ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) — In less than a month, voters decide whether U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff keeps his seat or loses it to U.S. Rep. Mike Collins.

On Thursday, Oct. 8, the candidates will meet on stage for the first time in a live debate hosted by Atlanta News First and broadcast across all Gray Media’s Georgia TV stations.

Both men are relatively new to elected office, with Ossoff starting his inaugural term in 2021 and Collins in 2023, but neither are new to politics, a commonality in the largely contrasting lives of the candidates.

Ossoff: Investigative journalism and foreign affairs

Thomas Jonathan Ossoff was born in Atlanta on Feb. 16, 1987, to Heather Fenton, a management consultant who immigrated from Australia, and Richard Ossoff, the owner of Atlanta-based publishing company Strafford Publications.

Ossoff began his career in politics as a high schooler, interning with longtime Georgia congressman and civil rights legend John Lewis while attending the private Paideia School in Atlanta.

Lewis became Ossoff’s political mentor, and recommended him to work on the successful congressional campaign of fellow metro Atlanta Democrat Hank Johnson while Ossoff was attending Georgetown University.

From 2007 to 2012, Ossoff worked as a foreign policy aide for Rep. Johnson.

He graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in culture and politics from Georgetown in 2009. A year after leaving Johnson’s office, he earned a Master of Science degree from the London School of Economics.

Around that time, Ossoff began his career as an investigative journalist. With money inherited from his grandfather, Ossoff invested in Insight TWI (The World Investigates), a small London-based production company specializing in international investigative documentaries, according to The Washington Post.

“[I] had really seen enough of Congress in Washington to know that I didn’t want to go back there and was really intrigued,” Ossoff told the Post of the opportunity. “I admired the company. I believed in the mission.”

Ossoff became CEO of TWI, overseeing the production of documentaries on subjects including war crimes and corruption, for international news organizations including the BBC.

He decided to return to politics because of his dismay at the election of Donald Trump, he told The Washington Post.

In 2017, Ossoff ran an unsuccessful campaign to represent Georgia’s 6th congressional district in the U.S. House, narrowly losing to Republican Karen Handel in a runoff election. With control of the U.S. House on the line, that special election became the nation’s most expensive in history at that time.

Ossoff had better luck in 2021, defeating incumbent David Perdue to become Georgia’s first Democrat elected to a full term in the Senate since Max Cleland, and the state’s first Jewish senator.

He resigned from TWI to begin his new career in Washington.

Collins: Trucking company executive and son of congressman

Michael Allen Collins Jr. was born in Jackson on July 2, 1967, to Julie and Michael Allen “Mac” Collins, a businessman and six-term U.S. representative.

Because of his father, Collins grew up familiar with politics, but his own pre-congressional career was built entirely in the private sector, where he gained executive experience from decades in his family business.

That business can be traced back to Collins’ grandfather, Henry R. Collins.

After returning from service in World War II, Henry founded the first of several Collins family businesses: Collins Concrete Pipe Co., a concrete pipe manufacturer for well casings and driveways, according to the website of Collins Trucking Company, a future enterprises that grew from the foundation Henry laid.

In 1962, Henry and his son Mac partnered on Collins Concrete Products, a manufacturer of precast concrete septic tanks.

In a few years, the company would expand into Collins Ready Mix Concrete, Inc., supplying concrete for residential and commercial construction projects.

Then, the company supplied concrete for the construction of a Georgia Pacific plywood plant, creating a business relationship that led to the founding of Collins Trucking Co., Inc. The new company was incorporated to transport pine and hardwood logs to Georgia Pacific mills across the state, a partnership that continues today, according to the company site.

Mike Collins would eventually become the president of the company, a role he maintains today.

After graduating from Piedmont Academy in nearby Monticello in 1985, Mike Collins began studying business administration at Georgia State University.

In the late 1980s, Collins took over the family trucking business while a Georgia State student, according to ProPublica. He earned his bachelor’s degree in 1990.

A few years after Collins graduated, he and his wife Leigh Ann founded Collins Industries, Inc., and expanded operations to include log sorting, sawing and transport under contract with Georgia Pacific.

Amid changes in the timber industry, the company started focusing on transporting building products, the Collins Trucking site says.

Starting with a single truck and leased flatbed trailer, Collins Industries later acquired Jones Trucking in Griffin, and in 2005 purchased Collins Trucking Company, according to the site.

Today, the company runs flatbed and van trailers throughout the Southeast and Midwest.

“Still guided by the original values instilled by founder Henry R. Collins, the team follows the family motto: ‘Can’t Never Could,’” the site says. “It’s more than a phrase—it’s a mindset that has shaped the company into the well-organized, family-run business it is today.”

Beyond running fleet operations, Collins held leadership positions in local and state business organizations. He served as president of the Butts County Chamber of Commerce and spent years on the board — including a tenure as chairman — of Associated Credit Union, one of Georgia’s largest credit unions, as well as serving in leadership roles within the Georgia Motor Trucking Association.

In 2014, he decided to continue his father’s political legacy by running for Congress. Like Ossoff, his first campaign was unsuccessful. He lost in a Republican primary runoff to Jody Hice, a defeat that echoed two of his father’s electoral losses; Mac Collins was defeated in the 2004 U.S. Senate Republican primary, and in 2006 narrowly lost a comeback bid to the U.S. House.

Nearly a decade after his loss, Mike Collins won his first term in the House.

How to watch the debate

The one-hour debate between Ossoff and Collins will air live starting at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 8. It will air live on Atlanta News First and on Gray Media stations across Georgia. You can watch it on WANF (channel 46) in metro Atlanta and north Georgia; WTOC in Savannah; WPGA in Macon; WRDW in Augusta; WALB in Albany; and WTVM in Columbus. The debate will also be available to stream live and on demand. Simply download our station news app on your Roku, FireTV, AppleTV or your smart TV devices.

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