Georgia Senate reelection goes to Jon Ossoff

Collins’ ties drew scrutiny; he continued embracing Trump’s false claims about 2020 election fraud

Jon Ossoff defeated Republican Rep. Mike Collins in Georgia’s U.S. Senate race, NPR reported, citing a race call by The Associated Press. Ossoff entered the contest as the only incumbent Senate Democrat defending a seat in a state President Trump carried in 2024.

A year earlier, Democrats and Republicans envisioned the Georgia race as a leading Senate contest of the cycle, and NPR said it looked closer on paper. NPR reported that Collins’s “personal baggage” alienated independents and some Republican-leaning voters.

NPR reported that Democrats backed Ossoff, who won respect at home, including from some Republican officials, for the strength of his constituent services. Outside Georgia, Ossoff energized Democrats who were seeking new party leaders.

The seat’s Democratic status was recent. NPR reported that Democrats flipped both of Georgia’s Senate seats in 2021 for the first time in a generation. In the 2022 midterms, Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock barely held onto his seat in a runoff, even against an opponent NPR described as “deeply flawed.” NPR also reported that Republicans have continued to win nearly every other statewide race in Georgia.

NPR reported that Trump endorsed Collins over former football coach Derek Dooley in the Republican primary this spring. Dooley was a first-time candidate backed by Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp. Collins, the owner of a family trucking company, became the GOP’s nominee.

NPR reported that Collins struggled to dispense with scrutiny over his ties to family and former staffers who have espoused white nationalist and antisemitic views. Separately, NPR reported that Collins continued to embrace Trump’s false claims about widespread election fraud in 2020.

Ossoff, a former congressional aide and documentary filmmaker, first appeared on the national stage when he mounted a closer-than-expected bid to flip a suburban House race in a special election in 2017. After Georgia sent him to the Senate in a 2021 runoff, he gained attention for questioning Trump appointees during hearings on the Hill.

During the campaign, clips from Ossoff’s rally speeches attacking alleged graft in Trump’s orbit circulated around the internet. Many Democrats began mentioning him as a possible presidential candidate. Ossoff has said he is not running for the White House in 2028.