Trump gives 11th hour backing to Collins in Georgia U.S. Senate runoff

by Ross Williams, Georgia Recorder, [This article first appeared in the Georgia Recorder, republished with permission]

June 14, 2026

President Donald Trump has issued a last-minute endorsement of Congressman Mike Collins in the Republican runoff to become the GOP’s U.S. Senate nominee in a race with national implications.

“Mike Collins is a true Friend, Fighter, and WARRIOR, who has been with us from the very beginning, and has my Complete and Total Endorsement to be your next United States Senator,” Trump wrote in a length social media post which came just before 1 a.m. on Sunday, Trump’s 80th birthday.

The endorsement comes late in the game for Collins, who faces former University of Tennessee football coach Derek Dooley in Tuesday’s election. Early voting has already ended in the contest.

The winner will go on to face Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff in November. Ossoff, who is the only sitting Democratic senator running for reelection this year in a state Trump won in 2024, is a top target for national Republicans.

In his endorsement, Trump tried to cast Dooley as an interloper.

“I don’t know Derek Dooley, and neither does anyone else, but he seems like a nice person. Unfortunately, he has lived outside of Georgia for most of his life, didn’t vote in 2020 or 2016, and said that I lost Georgia in 2020,” Trump wrote.

Dooley entered the race with the support of Gov. Brian Kemp, Georgia’s popular term-limited governor who decided against running for the Senate seat. Kemp and first lady Marty Kemp have made frequent appearances at Dooley’s side at campaign stops around the state.

The runoff is likely to be viewed as a proxy war between Trump and Kemp, who have butted heads in the aftermath of the 2020 election when Kemp refused to help overturn Trump’s loss.

It’s not clear how big an impact Trump’s endorsement might have, coming just two days before the election. And Georgia Republicans demonstrated in 2022 that Trump endorsements aren’t a ticket to victory when they overwhelmingly supported Kemp in the GOP primary against Trump-backed former U.S. Sen. David Perdue and rebuffed most other Trump endorsees on the ballot.

But Trump’s endorsement has been influential in recent contests in other states, including last month’s U.S. Senate primary in Texas where Trump endorsed Sen. John Cornyn’s challenger, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.

Collins took more than 40% in the vote in last month’s primary to Dooley’s just over 30%, with the rest taken up by Congressman Buddy Carter and a handful of others.

Collins thanked Trump for his endorsement in a tweet.

“Georgians deserve a U.S. Senator who will fight for them every day to deliver real results, and that’s exactly what I’m going to do. It starts with firing Jon Ossoff in November,” he wrote.

In a statement, Dooley said he has “great respect” for the president and looks forward to working with him in the Senate.

“I’m proud to have the strong support of Governor Brian Kemp, and we’re going to win on Tuesday because as I have said from the beginning the most important endorsement is that of the Georgia people,” Dooley said. “A vote for Mike Collins is a vote for Jon Ossoff — but a vote for me is a vote for the people of Georgia.”

Ossoff Campaign Communications Director Ellie Dougherty predicted Trump’s endorsement won’t do Collins any good if he wins the nomination.

“After nearly a year-long brutally messy audition to win over the White House, Trump puppets Mike Collins and Derek Dooley have made themselves both unelectable and terminally inseparable from the toxic president,” Dougherty said in a statement. “The juggernaut Ossoff campaign continues to build incredible momentum to decisively defeat either pro-war, pro-tariff, and pro-cutting healthcare candidate in November.”

Ossoff has raised the most money of any Senate candidate in 2026. According to the Federal Election Commission, he raised $14 million from the start of the year through the end of March, and his total funds topped $31 million as of his most recent filing.

Georgia Recorder is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Georgia Recorder maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jill Nolin for questions: info@georgiarecorder.com.