, please ask a question to one of your opponents.

I'll go.

Mr.

Coyne, I'm going to ask you, if you're elected and you can only accomplish one thing during your time in office, what would it be?

Oh, that's a loaded question.

Uh, most likely what I would do is, um, you know, I believe there's pretty much in this country health care for everybody.

I've studied all that.

Um, you know, we've got, we've got to control the number of people in this country, the ones that come in, the ones they come in that have children.

And, uh, we're approaching 350 million people.

And I think population control with the assets that this country has and the infrastructure that it lacks, that's probably the most important problem.

I, I know that the president has the border locked down now, but what happens if a Democrat gets in in 19, uh, or 2028?

Um, they'll be right back where we started before.

A rebuttal.

Go ahead.

Well, I asked that because I've been asked that a lot over the last nine months.

And for me, it's term limits.

I think term limits is the most important thing we can do in our country to get Congress working better for the people again.

And that's why I've pledged that if I'm elected, I'm only going to serve two terms, and I'm going to fight every day to get it over the finish line.

And it's also why it's one of five things that I've promised in our Georgia first contract of how we're going to change business as usual up in DC.

Mr.

Collins, I'm going to give you a rebuttal here to Mr.

McCollum.

I didn't realize if I could do that or not and how you did that, but thank you for your service.

First of all, we owe you all a debt of gratitude.

We can never repay you.

But I want to give a shout out to our our secretary Collins.

I think he's doing a great job.

What we have to do is improve the efficiency and productivity of the VA period.

We've got to make sure that our veterans have access, easy access, not just the three major facilities that we have here in, uh, in Georgia, but all the many mobile clinics that they're putting up across the state and make sure if they want to cross state lines that they can do that as well.

But all right, on to Jonathan McColumn.

It is your turn to ask a question.

Okay, great.

Why don't I ask this this question to buddy?

I want to make sure we balance out a little bit.

Um, life.

Tell me about life.

What's your opinion now that now that the Supreme Court has made a determination that Roe versus Wade is inconsistent with the Constitution, and it's now in the state of Georgia, the state has a responsibility.

Uh, what's your opinion on how Georgia should move forward with this process on determining whether or not on the life of babies?

Well, first of all, I want to applaud the legislature for passing the heartbeat bill and applaud the governor and and everyone who was involved in it.

Look, I'm pro-life and I don't apologize for that.

That's something I feel very strongly about.

Yes.

I think the the Supreme Court made the right decision and putting it back to the States and letting them make the decisions.

That was very important.

Now we've got the heartbeat bill here in the state of Georgia, and that's something that I'm proud to be in the state of Georgia and proud to have that bill.

In fact, you know, if it were up to me, we wouldn't have abortion.

But at the same time, this is as good as we can do.

And I applaud the legislature for doing that.

I'll.

Just say.

Sure, from a biblical worldview.

And that's the way I see things from a biblical worldview, speaking to the 60% of Georgians, I am the only candidate that is certified under Georgia Life Alliance.

And I think that as a minister and as a clergy, I think it's very important to support the things that are biblically focused on how we see life.

And I'm grateful to represent Georgia Life Alliance as we move forward in a way that strongly considers life forward.

Buddy Carter your next.

Question will be to Representative Collins.

Mike, we all know, as has been stated, that you're under federal investigation by your own Republican colleagues for misuse of taxpayer funds, funds with, um and with your aid.

If taxpayers can't trust you to, to properly steward their money, how can they trust you to be a US senator?

You know, buddy, I can tell through the voice that you you know, how the polling is going out there.

This is a total nothing burger.

It's an anonymous complaint that anyone can file.

But I find it ironic that a career politician has talking about ethics.

And your career.

It's been littered with complaints, crooked land deals.

You've even tripled your your net worth.

And all you got to do is go Google Buddy Carter ethics, FBI and you'll see that.

And I also find it very embarrassing, buddy, that you're out there campaigning as a conservative, but you vote as a liberal.

I mean, you voted for gun confiscation and for amnesty for illegals.

So if you want a conservative, he's not your buddy.

Mr.

Carter, you have a rebuttal.

I do.

Thanks for not answering the question, Mike.

The truth is, is this is a bipartisan committee, the ethics committee, you know, it's made up of ten people, five Republicans, five Democrats, and they voted unanimously to move forward with this.

My I get the rebuttal, Mike, if you're our candidate, we lose.

You're under federal investigation.

I'm telling you that the Democrats will eat that up and we will lose again.

The Ethics.

Committee is not even taking it up.

You get a rebuttal again, if, uh, Mr.

Collins speaks.

The ethics Committee has decided to move forward with it.

They will decide what they do with it later on.

Yes, but the ten members, five Republicans, your own colleagues.

John Coyne, you can ask a question now to one of your opponents.

Can I make a brief statement?

You know, Jeff, I've run four times, a long time ago, started with my brother in law, Roland Barnes was murdered in the courthouse in Fulton County.

I never in all the elections, in all the debates, never said anything negative about opponent.

And since these races have started, especially with governor, it looks like a war.

Do you have a question now?

Yeah, I do, um, and I'm going to put you on the spot.

Brigadier general column.

Um, the other night on uh, The Greg Gutfeld Show, Joey Jones was on disabled vet.

He was asked a question.

And when I saw saw what he was asked, it said, I need an answer.

You know, it's out there now with all that's happened in our country and all the illegals that have come in, which I mentioned and all the politicians that were controlling that, including the vice president, Homeland Security director, they asked Joey Jones, do you think that all these people have committed treason that voted to allow all these criminals with long records that hurt and killed and trafficked children?

Do you think they've committed treason?

Well.

That's a very good question.

I think that the reason that Georgians are so, um, so pessimistic about the political environment and that they're so concerned about what they hear is that they they hear the extreme of solutions.

Uh, I'd be careful about calling anybody treasonous unless it's been proven.

I believe that it was wrong and it was against the law and inconsistent with our law to allow people to come into the country illegally.

They were wrong.

And all those behind it, perhaps they should be punished, but I don't know whether to define it as treasonous.

We've got to be careful.

We've got to tone the rhetoric down and ensure that that the that the law does exactly what it's supposed to do.

We don't need to create any more laws.

We just need to honor the laws.

In the book, The Truth being told, the people should not have come allowed to come into the country illegally from the first place.

That was the first law that was broken.

Now to deal with the people who did break the law.

That's another that's another situation.

And unfortunately, it's in the political environment.

Mr.

Quinn.

You must have watched the show because that's exactly almost to the point with Joey Jones said that this group should be prosecuted.

This group should not be here.

But it didn't really solve the problem because the same people that are running for office today that are the same ones that will eventually do the same thing down the road and will be in worse condition than we are now.

If it wasn't for Donald Trump and some of the others, we would not have corrected this problem so fast.

Thank you sir.

All right, gentlemen, thank you.

You're watching the Republican primary debate for the U.S.

Senate.

We will now go back to the panel, who will ask questions to the candidate of their choice until we run out of time.

Tia Mitchell, we begin with you.

Representative Collins, I'd like to start with you.

You represent the town of Social Circle, where the federal government had initially planned to open an Ice detention center.

Do you think the mostly Republican leaders in that town were justified in cutting resources and pushing back on the initial plans to open that detention center?

Why or why not?

Well, let's let's just walk through this real quick and see how we got to where we're at, number one.

I mean, the reason we're where we're at is because of Jon Ossoff and Joe Biden letting just millions and millions of people pour across that border and invade our country.

Uh, it's one of the reasons that, uh, that I actually wrote the Laken Riley act to help get rid of these people.

But when you take a look at Social circle and they wanted to do their part to help, uh, but at the end of the day, they didn't have the resources.

And so that's why we went to bat for them to talk about issues that this just wasn't the right fit or the right place to put that detention center.. Abby.

Kousouris, your turn.

Coach Dooley.

Abortion access.

It's a very controversial issue that splits voters here in Georgia.

Your wife is an ob gyn, has her experience, uh, changed your own, uh, your own outlook on abortion access.

Why or why not?

And can you go on the record and say what, where you stand on access to abortion and any possible restrictions?

Well, let me start by saying my wife has impacted me for 31 years.

Ever since we got married.

She's made me a better person.

She made me a better husband and made me a better dad.

So she has tremendous influence over me.

The issue of abortion has divided our country my entire lifetime, and I stand right where Donald Trump is, right where the Supreme Court is.

I think it's very important that we that decision be made at the states.

I think states are better equipped to understand what their people want.

Uh, they're closer to the people to affect change.

And so I don't support any federal intervention at all into this issue.

It should be for the states.

And I agree with President Trump and the Supreme Court on.

That, too.

So we go back to you.

I just would like to follow up with Mr.

Dooley.

Can you be specific and say whether you support Georgia's six week abortion ban?

Well, what I can tell you is, as a federal U.S.

Senator, that I think that the federal government has no role.

The heartbeat bill has been the law of the land for six years, and it's going to continue that way.

And the federal government shouldn't intervene.

Do you personally support Georgia's six week abortion ban?

Well, I it's not a it's not the way I would have written it to you.

But listen, that's the law of the land.

It's been that way for six years.

And I just don't think the U.S.

Senate and federal government should weigh in on it.

Abby.

Mr.

Quinn, a basic expectation for candidates is to be able to clearly communicate their platform to to voters.

I checked on Thursday night to your website and it reads coming soon.

I didn't see a biography.

I didn't see a platform.

Can you go on the record about three issues that are most important to you, and what do you think that it says?

If you can't write down that platform so that voters who are going to the polls tomorrow for early voting can can see it plain in black and white?

Well, first of all, I've run four other times.

The platform is out there.

It's been modified.

We ran into a little AI problem with godaddy.com and it didn't get uploaded properly.

And we didn't find out until we were at NBC down in Macon on Thursday.

Okay, so we got hit.

If anybody pulls me up, you'll find me in our campaigns.

You'll find me on Facebook.

You can review everything I've ever done, right down to abortion issues, gun rights, immigration, big banks.

I took on two big banks, Citibank, JP Morgan Chase, during the financial collapse and won.

So there's a lot out there.

What I stand for.

Um, I know you're a nice young lady and, uh, but you're gonna have to go.

And this gentleman, the general, said, I didn't know you exist.

I said, well, he didn't do his homework because I'm out there.

You just got to go and look, because we pulled it up last night and said, how did this happen?

So, um, as far as my issues, they haven't changed.

I'm an open book.

All right, Mr.

Quinn, we have to wrap it up there.

Tia.

Representative Carter, I'd like to come to you.

I haven't forgotten about you.

As you know, Republicans alone are expected to pass a reconciliation bill that would end the partial government shutdown affecting the Department of Homeland Security.

But there is disagreement on whether it should be a clean bill that only includes immigration enforcement money, or should other things be added, as some Republicans want, such as money, to build President Trump's ballroom?

I want to know which approach you, um, that you support, knowing that adding more things could prolong the shutdown.

Look, reconciliation is not an easy process.

We made it look easy when we did the Working Families Tax Cut Act, because we were so determined.

And we will do it again.

And I agree with the skinny reconciliation package, just concentrating on what we've got to get done.

That's the way and I haven't heard this, about wanting to include the ballroom in there that's being paid by with private funds.

It's not that so, but I have heard that they wanted to add some other things to it.

Keep in mind that we can also do more than one reconciliation package.

So there's reconciliation 2.0.

And then we can come back and do a reconciliation 3.0.

All of that is the way that we're planning on doing it.

Leadership is proposed that, and I and the Senate has already sent us over a budget resolution.

Remember, you got to do a budget resolution first.

I'm on the Budget Committee.

That was that's not an easy process, but the Senate's taken care of that, and we are moving forward now to get this done.

Abby.

Brigadier general McCallum, my question is for you.

Do you support the US involvement in the war in Iran, and what should Georgia voters understand about the goals timeline for withdrawal costs?

What role should Congress also play, and how transparent should leadership be with the public?

Okay, great.

Great question.

First of all, I think that, um, the, the, the president of the United States, Secretary of War, I think, have done a yeoman's job.

And to those who are listening to me right now, I want you to know that Iran has been such a great harm to the United States, uh, throughout the world using its proxies, Hamas, Houthis and Hezbollah and even ISIS.

So I believe that it's time, and I appreciate his courage.

And that's what it takes to be a leader.

It takes courage to make a decision at the right time.

It's unfortunate that commanders and chiefs in the past have not done this.

So I think the timeline is moving good.

I believe that we have what's called centers of gravity.

For us, it's the it's the Strait of Hormuz for for Iran, it is the FARC island.

But I believe between the two that we can use the tool of influence called diplomacy.

And I believe that in a timeline, this is going to end real soon, and fuel is going to decrease as a result of it all.

We need to take.

We.

We need to honor this, and we need to do the things that we're doing to hold Iran accountable.

Tia.

Mr.

Dooley, do you think the Affordable Care Act should be replaced?

If so, with what?

And are there any good parts of the Affordable Care Act that should be maintained?

Well, just as I mentioned on health care, I think that everybody out there in Georgia who's a citizen deserves equal opportunity to get quality health care and have access to health care, regardless of your zip code.

But, you know, when you look at a lot of the things going on with the Affordable Care Act, what I don't believe is that people who are making plenty of money, hundreds of thousands of dollars, that the federal government should be subsidizing their health care as well.

So I support just like I said, we need a lot of change in our health care system as it relates to transparency, as it relates to putting patients and doctors first.

And as it relates to innovation, because the system we're in now is not working.

And this has been a total failure of Congress.

This has been an issue for 20, 30 years.

It's getting worse and worse.

And we got to get some serious leadership up there to get change.

Abby.

Congressman Collins, we follow each other on X, and I believe especially seeing some of your posts, um, you are bold, sometimes combative on there with people who are posting.

How much of that is who you are and how much of it is what you believe that Republican voters want to see.

Listen, we like to have a lot of fun on X. We always like to say we get them in with the memes and then we we get them converted with the policy that.

We also push.

So I, and I understand there's some times that, that we may not post exactly what people like.

I get that.

I try to look at everything that we do post and on occasion that we haven't.

And things didn't go the way I wanted it to.

I also took care of that too, with the with the personnel and making sure that we had the right people in there helping us get our message out and get it out in a way that people like to hear.

It.

Tip time for me to ask everyone a question.

Sure.

I would like to ask the entire panel, starting with Representative Carter.

Should members of Congress be banned from trading stocks in individual companies?

Look, I'm fine with that if that's what everybody wants to do.

But I think you better be careful, because there are a lot of people who are opposed to this.

And we've got, you know, Congress is a citizen legislature.

And and we have different people from all walks.

Of life and from all levels of income.

Some of the people, it will deter them from running.

And that that frightens me in a way.

Look, I don't I've got a lot of stock.

I don't manage any of it.

It's all managed by a third party.

So I don't have any control over any of it.

That's the decision I made personally.

But at the same time, you got to keep in mind that you, you you've got a diversity here.

And the people who are members of Congress.

So some of them, yeah, they abuse it.

And we should have rules and regulations on it.

But some of them also, it may deter them from running.

Let's go right down the line with this question, Mr.

Collins.

Sure.

To you, yes.

I think we should ban stock trading.

As a matter of fact, I'm an original co-sponsor on that bill, and there's a few reasons.

If you just take a look and maybe there's only a few bad actors out there, but it's always the case if there's a few bad apples, the whole basket is bad.

And the problem is you lose confidence.

And the American people, if they don't have confidence in the process or they think that you're up there doing something nefarious, then then that's a problem.

And so if this is a way to fix it, I have no problem with it.

I, I'm right there with them.

Let's, let's ban that and get on with the, get on with what we're supposed to be doing up there.

And that is getting this place back on track and getting that federal government under control, getting our debt down.

That's the number one.

That is the biggest threat we have to our country right now.

Mr.

Coyne.

Well, it's kind of an open question, but there's a resolution to it.

People have been required in politics to put their money in a blind trust, not where they can't have anything to say over it.

They may not want to get get the get the returns or be satisfied with it.

But blind trust eliminates these consistent investigations is where the money came from.

What do you do with it?

Um and such.

So that's what I would recommend.

If you have stocks like.

Mr.. Mr.

Carter's in a pharmacy business.

I developed a lot of properties.

If you run for politics, put your investments in a blind trust and then you're not, you're not supposed to know what you own.

Mr.. Dooley.

We absolutely need to ban this nonsense.

And I've been beating the drum on this for over nine months.

You know, so many of these people sit on committees.

They have access to information that none of us have, and all of a sudden you see their personal wealth go off the charts.

I think it's shameful.

I think it erodes trust.

And we need to change the rules.

And that's not the only thing, because that's also a part of our Georgia first contract.

But it also goes to what happens during government shutdowns.

I see these guys going around the state going on vacation when Congress doesn't do its fundamental job of funding the government, we need to change what happens.

We need to start taking their pay away and end in their privileges.

That's why I've said I will never take a check.

If the government shuts down, and if elected, I will not trade stocks or crypto and use that office to get rich.

Mr.

McColumn.

Thank you.

Uh, I'm careful about absolutes.

Now.

What I'm what the things that are that that anger us is that we have certain people in Congress who made life miserable for the rest of, for, for the rest of, uh, congressional representatives.

It's wrong.

And it's like crony capitalism.

Capitalism is great, but there's always someone who wants to, uh, unfortunately provide or do something shady while serving in the military as an acquisition officer, I was a contracting officer, so I wrote contracts.

So I had to report on a oh g e 450.

It's called all of my stock transactions.

So what I believe we can do and should do is that we probably need to develop a lockbox.

What you start with probably in, you probably can't change or add that much to it.

Uh, that much to your stock portfolio so that we can ensure that you don't, you don't, you're not benefiting from the laws that you pass.

But we got to be real careful about absolutes because we can stop good people or prevent good people from going in to serve on the United States as a senator.

All right, Abby, your turn.

My question is for all of you guys as well.

And we can start with Congressman Carter.

When was the last time that you think that the Republican Party or President Donald Trump might have gotten it wrong?

And what would you do differently in this in this role in the Senate?

I think the Republican Party got it wrong when we let John Ossoff become a senator.

We should have never let that happen.

When he was elected.

We should have beaten him.

We've got to put our best candidate forward.

We got to win everybody on this stage, everybody watching probably agrees he is not representing our values.

So we have got to make sure that we are electing the right candidates, that we're nominating the right candidates and that we're electing the right candidates.

That's what's so vitally important.

We've got to get our policies through.

I think we're right on policy.

I think the American people agree we're right on policy.

We need to stay together more often than we do.

Sometimes we get a little divided, and that's okay.

It's a big tent, and I understand that.

But we need to make sure that we are getting Republican policies.

Elections are important.

Elections are important because policies are important.

Mr.

Collins.

Thank you.

You know, I campaigned on President Trump's policies.

I wanted them back, uh, because I knew what they had done for me.

As a matter of fact, during this last election cycle, I went all over the country campaigning with President Trump, and I actually went out on my own and picked up six more candidates to try to get them across the finish line as well, to make sure that we had the right people in Congress.

Because, yeah, it's one thing to have an R beside your name, but that doesn't mean that you're willing to take the tough votes and to back up President Trump and the policies that we need to push to get our country back on track.

Jon Ossoff he's never represented Georgia values.

He doesn't represent the people.

The values of this state.

That's the the whole goal right here is to get rid of Jon Ossoff.

In order to do that, you need to put the right candidate up.

That would be the first and foremost thing.

We need to look at that.

Now.

Mr.

Coyne.

Well, it's a simple solution.

John Ossoff and Raphael Warnock would not be in office if in the runoffs, 477,000 Republicans should have voted, or they both would have won in a landslide.

I hear this every all the time.

I talked to Eric Erickson.

He says, why?

Why the Republicans do this?

They don't show up.

Donald Trump, I've known him a very long time, says the Republicans don't show up.

But the Democrats stick together like glue.

They always have.

They always will.

And if you ruffle their feathers, they will come after you.

And they have a lot of money to do it.

So that that's that's deal.

You can't get Republicans to show up.

And I've run.

So and you'll see that the turnout.

I will tell you in a little bit how this race is going to play out.

And it's going to be tied to turnout.

Mr.

Dooley.

I don't think the failure has been from the Republican Party.

To me, the failure has been from the members of Congress.

I mean, we got issues that 85% of America want.

Take the Save America, for example.

We we want to get voter ID and proof of citizenship.

And we got control of the House and the Senate.

We can't get it across the finish line.

We're living on executive orders because Donald Trump is doing a great job trying to make change.

He closed the border, for example.

We're getting rid of a lot of the bad guys.

But what has Congress done to codify this so it doesn't get peeled back?

And this is my point, why we need new leadership.

We got to get people up there working together, not relying on executive orders where they can solve long term problems for the American people that don't change every four years.

Mr.

McColumn sure.

Would you repeat the question?

I want to make sure the premise seems to have been muddled over the over the over the answers.

When was the last or what was the last time you think that either President Donald Trump or the Republican Party got it wrong, and how would you handle it differently?

Good.

Well, I tell you what the my premise is this they're they're the greatest book ever written leads us to believe that a house divided against itself cannot stand.

And we're seeing examples of that.

And we're seeing that we can't have movement even when we have the winning solutions.

And they're right within our coffers.

And yet we we allow our victories to be stolen, given over to defeat, because we're not a collective body.

The Republican Party often acts, acts individually, and we're not connected.

I would love to see the party come together more to discuss things behind closed doors before coming out and making clear determinations so that you can speak with one voice, and that one voice will permeate and diffuse across the great divide so that everybody can clearly understand what the president stands and where Congress stands, especially the Republicans in Congress.

All right, let's do some individual questions.

Now, when the questions are asked by our panel, it will not be one size fits all.

It will be individual.

So you started off, if you would.. Representative Collins, I want to come back to you.

Do you think Congress should pass laws that prohibit states from regulating cryptocurrency?

And should there be federal laws that prevent states from regulating data centers?

Well, let's take let's take crypto first.

The genius act is out there.

That's a good piece of legislation.

I think the federal government needs to put some guardrails on that.

Um, as far as the data centers, let's talk about we're in a race with China on AI, so we need to make sure that we're in the lead on that.

But at the end of the day, if the local community doesn't want a data center, then that should be their prerogative.

What the federal government should do with the data center.

Number one, we should make sure that there is financing available, because we're going to need these data centers.

But number two, we need to make sure that the infrastructure doesn't impact local communities.

And you're seeing that that's one of the things that I know the president was talking about when he said that these people that want to put in these data centers should pay for that infrastructure, whether it's the electricity or the water, and you're seeing that move towards that.

So we're we're making good strides with data centers and the communities that want them.

They'll get them.

Abby.

Congressman Carter, with your approach and with your background, what do you think should be the approach towards health care as we continue to have more Georgians who are getting who are losing enrollment and losing coverage?

Well, thank you for that question.

And look, health care is my focus being a pharmacist.

That's what I've really concentrated on.

And I might add that earlier this year we got some insurance reform, PBM reform.

That is the most substantial reform we've ever had.

We also extended telehealth as well as maternal mortality.

It's always bothered me that Georgia was so high in maternal mortality.

So I want to address that, and I continue to address that.

What we've got to do is what President Trump is is proposing, and that is create a competitive marketplace.

President Trump has recently said, stop sending the money to the insurance companies.

Start sending it to the individuals.

Let them choose what insurance they want and let them create a competitive marketplace.

Look, we all want the same thing when it comes to health care.

We want accessible, affordable, quality health care.

We can do that and we can bring prices down through competition.

That's the way we're going to do it.

That's what we need to be doing.

We're having to subsidize the Affordable Care Act.

Anytime you have to subsidize a federal program, it tells you it ain't working.

Tip Mr.

Dooley, if Republicans retain control in the Senate, should they get rid of the filibuster to pass legislation?

That is a priority of President Trump, such as the Save America Act?

Well, let's start with the Save America Act.

I think we can get it done through reconciliation.

And I think it's the most common sense piece of legislation that you can pass.

I mean, over 80% of the people want it.

It's just common sense that you got to show proof of citizenship and ID in order to vote.

And anytime people talk about changing the filibuster, changing a lot of our rules, the first thing that I think of is, how would we have liked that if Joe Biden and the Democratic controlled Congress would have had it 2020-2022?

Uh, there would have been things like packing the court, new states, probably a lot of things that we can't peel back.

And so anytime we're talking about something that has sort of been a part of our institution and carried us over the last 200 plus years, I think we've got to be real careful about changing it.

That is all the time we have for questions.

And the candidates will now have 60s for a closing statement.

Jonathan McColumn, let's begin with you.

Uh, I didn't get a question from the last round.

Uh, I, I think the way that we have done this with the panelists, quite frankly, is we have done it not by any kind of scientific breakdown of numbers, but we have simply done it by ping pong questions.

And if you were not asked a question, that's sort of the luck of the draw.

There was a no no sense of trying to shut you out or no desire to do that.

It's simply as time has played out.

That's kind of where we are right now.

Okay, okay.

All right.

So Jonathan McColumn, let's begin with you.

Closing statement.

60s closing statement.

Six Georgians.

We have lost this election three consecutive times.

Republicans.

We've lost three consecutive times, and we've lost that because we don't use the number one criterion for selection, I believe, and that is executive level leadership.

I will tell you, there is no one that's running, not even the incumbent that has the executive level leadership have led more people.

Uh, has direct, has directed more money for the United States government than anybody here.

And I believe that it's time for make for that to change.

We've got to make that a consideration because we should not lose this, this race.

Republicans, let me ask you a question, and this is to you all to the Republicans and all of you who are listening.

If the president had to have someone to explain what's going on, the things that are ongoing right here in about Iran, whom would he ask?

A retired general or the others?

Go to Jonathan mccolumn.com if you have any other questions or concerns.

Thank you.

John Coyne, it's your turn.

Well, just, um, to to look at this, I'm the oldest one on the stage.

I've been, I've been doing this since 1980.

Didn't run back then.

You have two candidates that both have seats at the table as U.S.

Congressman.

They're giving that up to run for Senate against a very high opponent, high quality opponent, because he does everything the Democrats want him to do.

And he's a very good mouthpiece.

But I don't believe Jon Ossoff can beat me head to head in a debate.

That's just a simple process of it.

Everybody here has some experience.

I have more.

I've dealt with six different presidents, and I've done a lot of things for Donald Trump.

That's just what it is.

I want their vote, the vote of the Republican Party.

Mr.

Collins, you are next.

Thank you.

You know, most of the problems we face at the federal level come from a broken Senate.

In 31 years of being in the trucking business, has allowed me to get two pieces of legislation passed, signed into law by two presidents from two different parties.

And I didn't sell out my conservative values to do that.

I used my business experience to just reach across the aisle and find a way to pass good common sense policy that's actually saving lives.

I mean, the Laken Riley act is responsible for removing 20,000 illegal criminals off of our streets.

And yeah, people call me a conservative workhorse.

And it's true.

The good Lord put me on this earth to work.

And I absolutely love it.

So we've got issues and we've got politicians that say it.

Either it can't be done or they just don't have a backbone to try.

We must put Americans first.

We must take care of our people.

We've got to get the government off the backs of the hard working men and women in this country.

Just make life more affordable.

I'm Mike Collins, y'all help me get to the U.S.

Senate, and this old trucker will deliver.

Derek Dooley.

A lot of people have asked me, Derek, why'd you give up a three decade career of coaching?

You love it.

You could have kept doing it.

And it really comes down to one thing comes down to the pride I have in this country.

I believe in the ideals it stands for.

I believe in the opportunities it's created for so many young people.

I've seen it firsthand.

And let me tell you something.

I have three kids, and I know many of you have kids and grandkids that you worry about.

And I can assure you the environment around them is not the same as it was when I grew up.

And all I care about is when we pass this country on to the next generation, that they have the same kind of pride in it that we do.

And we got a lot of work to do.

And it starts with leadership.

It starts with sending a different kind of leader up to DC people with some common sense, people that represent our values Georgia values, but most importantly, they're up there for the right reasons, not for their own political career.

They're up there to work with others to solve problems for you.

And that's my promise as your next U.S.

Senator.

Buddy Carter, you get the final statement.

Ladies and gentlemen, today you have heard a consensus.

And that is, we have got to get rid of John Ossoff.

He does not represent the values of the state of Georgia.

You've also heard that we got to win.

And in order to win, we've got to put our best candidate forward.

And if you don't put your best candidate forward, you're not going to win.

Mike Collins is under federal investigation for misusing taxpayers money.

If Mike Collins is our candidate, we lose and we can't afford to lose.

We've got to win.

Now, I got to ask you, who's going to carry our message?

Who's going to deliver our message?

Let me ask you, who do you see on Fox News?

Who do you see on CNN with Scott Jennings fighting the Democrats?

You see me?

I'm the one who carries the message.

I'm the one who can deliver the message.

I'm the one who can win.

Ladies and gentlemen, we live in the greatest country in the world here about people trying to break into this country.

But you don't hear about anybody trying to break out.

And like President Trump, I still believe.

I still believe our greatest times are ahead of us.

That's why I'm asking you to vote for me for the United States Senate, so that I can go help President Trump deliver on those greatest times.

Thank you.

Gentlemen.

Thank you very much.

Early voting begins Monday, April 27th.

It runs through May 15.

Election day is Tuesday, May 19.

We thank all of the candidates, and we thank our panel of journalists, too.

We'd also like to thank the Atlanta Press Club and Georgia Public Broadcasting for arranging today's debate.

I'm Jeff Hullinger, thanks for joining us for the Atlanta Press Club.

Loudermilk-Young Debate Series.