Mike Collins advances to Georgia GOP Senate runoff against Ossoff

Rep. Mike Collins advanced to the Georgia GOP Senate runoff, turning a crowded primary into a June 16 test of which kind of Republican can carry the state into a November matchup with Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff. Georgia requires a candidate to win more than 50% of the vote to avoid a runoff, and Collins was leading while Rep. Buddy Carter and former college football coach Derek Dooley battled for the second spot.

The race has become one of November’s marquee Senate contests and a central fight on the 2026 map, with the Republican nominee poised to challenge Ossoff, first elected in 2021, in a contest that could help decide control of the U.S. Senate. For Georgia Republicans, the runoff is doing more than choosing a nominee. It is showing which message the party thinks can survive a statewide general election.

That question runs straight through the GOP’s split between Donald Trump and Brian Kemp. Kemp backed Dooley after deciding not to run for Senate himself, while Collins and Carter sought Trump’s support, which had not yet come. Each candidate has framed himself as the best person to help Trump in Washington, a signal that the primary has been as much about party identity as about the seat itself.

The money race underscored how high the stakes are. Collins and Carter each raised nearly $2 million after entering the race, giving the contest the kind of financial heft usually reserved for statewide battles with national consequences. That fundraising level also reflected how hard Republicans are working to recruit a challenger who can move beyond the party’s rural base and compete across Georgia’s suburbs, exurbs and metro counties.

Collins’s runoff showing suggests that Georgia Republicans remain receptive to a hard-edged, Trump-aligned candidate even without a formal endorsement from the former president. But the unresolved second slot between Carter and Dooley also shows the party has not settled on a single formula for defeating Ossoff. The next month will reveal whether Georgia Republicans want a Kemp-backed moderate, a Trump-first loyalist, or a candidate who can fuse both appeals into one statewide coalition.