Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA) and former Tennessee football coach Derek Dooley are heading to a runoff election as both candidates vie for the Republican nomination for Senate in Georgia.
Collins and Dooley, who had the backing of Gov. Brian Kemp (R-GA), are looking to take on vulnerable Democratic incumbent Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) in the November general election.
“Thank you, Georgia,” Collins said in a post on X. “Love y’all. 28 more days of putting the hammer down!”
Collins easily glided into the runoff election, with the Associated Press announcing he would be in the second contest at 9:43 p.m. The outlet called the race for Dooley as Collins’s runoff opponent hours later, at 11:16 p.m. With 80% of ballots counted, Collins held with 40.5% of the vote, compared to 30% for Dooley.
Since no candidate got more than 50%, a runoff will be held on June 16 between the top two vote-getters as required by Georgia law.
Rep. Buddy Carter (R-GA) was in third place with 25.3% of the vote.
Still, Republicans fear the costly primary will leave them weakened ahead of the general election matchup against Ossoff, who will have spent months fundraising and gathering support from his party.
Now, eyes will be on President Donald Trump, who did not endorse in the competitive Senate primary, to see if he gets behind either candidate.
Collins, with the backing of Club for Growth, led in polling leading up to the race, with Dooley trailing behind him. Republicans originally wanted Kemp himself to run, viewing him as the strongest possible candidate to beat Ossoff, but the term-limited governor opted out of the race, instead choosing to get behind Dooley, the son of longtime University of Georgia football coach Vince Dooley.
GEORGIA JUDGE ALLOWS POLL WATCHERS TO MONITOR TABULATION OF PRIMARY RESULTS
The Republican will have an uphill battle to defeat Ossoff, as incumbents typically enjoy a built-in advantage during elections. Momentum also appears to be on the Democrats’ side, as voters express disapproval over Trump’s second-term agenda and Republicans grapple with high gas prices over the Iran war.
Ossoff has raised more than $14 million during the first quarter and enters the sprint with roughly $31 million in the bank.
