Georgia Republican Mike Collins Joins 2026 Field to Challenge Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff

Source: AP

Updated 8:08 AM EDT, July 28, 2025


ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia Republican Mike Collins on Monday joined the field challenging Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff in the state the GOP has named as their top target to add a Senate seat in 2026.

A second-term member of Congress from a district east of Atlanta, Collins became the newest top Republican to get into the primary race. U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter is already running, while state Insurance Commissioner John King dropped out. Also expected to run is former University of Tennessee football coach Derek Dooley.

“I don’t know who Jon Ossoff really works for, but it sure as heck isn’t Georgia,” Collins said in a video released Monday. “It’s time to send a trucker to the U.S. Senate, steamroll the radical left, deliver on President Trump’s ‘America First’ agenda and put the people of Georgia back in the driver’s seat.”

Collins had been mulling a run since Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp announced in May that he would not run against Ossoff, depriving Republicans of their top choice to challenge a senator who won the 2021 runoff in the wake of the 2020 election. Twin victories by Ossoff and Raphael Warnock gave Democrats control of the U.S. Senate at the time and. It was the first time since 2002 that Georgia had two Democratic senators.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/mike-collins-republican-ossoff-georgia-senate-2026-bee9680d90bd8d6fc078c0998e161dcb