Georgia results: Collins will face Sen. Ossoff; Trump's pick loses governor runoff

Rep. Mike Collins, Georgia's Republican U.S. Senate nominee, speaks to supporters on May 19 in Jackson, Ga. Jason Allen/Getty Images hide caption

ATLANTA — President Trump suffered a rare primary endorsement defeat Tuesday as Georgia Republicans narrowly voted for billionaire healthcare executive Rick Jackson to be the party's nominee for governor.

But the president's preferred pick to challenge incumbent Sen. Jon Ossoff, Rep. Mike Collins, handily won his two-candidate runoff, according to a race call by The Associated Press. The Collins-Ossoff matchup will be closely watched nationally as the major political parties vie for control of the Senate.

For the governor's office, Jackson beat GOP Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, and will face Democratic former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms in November.

Trump endorsed Jones, a longtime ally, in August 2025 , but did not wade into the Senate race officially until after early voting ended for the runoff, issuing a lengthy post backing Collins in the early hours Sunday morning.

Tuesday's runoff results also mark a resounding political defeat for term-limited Gov. Brian Kemp, who declined to run in the Senate race and instead poured significant financial and political capital into backing former football coach Derek Dooley in that contest.

In Trump's endorsement post of Collins, he dinged Dooley as someone who did not have strong ties to Georgia or to his policies, and for correctly saying that Trump lost Georgia's 2020 presidential election.

"I don't know Derek Dooley, and neither does anyone else, but he seems like a nice person," Trump wrote. "Unfortunately, he has lived outside of Georgia for most of his life, didn't vote in 2020 or 2016, and said that I lost Georgia in 2020 when, in actuality, the facts have now proven that I won by a lot!"