President Trump endorsed Mike Collins for the Georgia Senate race, and last night Collins delivered exactly the way Trump's candidates tend to — by winning decisively. Decision Desk called the Republican Senate runoff at 8:05 PM EDT on June 16, and it wasn't even close enough to keep anyone up past bedtime.
Somewhere in Washington, Jon Ossoff just felt a chill run down his spine. Good.
Collins steamrolled Derek Dooley, who had the backing of Gov. Kemp, proving once again that in Republican primaries, Trump's endorsement is the golden ticket and everybody else's endorsement is a participation trophy. With 57% of the vote tallied when the race was called, Collins had built an insurmountable lead that left Dooley's camp staring at their phones hoping for a miracle that wasn't coming.
This wasn't just a Senate runoff. It was a referendum on who controls the direction of the Georgia GOP — and the answer, once again, is Donald J. Trump.
But the carnage didn't stop there. In the gubernatorial runoff, Rick Jackson pulled off his own upset, beating Burt Jones — who had both Trump AND Kemp endorsements — by a margin of 55-45 when Decision Desk called that race at 9:03 PM EDT. That one stings a little, but credit where it's due: Georgia Republican voters showed up, made their picks, and went home. Democracy in action, folks.
The real story here is what comes next. Collins now squares off against Democrat Senator Jon Ossoff, and if you're Ossoff, you have to be looking at that Georgia electorate and feeling a little queasy. This is the same state that's been trending redder cycle after cycle. Trump carried it. The Republican base is fired up. And your party is currently in the middle of a civil war that makes the Hatfields and McCoys look like a minor HOA dispute.
The Georgia runoff night was a clean sweep for Republican energy. Even down in Alabama, Trump-backed Barry Moore cruised to victory in his Senate runoff, leading 58% to 41% when Decision Desk made the call at 9:47 PM EDT. Trump's kingmaker streak isn't a fluke. It's a pattern.
Collins is exactly the kind of candidate who makes Democrats lose sleep. He's a sitting congressman, he's got Trump's full-throated backing, and he's running in a state where the Republican ground game has only gotten stronger since 2020.
Ossoff won his seat in January 2021 during a runoff that Democrats would rather not talk about — back when Biden was popular for about fifteen minutes and Georgia Democrats had wind at their backs. That wind? Gone. Replaced by the kind of headwind that flips umbrellas inside out.
Trump picked Collins. Collins won. And now the Georgia Senate race is shaping up to be one of the marquee battles of 2026. Ossoff might want to start updating his résumé — we hear CNN is always hiring.
