Congress
Mike Collins memo identifies 1 in 10 Georgia voters who should be voting for him — but are ‘up for grabs’
One in 10 Georgia voters aren’t sold on Mike Collins for Senate — even though those same voters backed President Donald Trump in 2024, according to a new memo from Collins’ campaign.
The finding comes as public polling continues to show Collins trailing Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff in the premier battleground state. A YouGov poll released Wednesday found Ossoff up by 10 percentage points over Collins.
The memo identifies the “up for grabs” voters as Republicans and conservative-leaning independents who also plan to vote for the state’s GOP gubernatorial candidate, Rick Jackson, and could decide the election.
“They should be voting for Mike Collins, and they are not yet, mainly because they do not have a firm opinion of him,” the memo reads. “Most of them cannot tell you anything about him, and a third have never seen an ad about him.”
Collins’ campaign has been working to convince GOP leaders and outside groups that he can narrow Ossoff’s polling advantage, as the party weighs how best to allocate its resources in the closing stretch of the election.
For now, top Republicans have appeared to deprioritize the Georgia Senate race as a top pickup opportunity — as other battleground states come more into view — but Senate Majority Leader John Thune is planning to attend a fundraiser for Collins alongside Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp on Thursday to shore up support.
The campaign memo makes the case that Collins does not need to build a new GOP coalition to close the gap but instead focus on the existing Republican coalition in the state that it identifies as still up for grabs for him.
Two-thirds of those voters live in the Atlanta media market, according to the memo, followed by Macon and Augusta.
“Streaming is how a plurality get live television,” the memo reads. “They are seeing fewer political ads than everyone else, so they need to see these messages more often, and they need to keep seeing them all the way through November 3.”
The overriding issue for these voters, according to the memo, is the cost of living. “Nothing else is close,” it says. The memo argues that the campaign’s closing message should introduce Collins by emphasizing his Georgia roots and business background while attacking Ossoff over taxes and other elements of his record.
“Every Georgian needs to understand how Jon Ossoff failed them by making their lives less safe and less affordable while aligning himself with far-left socialists who proclaim that ‘America deserved 9/11,’” Collins spokesperson Meyer Siegfried said in a statement.
Two top congressional progressives unveiled their bill Wednesday to ban artificial “superintelligence” and establish a Cabinet-level agency to regulate AI, fleshing out their plans for a crackdown on the industry.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas) have advocated for heavy regulation of the rapidly evolving technology, particularly following a string of high-profile cyberattacks and doomsday warnings from industry insiders. Sanders and Casar teased the proposal earlier this month but only officially rolled out their “Ban Artificial Superintelligence Act” on Wednesday.
Casar said the bill would ban “recursive self-improvement,” meaning AI’s ability to build improved and more capable versions of itself. The bill also bars AI models from designing nuclear or biological weapons and would ban models that try to “escape human oversight or deceive humans,” Casar told reporters.
Sanders and Casar had previously outlined their plans to draft legislation banning “superintelligence” and to pause advanced AI development until a “Department of Artificial Intelligence” with a Senate-confirmed secretary is capable of monitoring model capabilities and identifying risks.
The legislation would set penalties for any entity that attempts to circumvent federal oversight, including the “corporate death penalty” for companies and up to 20 years in prison for individuals — on par with the punishment for illegally developing nuclear weapons.
The duo is bullish about both chambers swiftly taking up their legislation, even as Democratic leaders entertain much smaller-bore regulatory actions and some Republican leaders reject the need to advance AI safety legislation entirely. Casar said he believed the bill “will be considered the commonsense proposal in the coming weeks” as public pressure on Congress to enact AI guardrails mounts.
“In my view, we cannot simply sit by idly and wait for advanced AI to cause the next 9/11 or Chernobyl or a global pandemic or a financial crisis before we take action to protect the American people and, of course, the people of the world,” Sanders told reporters.
Rep. Troy Carter (D-La.) launched a run to head the Congressional Black Caucus, making official his long-anticipated and heavily favored bid to take over the powerful group.
Carter announced his plans in a letter to colleagues sent Tuesday and obtained by Blue Light News, saying, “I will listen carefully. I will work hard. I will act when action is needed.”
Carter has support from much of the CBC and has positioned himself as a fierce ally of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
Next term, the CBC is anticipating an influx of prospective ultraprogressive members. In his letter, Carter signaled he welcomes ideological diversity in the caucus.
“As Chair, I will respect the tremendous diversity of talent, experience, geography, ideology, and perspective within our Caucus,” Carter said in the letter. “Every Member should know that their voice matters, that they have a seat at the table, and that when they need their Caucus, their Caucus will be there.”
In a July interview with POLITICO, Carter previewed how he would lead the caucus, whose membership has been threatened by Republican-led redistricting in the South in the wake of an April Supreme Court decision in Louisiana v. Callais that limited the Voting Rights Act .
“If those who are out there banking on us being quieted, going away, not fighting for the rights of individuals, and providing resources to those that have been historically left behind, they are sadly mistaken,” he said at the time.
On other matters that the CBC will have to consider next term, he said he’s not keen on carving up majority-minority districts in blue states to create new Democratic seats, but he struck a softer note on seniority rights for committee assignments, saying: “I have never believed that a person that comes in with superior expertise in a subject matter should be told to wait.”
Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley is trying to pass a bill before the midterms that would protect whistleblowers who disclose information about the risks involved in artificial intelligence development, according to two people granted anonymity to disclose nonpublic information.
The Iowa Republican is seeking to move it through unanimous consent — a way to expedite passage on the Senate floor that hinges on an agreement from all 100 senators to let the measure through.
Only one senator has to object in order to doom the effort. Grassley is in the process of privately checking with colleagues to see if someone will register opposition, according to the two people with knowledge of his efforts. He likely has until the end of this week to seal the deal, as senators are eager to begin their lengthy recess to campaign ahead of the November elections.
Even if someone indicates privately they oppose the bill, Grassley may go to the Senate floor and try to pass the bill anyways, one of the people said — a way to force a colleague to go on the record publicly blocking the measure and defend their position.
A longtime champion of whistleblower protections, Grassley introduced this specific legislation in May 2025. Original cosponsors included Republican Sens. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee and Josh Hawley of Missouri, and Democratic Sens. Chris Coons of Delaware, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Brian Schatz of Hawaii. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, as well as Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), have more recently signed onto the bill.
The push for passage now comes as a flurry of current and former employees of leading AI labs have emerged to share alarm over the rapid pace of AI advancements and its potential for catastrophic consequences if left unchecked.
And while it wouldn’t come close to the kind of AI regulatory framework some lawmakers are clamoring for Congress to enact, it would represent a step toward bringing some accountability to AI development practices that some critics worry lacks necessary transparency.
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