Donald Trump endorsed mike collins just days before Tuesday’s GOP primary runoff for Georgia’s U.S. Senate seat, calling the Republican congressman a “warrior and a winner.” The endorsement puts Collins on the final stretch of a race that will decide whether he or Derek Dooley becomes the party’s nominee against Jon Ossoff.
Georgia Senate runoff
Collins and Dooley are the two Republicans on Tuesday’s runoff ballot, and the winner will face Ossoff in a state that has moved firmly into battleground territory over the past eight years. Georgia Republicans have lost three straight Senate contests there, a record that hangs over this race as party leaders weigh whether Trump’s backing can offset general election concerns.
Recent federal campaign finance filings showed Ossoff with a roughly $30 million-plus cash-on-hand advantage over either GOP competitor. That gap leaves the Republican nominee with less room for an extended primary fight and more pressure to unify quickly after Tuesday.
Republican concerns about Collins
Some Georgia Republicans said they feared Collins could be a weak general election candidate. A prominent Georgia Republican strategist said, “If you went to a laboratory and tried to create the worst general election candidate for this state and environment possible, you couldn’t do better than Mike Collins.”
The same strategist said, “He has a ton of personal baggage and won’t be able to raise money.” The strategist added, “He possesses the unique ability to offend female voters with that personal baggage but also with the hardest right abortion stance you can have.”
Those concerns are tied to Collins’s record on abortion and the 2020 election. He falsely claimed Trump won Georgia in the 2020 election, and during an earlier congressional run he said in a questionnaire that he supported banning abortion without any exceptions.
Trump, Kemp and Walker
Collins’s campaign says he now embraces Georgia’s heartbeat law, which includes exceptions under which the procedure can still be performed. Trump’s endorsement came after that shift became part of the campaign debate, while Dooley’s campaign has been buoyed by Gov. Brian Kemp’s support.
The broader Republican worry is rooted in recent history. Two Republican incumbents lost Georgia Senate runoff seats in January 2021 after Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen, and Democrats took the Senate majority for the first two years of Joe Biden’s term. Trump’s support for Herschel Walker’s 2022 Senate run also ended with Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock keeping his seat.
The strategist summed up the concern this way: “He will lose the Atlanta metro in unprecedented fashion, and we have to hope he doesn’t take everyone else down with him.” For Republicans, Tuesday’s runoff will answer whether Trump’s late endorsement can carry Collins past Dooley and into a fall race against Ossoff.
