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President Donald Trump on Saturday made an 11th-hour endorsement in a crucial Senate race in battleground Georgia, which is among a handful that will likely decide if the GOP holds its slim majority in the chamber in November’s midterm elections.
Trump endorsed Republican Rep. Mike Collins, a MAGA champion and strong supporter of the president, who is facing off in Tuesday’s runoff election against former college football coach Derek Dooley, who has the support of popular conservative Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp.
The winner of the GOP Senate nomination will face off in the midterms against Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff. Republicans view Ossoff as the most vulnerable Senate Democrat seeking re-election and are heavily targeting the first-term senator.
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.
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He and Dooley, a lawyer, a former University of Tennessee football coach and the son of legendary University of Georgia head football coach Vince Dooley, were the top two finishers in a crowded field of candidates that also included Rep. Buddy Carter. Since no one topped 50% in last month’s primary, Collins and Dooley advanced to Tuesday’s runoff election.
While Collins has long showcased his MAGA credentials and support for the president, Trump remained neutral in the Georgia primary and runoff election until now.
Meanwhile, Dooley is strongly backed by the term-limited Kemp, who is a lifelong friend. Kemp 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.
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While Dooley has emphasized his outsider image and targeted Collins as a political insider, Collins has criticized him for a lack of political experience and for living outside of Georgia for much of his adult life.
Both candidates have some political baggage.
The House Ethics Committee has been investigating Collins over allegations he paid an intern in a district office who had a romantic relationship with his congressional chief of staff but who did not actually perform any work. Collins denied any wrongdoing and kept the staffer on his Senate campaign.
But the staffer was later fired by Collins after taking to social media on behalf of the campaign to mock the wife of a Dooley campaign advisor who attempted suicide after accusing Matt Lauer of rape. The social media post was deleted and Collins apologized, calling the tweet “despicable and unauthorized.”
Dooley, over the past week, was reportedly accused of being part of a “pay to play” scandal involving brother Daniel Dooley, and the governor. Dooley and Kemp have denied any wrongdoing, but Democrats in the legislature requested an independent investigation.
While the Republicans have been battling for their party’s nomination over the past year, Ossoff has built a powerful war chest that will give him a major fundraising advantage as the general election gets underway.
While he isn’t on the ballot, the president’s immense clout over the GOP is also facing another key test in Georgia’s other runoff, where Trump-backed Lt. Gov. Burt Jones is battling billionaire businessman Rick Jackson for the GOP gubernatorial nomination, in the race to succeed Kemp.
The brute force of the president’s endorsement power has been on display in GOP primaries over the past month, with his candidates ousting incumbents he targeted in showdowns in Indiana, Louisiana, Kentucky and Texas that grabbed plenty of national attention.
But Trump’s endorsement streak in statewide and congressional Republican primaries was snapped two weeks ago when his 11th-hour endorsement of Republican Rep. Randy Feenstra of Iowa in the race to succeed retiring GOP Gov. Kim Reynolds wasn’t enough to propel the three-term congressman to victory.
Feenstra was narrowly edged by Zach Lahn, a businessman, farmer and former political strategist who was backed by the political wings of MAHA — the acronym for the Make America Healthy Again movement aligned with Trump Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — and Turning Point USA, the powerful conservative organization co-founded by the late Charlie Kirk.
Trump rebounded last week, as the candidate he endorsed in the South Carolina GOP gubernatorial primary, Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette, finished first in a crowded field and clinched one of the two tickets in the race for the nomination.
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Meanwhile, longtime Trump ally Sen. Lindsey Graham did win a majority of the vote in the Republican Senate primary, and avoided a runoff.
Graham, who was endorsed by Trump, was facing primary challenges from five candidates, including conservative businessman Mark Lynch, who took aim at the senator over his support for the war in Iran. Lynch was backed by some MAGA leaders who have been critical of the president.
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