Doug Collins

The 9th was the most Republican district in the Eastern Time Zone, with a Cook Partisan Voting Index of R+27.

As a result, whoever won the Republican primary would almost certainly 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.

Douglas Allen Collins (born August 16, 1966) is an American lawyer and retired politician who served as the U.S. representative for Georgia's 9th congressional district from 2013 to 2021.

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 (lieutenant colonel).

He attended North Georgia College & State University, where he received a Bachelor of Arts in political science and Criminal law in 1988.

From 1994 to 2005, Collins was a senior pastor at Chicopee Baptist Church while co-owning a retail scrapbooking store with his wife, Lisa.

He attended the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, receiving his Master of Divinity (M.Div.) in 1996.

A member of the Republican Party and a political supporter of former U.S. president Donald Trump, 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 colonel.

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.

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.

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.

He was unopposed for reelection in 2008 and 2010.

Collins worked as a lawyer and has been a managing partner at the Collins and Csider law firm since 2010.

In 2011, Collins sponsored a plan proposed by Georgia governor Nathan 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 the 2011–2012 legislative session, Collins was one of three administrative floor leaders for Georgia governor Nathan Deal.

Collins served on the committees for:

In 2012, he supported amending Georgia's constitution to establish a statewide commission authorizing and expanding charter schools.

Collins supports the death penalty and voted for allowing juries to use the death penalty without a unanimous verdict if the defendant 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-related legislation that would raise taxes.

In 2012, Collins ran for Congress in the redrawn 9th congressional district.

The district's incumbent, Tom Graves, opted instead to run in the newly created 14th district, which had absorbed his home in Ranger.

Collins faced local media personality Martha Zoller and retired principal Roger Fitzpatrick in the Republican primary.

Collins supported President Donald Trump's 2017 executive order to impose a temporary ban on entry to the U.S. for 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."

Collins ran for Georgia's Class III U.S. Senate seat in 2020 and finished in third place behind Democrat Raphael Warnock and incumbent Republican Kelly Loeffler in the state's nonpartisan blanket primary, failing to make it to the top-two runoff.

Collins had opted out of a House re-election bid to run for the Senate and was succeeded there by Andrew Clyde.

In April 2021, Collins stated he would not be running in Georgia's 2022 gubernatorial election or concurrent Senate election.

Since leaving politics, he has served as a legal counsel for Trump.

Born in Gainesville, Georgia, Collins is a graduate of North Hall High School.