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President Trump endorsed Representative Mike Collins on Sunday in the Republican Senate primary runoff in Georgia, choosing a loyalist and immigration hard-liner over a former football coach who had angled for his support.<\/p>\n
By backing Mr. Collins over Derek Dooley, a former football coach at the University of Tennessee, Mr. Trump gives the congressman a major lift as he seeks to win the nomination to take on Senator Jon Ossoff, a Democrat, in one of the nation\u2019s most competitive midterm battlegrounds.<\/p>\n
\u201cMike 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,\u201d Mr. Trump wrote on social media<\/a> early Sunday morning, two days before the runoff.<\/p>\n Mr. Collins led Mr. Dooley by about 10 percentage points in an initial round<\/a> of primary voting in mid-May that included another Trump acolyte, Representative Buddy Carter. Opinion polls have shown Mr. Collins leading Mr. Dooley in the head-to-head matchup.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n But Mr. Dooley has the backing of Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia, a popular Republican, and Republican strategists in the state had said they expected the runoff to be close. Mr. Trump\u2019s move on Sunday could scramble that calculus. His endorsement has proved immensely powerful in Republican primary after primary in recent weeks, though his winning streak hit a snag in Iowa in early June. The strength of Mr. Trump\u2019s support in the party will be tested again in several states holding contests on Tuesday.<\/p>\n While both remaining candidates in Georgia had vied for Mr. Trump\u2019s support, his choice of Mr. Collins was not entirely unexpected. Mr. Collins, a trucking executive with a history of incendiary social media posts, was already positioning himself as the MAGA candidate. He sponsored the first bill Mr. Trump signed after returning to the presidency<\/a>. The congressman\u2019s campaign has also brought on some of the president\u2019s political advisers, including Mr. Trump\u2019s pollster, Tony Fabrizio, and Tim Saler, a data analyst for his 2024 campaign.<\/p>\n \u201cGeorgians deserve a U.S. Senator who will fight for them every day to deliver real results, and that\u2019s exactly what I\u2019m going to do,\u201d Mr. Collins wrote in a post on X<\/a> thanking Mr. Trump. \u201cIt starts with firing Jon Ossoff in November. Let\u2019s go get it!\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Dooley had worked to appeal to the president by visiting the White House for a lengthy meeting last summer and using a campaign slogan, \u201cGeorgia First,\u201d that echoed the president\u2019s \u201cAmerica First\u201d message. Mr. Trump has a history of warming to sports figures who enter politics.<\/p>\n But Mr. Dooley\u2019s chief political patron, Mr. Kemp, has had a tumultuous relationship with the president after refusing to join Mr. Trump\u2019s effort to reverse the 2020 presidential election. As recently as 2024, Mr. Trump publicly referred to Mr. Kemp as a \u201cbad guy,\u201d though they smoothed out their public relationship<\/a> by the election that year. Mr. Kemp has invested heavily in the race, joining Mr. Dooley at dozens of campaign events across the state.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n In his post, Mr. Trump wrote that Mr. Dooley \u201cseems like a nice person.\u201d He then returned to his false claims that he carried Georgia in the 2020 election, writing disapprovingly that Mr. Dooley \u201csaid that I lost Georgia in 2020.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI have great respect for President Trump and look forward to working with him in the Senate,\u201d Mr. Dooley posted on X<\/a> on Sunday. He called himself a political outsider and reiterated his support from Mr. Kemp. \u201cA vote for Mike Collins is a vote for Jon Ossoff,\u201d he wrote, suggesting that he would be a stronger general election candidate than his opponent.<\/p>\n Some Republicans in Georgia have wondered if either candidate would be up to the task of taking on Mr. Ossoff in November. They have voiced concerns this year<\/a> that their party is poorly positioned to challenge the Democrat, who is a strong fund-raiser and a popular incumbent.<\/p>\n Ellie Dougherty, a spokeswoman for Mr. Ossoff\u2019s campaign, criticized the Republican candidates and expressed optimism about the general election. \u201cAfter nearly a yearlong brutally messy audition to win over the White House, Trump puppets Mike Collins and Derek Dooley have made themselves both unelectable,\u201d she said in a statement.<\/p>\n Joel McElhannon, a retired political strategist in Georgia, said that Mr. Trump\u2019s endorsement accentuated what most Republican voters already saw as the race\u2019s existing dynamics.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cHe was kind of seen as a Trump-likely endorsed candidate before this,\u201d Mr. McElhannon said of Mr. Collins. \u201cI think the endorsement is kind of the cherry on top.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Trump has had particular success in his endorsements in the South, backing Republican challengers who defeated Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky in primaries this spring.<\/a><\/p>\n