Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA) secured the Republican Senate nomination in a Georgia runoff Tuesday, defeating former University of Tennessee football coach Derek Dooley after a last-minute endorsement from President Donald Trump. Collins will face Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) in November.
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The race split the state’s GOP establishment. Gov. Brian Kemp, who remains popular among state Republicans despite past clashes with Trump, backed Dooley, while Trump on Sunday dismissed Dooley as someone who has “lived outside of Georgia for most of his life, didn’t vote in 2020 or 2016, and said that I lost Georgia in 2020.” Trump added “I don’t know Derek Dooley, and neither does anyone else, but he seems like a nice person.”
In the governor’s race, Lt. Gov. Burt Jones lost to billionaire healthcare executive Rick Jackson despite Trump’s endorsement of Jones.
Trump won Georgia in 2024, which is expected to be a contentious battleground state in the 2026 and 2028 elections.
