Emily Wu Pearson
| WABE
June 16th, 2026
Updated June 16, 2026,
11:56 PM EDT
Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Collins will face incumbent Democrat Jon Ossoff in the November election for Georgia’s Senate seat.
Collins beat political newcomer Derek Dooley in the runoff by 10 percentage points. Ossoff ran unopposed in the primary.
The November race will be crucial for control of the Senate. Republicans have a narrow majority in the chamber and have considered Georgia a possible seat to gain because President Donald Trump won the state in 2024.
Gov. Brian Kemp devoted a significant amount of time campaigning with the former University of Tennessee football coach Dooley, while Collins clinched a last-minute endorsement from Trump two days before the runoff election.
Both candidates faced controversy during campaigning.
Collins faced a House ethics investigation into whether the congressman abused taxpayer funds by hiring the girlfriend of his former chief of staff for work that the woman allegedly did not perform.
Collins insisted the issue is simply a “complaint” with no merit, not an actual House ethics case. A “nothing burger,” the congressman called it. The Office of Congressional Conduct, after an initial inquiry, has nonetheless referred the matter to the House Ethics Committee.
Ahead of the upcoming special legislative session, some state lawmakers called for an investigation into an alleged “pay-to-play” scheme reported by 11Alive involving Kemp and a school-security business owned by Dooley’s brother.
Another news outlet, Courier Georgia, reported on additional allegations of pay-to-play schemes regarding lakefront properties formerly owned by Kemp being sold to people who then both received government contracts and donated to Kemp’s PAC, which is supporting Dooley’s campaign.
What does a Collins vs. Ossoff Senate race look like?
Collins and Ossoff bring stark differences to the Senate race.
During primary campaigning, Collins rallied against Ossoff on immigration. “[Ossoff] takes up for all these criminal immigrants, even shutting down the government, cutting off services for his own constituents, all to protect illegals,” Collins said.
Collins is a committed Trump supporter and has traveled around Georgia and the country to rally for the president. As a representative in Congress, he authored the first law Trump signed in his second term, the Laken Riley Act, named after a college student who was killed in Athens by a Venezuelan migrant who was in the U.S. illegally. The law requires immigrants accused of certain crimes to be held in immigration detention.
In Ossoff’s time as senator, he led investigations into alleged human rights abuses at immigration detention facilities across the country and called for reforming the immigration system he has described as inefficient. Ossoff investigated alleged medical abuse against women detained in a Georgia immigration detention center, and most recently called for oversight for caring of unaccompanied, pregnant minors in the immigration detention system.
Collins celebrated the primary win on social media Tuesday night.
“Georgia, I’m honored to be your Republican nominee for the United States Senate,” he wrote. “Now it’s time to get to work, defeat Jon Ossoff, and take this seat back for the people of this state.”
Democratic Party of Georgia Chair Charlie Bailey said that Collins is “an extreme Donald Trump loyalist who has spent his time in Congress voting with MAGA Republicans even when it hurts Georgians.”
“Collins would rather use Georgians’ taxpayer dollars to build a fancy ballroom for Donald Trump than build rural hospitals for hardworking Georgians,” Bailey said in a statement. “Between now and November, we will hold Collins accountable for his toxic record and ensure that Senator Jon Ossoff is decisively re-elected in November.”
