President Donald Trump has endorsed U.S. Rep. Mike Collins in the Georgia Republican runoff election over former Tennessee head football coach Derek Dooley, who was nominated by Gov. Brian Kemp.
Watch Ossoff criticize Trump and his opponents on anti-corruption platform
Sen. Jon Ossoff is using the Atlanta rally to build his re-election campaign around fighting corruption in Washington.
President Donald Trump has endorsed Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Collins over former Tennessee football head coach Derek Dooley in Georgia’s upcoming Republican runoff elections aimed at defeating Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff in November.
“A highly successful businessman before becoming a prominent member of the U.S. House of Representatives, Mike served his community admirably during a career filled with accolades and triumphs, always fighting tirelessly for America First issues,” President Trump wrote on Truth Social in the early morning hours of his 80th birthday on June 14.
The endorsement of Mr. Collins, 58, comes after Gov. Brian Kemp, a longtime target of President Trump, endorsed Mr. Dooley, a personal family friend and political newcomer. Collins, who will be elected to the House in 2022, came in first place in March’s five-way primary with nearly 41% of the vote, while Dooley won 30% over Rep. Buddy Carter and two other lesser-known candidates for the promotion.
Mr. Collins and Mr. Dooley will face off in a June 16 runoff after no candidate in the five-way Republican primary passed the 50% threshold needed to face Mr. Ossoff in the Nov. 3 general election.
Republicans see Mr. Ossoff as their top target to win the Senate seat. He represents a state won by Trump in 2024 and is the only Democratic senator up for re-election in the midterm elections. The 39-year-old senator, the nation’s youngest senator, is the best-funded federal candidate this term and leads his potential opponents in opinion polls.
Political commentators have often floated Ossoff as a possible 2028 presidential candidate, but Ossoff has dismissed speculation.
President Trump slammed Ossoff in a June 14 post on Truth Social, saying, “Jon Ossoff doesn’t have what it takes. He’s the laughing stock of Washington, weak and pathetic,” and also called the senator “reckless, extremist and dangerous.”
Republicans see Jon Ossoff as a top target in 2026
Every bipartisan poll released this year has Mr. Ossoff ahead, according to polling data collected by The New York Times.
An Echelon Insights poll conducted in early April showed Mr. Ossoff leading Mr. Collins by 7 points in a hypothetical matchup. An Emerson College poll conducted from February 28 to March 2 showed Mr. Ossoff leading Mr. Collins by 4 points. The same Emerson College poll showed Mr. Ossoff leading Mr. Dooley by 8 points.
On January 6, 2021, Ossoff defeated first-term Republican Sen. David Perdue with 50.6% of the vote, along with Sen. Raphael Warnock, who defeated current U.S. Small Business Secretary Kelly Loeffler.
Mr. Ossoff, a former independent journalist, took aim at both Mr. Collins and Mr. Dooley as he outlined his anti-corruption vision for re-election, without naming the two Republicans and casting them as beneficiaries of nepotism.
Mr. Collins is the son of former Congressman Mac Collins, and Mr. Dooley’s father is former University of Georgia football coach Vince Dooley. “My enemies are two people: Congressmen who are just congressmen because their fathers were congressmen, and coaches who are just coaches because their fathers were coaches,” Ossoff said at a May 31 rally in Atlanta.
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has rejected pressure from Trump over the certification of the 2020 election. Kemp and former congressman Marjorie Taylor Greene, also a former ally of Mr. Trump, all decided not to run with Mr. Ossoff.
Contributor: Eileen Smith
