WASHINGTON — The family of slain Georgia nursing student Laken Riley have endorsed Republican US Rep. Mike Collins in the Peach State’s Senate race — months after he helped usher a bill named for their late daughter through Congress to crack down on migrant criminals.
“A lot of people go to Washington and it changes them. However, in the short time that we have known him, Mike Collins went to Washington and changed it,” said Allyson Riley and John Phillips, the mother and stepfather of Laken, who was brutally murdered by a migrant gang member Feb. 22, 2024.
“There is simply no one else in this race who deserves to be in the US Senate more than Mike Collins. He is someone who says what he means, means what he says, and actually delivers results that matter,” Riley and Phillips added.
“What Mike did for our family wasn’t about politics and it wasn’t about attention or the spotlight. He stood up to do what was right and help bring justice for our sweet Laken. For that, our family will be forever grateful to Mike Collins, Senator Katie Britt, and President Trump.”
Collins and Britt (R-Ala.) introduced the Laken Riley Act in the House and Senate, respectively, and helped whip up enough support to pass it through both chambers on a bipartisan basis in January.
Trump signed the measure into law Jan. 29, making it the first bill Trump signed after returning to the White House.
Jose Ibarra, a Tren de Aragua gangbanger, killed Riley, 22, while she was jogging on the University of Georgia campus — a cold-blooded homicide that drew national attention and fueled Republican criticism of the Biden administration’s immigration policies.
“The Biden Administration and our current senators voted for open borders that allowed Laken’s killer to come to the United States,” Riley’s family said in their statement.
“They were looking out for illegal immigrants instead of looking out for their own constituents. Next November, please join us in supporting our friend Mike Collins and give him the ability to create policies that will ensure the safety and protection of all Georgia’s sons and daughters.”
Collins jumped into the race as a GOP challenger to incumbent Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff — and was followed by fellow Republican Derek Dooley, the son of legendary Bulldogs football coach Vince Dooley and a former head coach at University of Tennessee.
Early public polling from April showed Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) trailing Ossoff by double digits before Collins, fellow Georgia GOP Rep. Buddy Carter and Dooley announced their bids to unseat the first-term Democrat.
An online survey by the TechnoMetrica Institute of Policy and and Politics (TIPP) for the League of American Workers (LAW) showed Collins winning 27% of GOP primary voters, followed by Carter (20%) and Dooley (8%), The Daily Caller reported earlier this month.
Up to 39% of voters remain undecided on the race, the poll showed.
In addition to Riley’s family, Collins has also won the support of former House speaker Newt Gingrich, a longtime Georgia congressman.
