Confirmed as United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs in 2025, these are the individuals shaping the decisions that undermine democracy.
Doug Collins, tapped by Trump to lead Veterans Affairs, has a robust history of targeting women’s and the LGBTQ+ community’s civil rights through anti-abortion initiatives and legislation aimed at same-sex marriage. Aside from his legislative MAGA activism, Collins has aided Trump in his efforts to sow election disinformation among his base, participating in the #StopTheSteal movement following the 2020 election which led to the January 6 Capitol insurrection. He is an avid election denier who signed onto an amicus brief submitted to the Supreme Court advocating that the 2020 election results be overturned. His ongoing work as the chair of America First Policy Institute Georgia demonstrates a commitment to the far-right agenda and will place him in a position to institute policy which targets our honored and vulnerable veterans.
In His Own Words
“Virginia just certified Cornel West to be on the ballot in November. Thank you to the Youngkin Administration for stopping the Dems ballot interference scheme to block Kamala’s competition. The GOP is the only party standing up for voting rights.”
– Collins on Twitter, September 2024
“It is absolutely insane that it has been 4 days since the election and we are STILL counting ballots. These Democrat ran elections need to be seriously audited, its malpractice at this point to not have full results”
– Collins on Twitter, November 2024
“This is egregious. There’s a set of rules for Democrats and a set of rules for the rest of us. This can’t stand. #StopTheSteal”
– Collins on Twitter, November 2020
“So either you are locking him up as a normal prisoner or a political prisoner? Either way, Joe Biden just let the quiet part out loud that our government is only focused on imprisoning Donald Trump”
– Collins on Twitter, October 2024
“President Trump has been the victim of the largest weaponization of our Justice system to ever exist. Great start in NY, but all charges need to be DROPPED against President Trump ASAP! The people have spoken!” / X
– Collins on Twitter, November 2024
“How many more women getting assaulted and defeated in sports by biological men will it take before folks wake up from this insanity? Ask almost any parent in America if this is okay. Ask them if they would put their own daughter through this.”
– on female boxer Imane Khelif’s victory in an Olympic match, falsely claiming that Khelif is male. Twitter, August 2024
“I am disappointed that the court has overstepped its boundaries once again [by declaring same-sex marriage legal]. Many states have already voted to keep the definition of marriage to one man and one woman, and the court’s decision is a gross infringement on American democracy. The court should not have circumvented the will of the people, but as we saw with the King v. Burwell decision yesterday [which involved subsidies under the Affordable Care Act], they are more interested in legislating from the bench than letting the will of the people determine what our laws are going to be. Because this decision has robbed the American people of their freedom of choice, I strongly support a constitutional amendment defining marriage between one man and one woman.”
– Collins after the Supreme Court declared same-sex marriage legal in all 50 states, 2015
“RIP to the more than 30 million innocent babies that have been murdered during the decades that Ruth Bader Ginsburg defended pro-abortion laws. With @realDonaldTrump nominating a replacement that values human life, generations of unborn children have a chance to live.”
– Collins celebrating the death of Ruth Bader Ginsberg. Twitter, September 2020
Representing Bigotry in Congress
Collins served as a congressman representing Georgia’s 9th District from 2013 to 2021, during which time he co-sponsored an abundance of bills showcasing his anti-immigrant, anti-woman, and anti-LGBTQ+ beliefs. He served as ranking member of the U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary from 2019-2021. Even though he’s the presumptive nominee for leading Veterans Affairs, his focus as a lawmaker in Congress rarely touched the subject and he never served on the House Veterans Affairs Committee.
During his failed 2020 bid for U.S. senate, Collins campaigned with Roger Stone, a longtime Trump associate and political provocateur with ties to the white supremacist Proud Boys and the conspiracy site InfoWars. Stone was tried and convicted of obstruction, making false statements, and witness tampering in charges related to Robert Mueller’s investigation of the links between Trump and Russia. In 2020, Trump commuted Stone’s sentence a few days before he was to report to prison.
Collins co-sponsored several anti-immigrant bills, including at least four which targeted federal or grant funding for “sanctuary” cities, a term describing cities or states which impose policies designed to either oppose or limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.
Even more robust than Collins’ anti-immigrant views are his attempts to curb LGBTQ+ and women’s rights. He co-sponsored bills attempting to criminalize abortion, restricting federal funding for abortion services and Planned Parenthood clinics if they provide abortion services, allowing a state to exclude from participation in the state’s Medicaid program a provider that performs an abortion, and disqualifying abortion services from the Payback Protection Loans enacted during COVID-19.
Collins’ aversion towards the LGBTQ+ community, and more specifically their civil rights, is best outlined in his reaction to the landmark Supreme Court decision in 2015 legalizing same-sex marriage in the U.S., when he described the decision as a “gross infringement on American democracy” and “circumvent[ing] the will of the people.” From 2013 to 2016, Collins co-sponsored the State Marriage Defense Act of 2014 and the State Marriage Defense Act of 2015, both of which attempted to prohibit the term “marriage” from including any relationship that the state, territory, or possession does not recognize as a marriage, effectively giving states the opportunity to reject same-sex marriages as legitimate.
In 2013, Collins voted against the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), which extended VAWA’s protections to the LGBTQ+ community, immigrants, and Native Americans. In 2019, he also voted against the Equality Act, which allows the Department of Justice to intervene in equal protection actions in federal court on account of sexual orientation or gender identity. The same year, Collins helped defend Trump during his first impeachment process.
In December 2020, Collins was one of 126 GOP congress members who signed an amicus brief in support of Texas v. Pennsylvania, a lawsuit filed with the Supreme Court to contest the results of the 2020 election. The Supreme Court declined to hear the case on the basis that Texas lacked standing to bring the suit.
Since 2020, Collins has aided Trump in pushing election-related disinformation, including participating in the election denialist #StopTheSteal movement following the 2020 presidential election, posting “There’s a set of rules for Democrats and a set of rules for the rest of us. This can’t stand.”
In 2024, Collins continued to campaign against so-called “Democrat ran elections.” In the months leading up to the election, he criticised the democrats for attempting to run a “ballot interference scheme to block Kamala’s competition.” After November 5, Collins called for this year’s election results to be “seriously audited,” declaring the process to be “malpractice” because votes were still being counted days after the election (a regular practice).
Early Career
Collins was born in Gainesville, Georgia, to a father working as a Georgia State Trooper and a mother providing care to senior citizens. He earned his first degree in political science and criminal justice from the University of North Georgia before earning a master’s degree in divinity from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.
Collins began his career in politics early, representing Georgia’s 27th State House District from 2007 to 2012, during which time he earned his Juris Doctor from John Marshall Law School and started his own legal practice.
Collins joined the Air Force Reserves as a chaplain in 2002 and completed a deployment to Iraq from 2008 to 2009. While not focusing on veterans’ issues during his congressional service that began in 2013, he did vote in favor of veterans bills, including the 2014 Choice Act, the 2018 Mission Act, and the 2017 VA Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act. In 2020, Collins lost a US Senate bid to represent Georgia to Kelly Loeffler, who was then defeated by democrat Raphael Warnock. Collins supported Trump’s claims of voter fraud in the 2020 Georgia race, which they both lost, and was assigned by Trump to “audit” the Georgia ballots. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Rafensperger called Collins a “failed candidate” and a “liar.”
In 2023, Collins was tapped as Chair of the America First Policy Institute’s (AFPI) Georgia Chapter. AFPI is a “think tank” designed to support Trump’s political agenda including removing “woke” materials in schools, reducing legal paths for immigration, removing Biden’s expanded Title IX protections, and generally implementing a Christian Nationalist agenda. The first “quick resource” on the Chapter’s page is titled Radical Gender Theory Status Update, which provides updates on AFPI’s efforts to prevent “sex reassignment surgeries and hormones,” restricting drag shows, which they describe as “obscene live performances” for kids, and “keeping radical gender ideology out of schools.” As chair, Collins wrote an Op-Ed for The Washington Times called “Biden’s Immigration Crisis Comes to Georgia,” in which he criticizes the Biden administration for “streamlin[ing] the release of illegal aliens into our communities.”
