JACKSON, Ga. (AP) — Georgia Republicans delivered a split decision for Donald Trump in Tuesday runoffs, opting for the president’s preferred U.S. Senate candidate but rejecting his choice for governor in favor of a billionaire first-time candidate who spent freely from his personal fortune to win the nomination.
In the Senate race, Rep. Mike Collins, 58, topped former football coach Derek Dooley and advanced to face Sen. Jon Ossoff, the only Senate Democrat
running for reelection in a state that Trump won two years ago. The outcome will help determine control of Capitol Hill for the final years of Trump’s second presidency.
For governor, healthcare tycoon Rick Jackson, 71, outpaced Lt. Gov. Burt Jones after spending about $100 million of his own money on the campaign. That investment ultimately outweighed Jones' backing from the president. Jackson will face Democratic nominee and former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms in November.
Trump, who endorsed Jones nearly a year ago and Collins two days before the runoff, is poised to be a fault line in both general election contests. The president was notably absent in Republicans’ remarks on Tuesday, however, a shift from other primary nights where candidates paid homage to their party's leader despite his sagging approval ratings.
Collins, a second-term congressman, is a self-described “MAGA warrior” and echoes Trump’s false claims that his 2020 election loss in Georgia was rigged. Yet when celebrating in his hometown, Collins thanked his wife, children, grandchildren, siblings, friends, supporters and staffers — but never the president. He even touted his bipartisanship and pitched himself as a sound conservative who can achieve progress by “building coalitions and finding common ground.” And he promised to campaign in “every ZIP code and every community” of this closely divided state.
Ossoff, first elected during the 2020 cycle, has made Trump a focal point, blasting him as a “national embarrassment” who is using the presidency to enrich himself and his family. The 39-year-old faces tremendous pressure to hold his seat as Democrats try to gain a net of four seats to claim a Senate majority.
In the governor's race, Jackson spent months comparing himself — the tremendously wealthy political newcomer — to Trump and his unusual path to the presidency. He didn't do that as directly Tuesday night.
“I’m the only candidate who doesn’t owe a thing to the political establishment,” he said, later adding, “We proved the people of Georgia are in charge.”
Both parties in Georgia are trying to buck trends. Republicans haven't won a Senate race here since 2016, the year of Trump's first election. Democrats haven't won a governor's race since 1998.
But Democrats are bullish after they drew about 160,000 more voters than Republicans in the May primary, the first time since their victorious 1998 year that they led primary turnout. Republican runoff turnout also was lower Tuesday than in recent election cycles.
Collins said he had “good conversations” with Dooley and Gov. Brian Kemp, who had supported Dooley, and that Republicans “stand united around one mission” — defeating Ossoff in November.
Dooley offered a similar message to his more subdued crowd in metro Atlanta. “We have a lot of disagreements but the one thing that hasn’t changed is my opinion of Jon Ossoff,” Dooley said.
There were bitter attacks in both Republican runoffs — some of which Democrats are promising to recirculate in the general election.
Dooley repeatedly hammered Collins for a House ethics complaint that accuses him of abusing taxpayer funds by paying the girlfriend of his former top adviser for congressional job duties she allegedly did not fulfill. After an initial investigation, a federal panel forwarded the matter to the House Ethics Committee. Kemp told voters for months that they should nominate Dooley as a “political outsider” who could relentlessly attack Ossoff without having to defend a record of his own.
Jones lambasted Jackson as a faux conservative who has employed immigrants in the country illegally and whose wife has donated to Democratic candidates.
State Republican Chairman Josh McKoon said he's confident about corralling the party base and appealing to swing voters.
“This election is going to be won by the side that is able to become the party of common sense,” he said.
Collins also begins the general election campaign at a financial disadvantage. He raised about $4.9 million through the end of May, and reported having less than $1.2 million remaining. Through late April, the last time Ossoff had to file before his primary, the incumbent had raised $60.4 million and had $32.5 million on hand.
Despite his ties to Trump, Collins has argued that he has broad appeal, and he plans to use immigration as a contrast with Ossoff.
In the House, Collins sponsored the Laken Riley Act, a 2025 law that requires immigrants accused of certain crimes to be detained. It is named for a Georgia nursing student killed in 2021 by a Venezuelan man who was in the U.S. illegally. Ossoff voted against a version of the legislation before backing the final proposal after Trump’s return to power.
He leaned heavily on his decades building his trucking company, based in the same community where he was raised.
“You see, I know what it’s like to have employees and their families count on you to make the right decisions every day. Jon Ossoff doesn’t,” he said.
Trump's mixed results in Georgia come after most of his preferred candidates have prevailed in primaries this spring. But Jackson's seemingly bottomless personal coffers were a new variable.
Jackson blanketed television and online platforms with ads. He's pledged that immigrants in Georgia illegally will be “deported or departed.” He promises a slew of tax cuts. And previewing a potential general election argument, he played up his biography as a product of the state foster care system and featured his grandchildren advising him on how to make friendlier ads.
Jones, 47, comes from a wealthy family but his personal spending measured in the single millions. And despite Trump's endorsement, the president did not travel to Georgia to campaign with Jones.
Georgia's secretary of state race was open for the first time since Trump’s attempts to subvert the 2020 election, famously pressuring outgoing Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find 11,780 votes” to overtake Biden. Raffensberger refused.
For his potential successor, Republicans were left to choose between an outright election denier, Vernon Jones, and a state lawmaker, Tim Fleming, who avoids explicitly disputing the president’s 2020 election lies. They went with Fleming, who won the nomination on Tuesday.
Jones, a perennial candidate who was once a Democrat, embraced Trump’s “stop the steal” movement and said he stood “with those who believe there was election fraud.” Fleming, who once served as deputy secretary of state, has said there were “irregularities” in 2020, a word choice that has become code for Republicans who want neither to ratify nor call out Trump’s errant claims.
Democrats voted for Penny Brown Reynolds — a former state judge in Fulton County who also served in the Biden administration as deputy assistant secretary for civil rights for the Department of Agriculture — over Dana Barrett, a Fulton County commissioner.
—-
Associated Press reporters Kate Brumback in Jackson, Tom Beaumont in Des Moines, Iowa, and Matt Brown in Washington contributed.
