President-elect Donald Trump announced it on Thursday that he would name Doug Collins to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs in its new administration.

Here are five things to know about the former Georgia Republican congressman who would lead the agency responsible for providing health care to former members of the U.S. armed forces:

Collins is a Baptist minister who served in the Navy and Air Force Reserves.

Collins, 58, holds a master’s degree in divinity from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and was a church pastor for 11 years. He served as a U.S. Navy chaplain for two years in the late 1980s. After the September 11 attacks, he joined the U.S. Air Force Reserve as a chaplain. Collins was deployed to Balad Air Base in Iraq for five months in 2008. He remains a colonel in the Air Force Reserve. Collins became a lawyer into adulthood.

Collins’ political career was shaped by representing one of the most conservative areas of Georgia.

Collins was elected to the Georgia State House in 2007 and served three two-year terms. He was a leader in Gov. Nathan Deal, a fellow northeast Georgian, during one of those terms, helping negotiate a budget reduction that allowed the HOPE scholarship program to continue. funded by the Georgia Lottery at a time when executives feared it would go bankrupt and fail to make it. be able to pay the promised tuition fees for all beneficiaries.

Collins won a congressional seat in 2012, representing northeast Georgia’s 9th Congressional District, one of the most Republican districts in the country. The former holder, Tom Graveswas incorporated into a new district in northwest Georgia when the state added a 14th congressional seat due to population growth.

Despite his right-wing positions, Collins faced serious challenges in 2016 from other Republicans who claimed he was not conservative enough. In Congress, Collins became vice chair of the House Republican Conference, the fifth-highest position in GOP leadership.

Collins rose to national prominence defending Trump in the Mueller investigation

Collins gained a national reputation defending Trump as a ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee during the Special Prosecutor’s investigation Robert Mueller the question of whether Russia inappropriately influenced Trump’s 2016 election victory.

Collins wrote a book about Trump’s first impeachment over allegations that he improperly withheld military aid to Ukraine in order to pressure Ukraine into announcing an investigation into Joe Bidenwho defeated Trump in 2020. That book, “The Clock and the Calendar,” claimed that Democrats were impeach Trump for revenge for him beating Hillary Clinton in 2016 and to prevent his re-election in 2020.

“From the moment the majority party in the House won, the likelihood of us being here today was just a matter of when. Nothing else,” Collins said on the House floor in 2019, as representatives debated before voting to impeach Trump.

Trump wanted Collins nominated to the US Senate

Trump was unhappy when Collins was not named for the U.S. Senate in 2019 when the incumbent Republican Johnny Isakson resigned because of health problems. The Republican governor of Georgia. Brian Kemp instead decided to nominate Kelly Loefflerbut not before a frenzied last-minute push by anti-abortion groups and people close to Trump to undermine Loeffler’s nomination.

Colin still presented himself to the Senatefinishing third in a multi-party special election in November 2020 in which he was disfavored by the Senate majority leader. Mitch McConnell. Loeffler and Democrat Raphael Warnock carried out a second runoff in January where Warnock beat Loeffler. Warnock won a full term in 2022 by defeating another Trump favorite, the great footballer Herschel Walker.

Collins still has a possible political future in Georgia

Collins succeeded about challenging Kemp or running for Senate in 2022, but said “it’s goodbye for now, but probably not forever.” Collins helped represent Trump in challenging the 2020 election results in Georgia and became the Georgia chair of the Trump-aligned America First Policy Institute. He has spoken several times at Trump rallies in Georgia during the 2024 campaign. But if Collins becomes Veterans Affairs secretary, he may be less likely to run for reelection in 2026, while the other Democratic senator from Georgia, Jon Ossoffwill be re-elected.

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Republished with permission from The Associated Press.

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