By admin 
Contrary to what you learned in civics class, the grease that keeps the wheels of American democracy turning isn’t voters, legislation, or donor cash; it’s staffers. Without the armies of aides, interns, and volunteers who answer phones in Capitol Hill offices, draft bills, and staff campaigns, lawmaking and reelection bids across the country would grind to a halt.
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But who you surround yourself with is part of who you are, which means staffers can also create problems for the politicians they work for. That’s what’s currently happening in the race for U.S. Senate in Georgia, one of a handful of elections this fall that will determine which party controls the Senate. Rep. Mike Collins, a two-term Republican running for the seat, is on defense after multiple people in his orbit turned out to have dabbled in racism and white supremacy. It’s part of a trend among GOP staffers toward greater extremism that augurs a dark future for the party.
Who exactly are these staffers, and what did they do?
Rumblings of trouble surfaced in May—in Slate, no less. As my colleague Ben Jacobs reported, Collins’ then–chief of staff Kip Talley had been part of a group chat that included Nick Fuentes and Richard Spencer, two well-known white nationalists. In the chat, Talley bragged about using his position as a congressional aide to help Charles Johnson, a notorious Holocaust denier and racist, get out of jail. Johnson, who was imprisoned last year for contempt of court connected to a civil racketeering case, has claimed that Nazi gas chambers were “not real” and repeatedly posted the N-word online. Talley left Collins’ office in July. (In a statement, Talley stated that he’d tried to help Johnson “solely in my personal capacity after hearing concerns that an acquaintance I have known for years was being mistreated in custody and denied basic medical care.”)
OK, but surely that’s all for dodgy people who worked for Collins?
Au contraire! As the Washington Post revealed Thursday, a different former Collins staffer named Preston Parra recently posted an A.I.-generated photo of himself styled as a member of the Ku Klux Klan, wearing white robes and holding a telltale pointed hood. Parra, who is 24, interned in Collins’ congressional office in 2024 and worked as a contractor for a Collins-affiliated political action committee until last year. Parra shared the KKK image on an X account where he’d previously described himself as a “twink fascist” and posted “DEUTCHLAND UBER ALLES,” anti-Black slurs, and the phrase White power. Last month, Parra posted the word TWINK dozens of times in an arrangement shaped like a swastika. Parra told the Post that he isn’t a white supremacist but does believe “that the white race contributes more to the world.”
How do people with this sort of background even get hired??
Great question! Collins’ office declined to comment on the record to Slate when asked about Talley’s participation in the group chat and didn’t answer the Post’s questions about Parra, who claims that Collins’ office wasn’t aware of his posts. “What, is there supposed to be some kind of CIA background check?” Parra said.
But he and Talley aren’t the only former Collins employees with questionable histories. The chief of staff Talley replaced, Brandon Phillips, had worked for Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign until reporters revealed that he’d been charged after damaging a woman’s laptop, attacking a man, and slashing his tires years earlier. Phillips ultimately lost his job with Collins too, this time after crudely mocking a rival political operative whose wife had accused former NBC journalist Matt Lauer of rape. Phillips was additionally probed by the House Ethics Committee for allegedly hiring a girlfriend to intern in Collins’ office. (Collins’ office defended him.) Separately, in May, a NOTUS reporter spotted William Paul, a former Collins staffer who also happens to be Sen. Rand Paul’s son, issuing a drunken, antisemitic harangue at a Capitol Hill bar in which he called Jews “anti-American.”
Yikes. But to be fair, these are staffers. What about Collins himself?
Collins’ own online behavior has come under scrutiny as well. In 2024, he appeared to mock a Washington Post reporter for being Jewish and posted footage of white counterprotesters in which one of them made monkey noises at a Black protester. Collins has also mused about violence, posting enthusiastically about Tasering pro-Palestinian protesters and implying that a migrant who allegedly attacked a police officer should be killed by being thrown out of a helicopter. Some of that might be Phillips’ influence; he reportedly led Collins’ social media strategy until earlier this year. But even some of Collins’ fellow Republicans aren’t sure where the line between them really was. “There was always a question of where does Mike end and Brandon begin,” a Republican operative in Georgia told the Post.
And if staffers are close, family is even closer. As CNN reported last month, Collins’ own son-in-law has also posted things online that suggest Nazi sympathies, including a Third Reich propaganda image and a poll asking followers whether he should make a video about “why Gen-Z doesn’t hate Hitler.” For the congressman, the whole thing is starting to look like a pretty undeniable pattern.
What has Collins said about all this?
He has sometimes struggled to navigate the fallout. Last month, he quickly ended a press conference after a reporter asked about his son-in-law’s posts. Later, Collins said his son-in-law “has had no role in my campaign whatsoever, and I don’t believe or support those views.” Asked to comment on Parra, a Collins spokesperson told the Post that the congressman sees antisemitism as “abhorrent.”
What does this mean for Collins’ campaign?
Georgia Republicans ended up backing Collins despite his history. With Trump’s endorsement, he became the party’s Senate nominee a few weeks after Slate reported Talley’s white nationalist ties. But Collins now appears to be struggling. Some polls have found Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff leading him by double digits in a state Trump won twice. The president’s unpopularity—not to mention Ossoff’s roguish good looks—might have made this a tough race in any year. But having had people like Talley, Parra, and Paul on his payroll probably isn’t helping Collins. He has tried to spin the issue, accusing Ossoff, who is Jewish, of failing to condemn antisemitism on the left.
OK, but ultimately we’re talking about one race in one state. Is there a broader significance to this story?
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Glad you asked. Unfortunately, what’s happening in Georgia isn’t an isolated case. In recent years, sussing out young Republicans’ ties to white supremacy, Nazism, and other offensive views has become a journalistic cottage industry. In 2022, members of a GOP youth group in North Dakota were caught exchanging homophobic slurs and antisemitic tropes in a group chat that included elected officials. Last year, Politico exposed a Telegram channel in which millennial and Gen Z Republican staffers called Black people monkeys, discussed putting their political foes in gas chambers, and said “I love Hitler.” According to the Miami Herald, a group chat for conservative students started last fall by Miami-Dade County’s Republican Party quickly filled up with talk of killing Black people, antisemitic slurs, and debates about Hitler’s politics.
To some extent, the problem is coming from the top. In 2022, Trump had dinner with Fuentes, one of the white nationalists Talley was chatting with, and Kanye West, who has called himself a Nazi. Vice President J.D. Vance dismissed Politico’s story about the racist Telegram chat as “pearl clutching.” Paul Ingrassia, a Trump official who currently serves in the General Services Administration, admitted in a 2024 text to having “a Nazi streak.” But even some senior Republican aides and older staffers are blowing the whistle. When a New Yorker reporter asked a Trump official how many young GOP staffers could plausibly qualify as “Groypers,” a term that describes Fuentes’ far-right followers, he estimated the figure was close to 75 percent.
Many of the young Republicans in question have tried to downplay their words as deliberate provocation, ironic edginess, or trolling; Parra told the Post that his online statements were “satirical.” And, to be sure, Democrats have staffing challenges of their own: Younger liberals tend to be more left-wing than most voters. But being out of step with the broader electorate is categorically different from palling around with white supremacists or dressing up as a Klansman. If youth are the future, Republicans look headed for some pretty ugly places.
Whew. It’s been a pretty heavy day of news. To keep things light this evening, why not:
Look forward to a delightful movie with a wild backstory: Its corporate ownership tried to bury Coyote vs. Acme forever, but, just like Wile E. Coyote himself, the film kept bouncing back. Sam Adams reviews this cautionary tale of corporate greed and explains how the story of the movie’s release came to mirror the one it was telling.
Enjoy a word game with a little attitude: Challenge yourself to create as many words as you can with certain combinations of letters with today’s Pears game and uncover funny little notes from Pears creator Dan Kois as you go.
Consider a modern dating conundrum: In today’s How to Do It column, Rich and Stoya discuss a letter from a reader who wants a long-term friendship with benefits that doesn’t turn into something more, and why that’s such a tall order.
Touch some grass: From the archives: Ben Mathis-Lilley examines the pleasures and benefits of getting out and mowing the lawn. Have you ever listened to a friend talk with great passion and depth about a seemingly mundane thing, and come away seeing it differently? That’s what this piece is like.
OK, I’m off to push the lawnmower around for a bit. Enjoy the evening, and see you tomorrow!
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