Collins defeats Kemp's choice in clash of GOP factions
Republican Rep. Mike Collins won Georgia's Senate runoff on Tuesday with roughly 55 percent of the vote, securing the GOP nomination to challenge Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff in November. Collins defeated Derek Dooley, a former University of Tennessee football coach endorsed by Gov. Brian Kemp, after President Trump issued a last-minute endorsement just two days before the primary.
The race crystallized a yearslong split within Georgia's Republican Party between Trump's faction and Kemp's more pragmatic wing. Trump called Collins a "Highly Respected Congressman who has been with me from the very beginning," while Kemp spent the bulk of the campaign crisscrossing the state with Dooley, throwing his full political operation behind the political novice. The tension between the two most important Republicans in Georgia reflected their broader feud dating to Kemp's refusal to overturn the 2020 election results, which led Trump to endorse a primary challenger against Kemp in 2022.
The 2020 election still drives Georgia politics
Trump's endorsement of Collins hinged partly on Dooley's acknowledgment that Joe Biden won Georgia in 2020. "He said that I lost Georgia in 2020 when, in actuality, the facts have now proven that I won by a lot," Trump wrote. Georgia officials audited and certified results for a Biden victory following the election, and numerous lawsuits challenging those results were rejected by courts.
Collins ran as a Trump loyalist who made immigration enforcement central to his campaign. He is known for his controversial social media presence; last month, his official campaign account made a post mocking a Dooley campaign adviser whose wife attempted suicide after accusing former NBC anchor Matt Lauer of rape. In his victory speech Tuesday night, Collins thanked Dooley for running a "spirited campaign" and acknowledged Kemp's "leadership and his friendship over the years."
Ossoff brings vastly larger war chest to general election
Collins now faces a well-funded incumbent who has won a statewide campaign in Georgia before. Ossoff has raised more than $57 million and built one of the Senate's strongest campaign war chests, according to Open Secrets. Collins raised $4.3 million up to the most recent disclosure deadline.
Republicans view the Georgia seat as one of their best pickup opportunities to maintain Senate control. Democrats need to keep Ossoff's seat if they have any chance of taking the chamber. The general election on November 3 is expected to be one of the most competitive and expensive races on the map.
Dooley later conceded to Collins, saying "He ran a tough campaign, he got out early and we just never could catch him."
Jackson defeats Trump-backed gubernatorial candidate
In the closely watched governor's race, billionaire healthcare executive Rick Jackson defeated Lt. Gov. Burt Jones in a runoff defined by an onslaught of attack ads dominating Georgia's airwaves. Both Trump and Kemp had endorsed Jones, who was a longtime Trump loyalist and tried to help overturn the 2020 election results.
Jackson will face Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms in November. Political science professor Andra Gillespie at Emory University noted that Georgia's Republican Party may retain more moderate influence than other states. "Georgia's actually incredibly diverse, which makes Democrats more competitive in the state, even if they're still numerically the smaller group. And what that has done is that has lent itself to Republicans being pragmatists," Gillespie said.
