- Rep. Mike Collins won Georgia’s GOP Senate runoff with 55.8% of the vote over former football coach Derek Dooley, after receiving a late endorsement from President Trump; he will face Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff in November in one of the cycle’s top battleground races.
- Trump’s pick for governor lost: Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, endorsed by Trump, fell to healthcare billionaire Rick Jackson (52.7% vs. 47.3%) — Jackson will face former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms in the general election.
- The gubernatorial result is the latest sign that Trump’s endorsement isn’t automatic: two weeks ago, a Trump-backed candidate also lost in Iowa’s GOP gubernatorial primary.
- Senate Democrats quickly released attack ads targeting Collins after his win, citing his voting record and a House Ethics Committee investigation into allegations he paid an intern who performed no work.
What Happened?
Rep. Mike Collins defeated former college football coach Derek Dooley in Georgia’s Republican Senate primary runoff Tuesday, winning 55.8% of the vote after President Trump gave him an 11th-hour endorsement and joined him for a tele-rally. Collins, who represents Georgia’s 10th congressional district, will now face Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff this November in what has been identified as one of the GOP’s top Senate pickup opportunities. In the gubernatorial race, Trump’s endorsed candidate Lt. Gov. Burt Jones lost to political newcomer Rick Jackson, a healthcare billionaire who vowed to be Trump’s “favorite governor” but entered the race late. Jackson will face former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms in November.
Why It Matters?
The split result in Georgia illustrates the mixed potency of Trump’s endorsement heading into 2026 midterms. Collins got his needed boost — but only after waiting until the Trump-aligned incumbent Rep. Buddy Carter was eliminated in the earlier primary, leaving Trump free to weigh in. In the governor’s race, Jones was a clear MAGA favorite until Jackson entered late, and a mysterious PAC spent millions attacking Jones, with the Georgia GOP filing an ethics complaint over the campaign’s conduct. The result adds to a pattern: two weeks earlier, a Trump-backed candidate lost Iowa’s GOP gubernatorial primary. Republicans still hold a 53-47 Senate majority and are targeting Ossoff’s seat, but Collins arrives in the general election with immediate headwinds — a House Ethics investigation into payments to a non-performing intern, and Senate Democratic attack ads already live within hours of his win.
What’s Next?
The Collins-Ossoff race shapes up as one of the most-watched Senate contests of the 2026 cycle. Ossoff won his seat in the January 2021 runoff that flipped the Senate to Democrats, and Republicans have been targeting him since. Collins will lean into his MAGA credentials and his sponsorship of the Laken Riley Act; Ossoff will push back on Collins’s ethics investigation and voting record. Meanwhile, Rick Jackson must consolidate a Republican party that just watched its Trump-endorsed lieutenant governor lose — and Keisha Lance Bottoms will try to make Georgia’s governor’s race competitive in a state where Donald Trump lost the presidential vote in 2020 but won in 2024.
Source: The Wall Street Journal
