ATLANTA, Ga. – While he isn’t on the ballot, President ‘s immense clout over the GOP faces more key tests on Tuesday in high-stakes Republican runoffs in Georgia, where polls have now closed, and in neighboring Alabama.
Trump-endorsed candidates are fighting in competitive showdowns against Republican rivals for the GOP gubernatorial and Senate nominations in battleground Georgia and for the Senate in solidly red Alabama.
Tuesday’s contests in Georgia and Alabama come as Oklahoma and the District of Columbia hold primary elections, and voters in California’s 14th Congressional District will vote in a special election to narrow the field of nearly a dozen candidates hoping to fill the seat left vacant when scandal-plagued Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell resigned.
But the biggest spotlight is on Georgia, where Trump made an 11th-hour endorsement this past weekend in the Senate race, which is one of a handful of contests across the country that will decide if the GOP holds its slim majority in the chamber.
Trump endorsed Republican Rep. Mike Collins, a MAGA champion and strong supporter of the president, who is facing off against former college football coach Derek Dooley, who has the support of popular conservative Georgia Gov. .
“It’s an honor to have that endorsement. It just shows that he has confidence that we know how to win this race, we know we’re in the lead in this thing,” Collins told Fox News Digital on Sunday, hours after landing Trump’s endorsement.
Asked if Trump’s endorsement i came too late to make a difference, Collins said, “I don’t think President Trump ever is too late. He has this impeccable ability of putting his thumb right on the scale at the right time with whatever he wants to do.”
Dooley, who’s running as an outsider, said in a Fox News Digital interview on the eve of the runoff that the president’s backing of his rival “doesn’t change how I feel.”
“I’m honored to have Governor Kemp’s endorsement. I certainly would have been honored to have the President’s endorsement. But the most important endorsement that I’m fighting for is the people of Georgia,” he emphasized.
Collins, who represents Georgia’s 10th Congressional District, which is located between Atlanta and Augusta, is the son of the late Rep. Mac Collins, and is the founder and co-owner, along with his wife, of a trucking company.
Dooley, a lawyer, a former University of Tennessee football coach and the son of legendary University of Georgia head football coach Vince Dooley, is strongly backed by Kemp, who is a lifelong friend. The governor and his wife, Georgia First Lady Marty Kemp, have regularly appeared with Dooley on the campaign trail, and the governor’s top political advisor is a senior consultant for Dooley’s Senate bid.
Collins and Dooley were the top two finishers in a crowded field of candidates in last month’s primary that also included Rep. Buddy Carter. Since no one topped 50%, Collins and Dooley advanced to Tuesday’s runoff election.
The winner of the GOP Senate nomination in Georgia will face off in the midterms against Democratic Sen. J Republicans view Ossoff as the most vulnerable Senate Democrat seeking re-election and are heavily targeting the first-term senator. But while Republicans have been battling for their party’s nomination over the past year, Ossoff’s built a powerful war chest that will give him a major fundraising advantage as the general election gets underway.
The power of a Trump endorsement is also facing a key test in Georgia’s gubernatorial nomination runoff, where Trump last year backed Lt. Gov. Burt Jones in the race to succeed the term-limited Kemp. Jones is battling billionaire businessman Rick Jackson, who has dished out over $100 million of his own money on his campaign, in the runoff.
The winner will take on former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, who served in the Biden administration, in this autumn’s general elect
