Republicans to pick Senate challenger to Jon Ossoff in Georgia runoff

WASHINGTON, June 16 (Reuters) – Republican voters in Georgia ​will choose their U.S. Senate nominee in a runoff election on Tuesday, tapping either a congressman dubbed “MAGA Mike” ‌by President Donald Trump or a political outsider backed by Governor Brian Kemp.

The winner – Representative Mike Collins or former college football coach Derek Dooley – will face Jon Ossoff, a potential Democratic presidential candidate in 2028 and the only incumbent Senate Democrat up for reelection in a state that Trump won ​in 2024.

Collins finished first in the May 19 primary with 40% of the vote, 10 percentage points ahead of Dooley. ​Trump endorsed Collins over the weekend, calling him a “WARRIOR and WINNER” who supported Trump “from the very ⁠beginning.”

Republicans hold a 53-47 majority in the Senate but have limited opportunities to win additional seats. Their top targets are Georgia ​and Michigan, two states the president narrowly won. But they have a tall task in unseating Ossoff.

Charles Bullock, a political science professor ​at the University of Georgia, said while Ossoff is more liberal than most Georgia voters, his office has a strong constituent services operation and he spends a lot of time in the state.

“Even Republican campaign consultants, activists like that, that I talk to are pretty much willing to concede that, ​yeah, Ossoff’s going to be able to hold this seat,” he said.

Ossoff has raised $60 million and reported entering May ​with nearly $33 million on hand. He is currently favored to win reelection, according to political prognosticators. Neither of his remaining challengers has raised more ‌than $5 million, ⁠and both reported less than $2 million on hand as of May 27.

The Democratic Senate Majority PAC has reserved $20 million in TV advertising in Georgia, and the Republican Senate Leadership Fund has pledged to invest $44 million into flipping the seat.

Democrats would need to net four seats in November’s midterm elections to win control of the Senate. Sabato’s Crystal Ball, a newsletter that makes electoral projections, shifted three ​states toward Democrats last week, ​moving North Carolina’s open seat ⁠to lean Democratic and Republican-leaning Alaska and Ohio to toss-ups.

Democrats have strong candidates in each of those states: former North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper, former Representative Mary Peltola of Alaska and former Senator Sherrod ​Brown of Ohio. Their candidacies are buoyed by Trump’s low approval rating and concerns over ​the high cost ⁠of living, heightened by the U.S.-Israel war with Iran.

Senator Susan Collins of Maine is the most vulnerable incumbent Republican, representing a state that Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris won by nearly 7 percentage points in 2024. She will face progressive oysterman Graham Platner, who overcame several ⁠controversies to ​win the Democratic nomination.

Democrats believe they have also expanded the map of competitive ​states to include Iowa and Texas, where Democratic voters nominated state Representative Josh Turek, a paralympian, and state Representative James Talarico, a Presbyterian seminarian. In 2024, Trump ​won Iowa by 13 percentage points and Texas by 14 points.