ATLANTA — Georgia Republicans are battling over the future direction of their party in runoff elections Tuesday, with voters deciding who will carry the GOP banner against U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff and who will compete to hold the governor’s office against former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms.
President Donald Trump looms large over every contest on the ballot.
In the race for the Senate nomination, Trump stepped in late with an endorsement of Rep. Mike Collins, a second-term congressman who describes himself as a “MAGA warrior.” Collins is competing against Derek Dooley, a political newcomer and former football coach who has earned the backing of outgoing Gov. Brian Kemp.
Trump made his pick in the governor’s race ten months earlier, throwing his support behind Georgia Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, who was involved in Trump’s efforts to reverse his 2020 loss to Joe Biden. In a last-minute development, Kemp announced his own endorsement of Jones on Sunday.
Both Trump’s and Kemp’s endorsements are being put to the test by billionaire Rick Jackson, who has poured more than $93 million of his personal fortune into his bid for the nomination.
Georgia carries enormous weight in the national battle for control of Congress. Ossoff, who was first elected during the 2020 cycle, is the lone Democratic senator running for reelection in a state Trump carried in 2024. Democrats consider holding his seat critical if they want to gain the net four seats needed to reclaim the Senate majority.
The Republican debate over who can best win in November has taken center stage, with Dooley, 58, arguing that his outsider status actually works in his favor.
“We have got to get the best candidate to beat Jon Ossoff,” Dooley said Monday during one of his final campaign appearances before Tuesday’s polls open. “The Republican Party has not won a Senate race in 10 years. … We have to learn some lessons from that.”
Dooley frequently draws on football analogies, a natural fit given his lifelong connection to the sport. “You’ve got to have somebody who can stay on offense” against Ossoff, he often tells supporters. Before his own coaching career at the college and NFL levels, Dooley came from a celebrated Georgia sports family — his father was the legendary University of Georgia football coach Vince Dooley.
Dooley has also targeted Collins over a House ethics complaint alleging the congressman misused taxpayer funds by putting the girlfriend of a former senior aide on the congressional payroll for work she allegedly never performed. An initial review resulted in the matter being forwarded to the House ethics committee.
Collins, whose father also served in Congress, has welcomed Trump’s endorsement while making the case that his own record provides the sharpest contrast with Ossoff, particularly on immigration, and that he can build a wider coalition of supporters.
“We’ve got a great organization with the right voting record and the right message,” Collins said during his final campaign swing before the runoff.
Collins, 58, authored the 2025 Laken Riley Act, legislation that mandates immigrants accused of certain crimes be held without bond. The law bears the name of a Georgia nursing student killed in 2021 by a man who had entered the country illegally. Ossoff initially voted against the measure but later switched his position after Trump returned to the White House.
Collins also highlights his background as the owner of a trucking company, saying the experience has given him firsthand knowledge of the challenges facing workers and business owners. “We must protect Americans first, protect our people, put them first, get the federal government off the backs of hardworking men and women out there,” he said.
Whoever emerges from the Republican primary will face a significant fundraising disadvantage heading into the general election and will rely heavily on national GOP support. Through the end of May, neither Republican candidate had raised $5 million, and both had less than $2 million available to spend. By contrast, Ossoff had raised $60.4 million and held $32.5 million in cash as of late April, the last reporting period before his uncontested primary.
Trump-backed candidates have generally performed well in 2026 primaries, but none have yet faced a self-funded rival with the financial firepower Jackson has demonstrated.
Jackson, a 71-year-old businessman who built his wealth through a company supplying contract healthcare workers, has used that fortune to flood television and online platforms with advertising. Pitching himself to hardcore Trump supporters, he has vowed that immigrants living in Georgia illegally will be “deported or departed.” He has also promised sweeping tax cuts and, with an eye toward a potential general election, has highlighted his personal story as someone who grew up in the state’s foster care system and featured his grandchildren in campaign ads aimed at softening his image.
Jones, 47, comes from a wealthy background but is running a comparatively lower-profile campaign. He presents himself as a “proven leader” and is calling for the elimination of Georgia’s state income tax, though he has not explained how the resulting revenue shortfall would be addressed. He has also pointed to his presidential endorsement and his time as a University of Georgia football player in the 1990s as part of his pitch to voters. As lieutenant governor, Jones pushed legislation — which ultimately failed to pass — that would have barred Jackson’s company from receiving state contracts funded by taxpayers.
Trump did not visit Georgia to campaign alongside Jones in person, but he has offered fresh praise on social media and joined a tele-rally during the early voting window.
“Burt was strongly committed to my Campaign in 2016, 2020, and 2024, and worked tirelessly to help us WIN. He has been with us from the very beginning,” Trump wrote on Truth Social last week.
Georgia’s secretary of state race is also on the ballot for the first time since Trump’s well-documented pressure campaign following the 2020 election, when he famously urged then-Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find 11,800 votes” to overturn Biden’s victory. Raffensperger declined.
Republicans must now choose between Vernon Jones, an outright election denier who previously identified as a Democrat and embraced Trump’s “stop the steal” movement, and state lawmaker Tim Fleming, who avoids directly challenging Trump’s 2020 claims but refers to unspecified “irregularities” — a term that has become a way for Republicans to sidestep both endorsing and rebuking the former president’s assertions.
On the Democratic side, voters are choosing between Dana Barrett, a Fulton County commissioner, and Penny Brown Reynolds, a former Fulton County judge who also served in the Biden administration as deputy assistant secretary for civil rights at the Department of Agriculture.
