JACKSON, Ga. (AP) — Rep. Mike Collins on Tuesday defeated first-time candidate Derek Dooley for the Republican U.S. Senate nomination in Georgia, advancing to face Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff for a seat that will help determine control of Capitol Hill for the final years of Donald Trump’s second presidency.

The president, who endorsed Collins on Sunday, will be a key fault line in the general election matchup.

The second-term congressman has identified with the president since he first won his House seat in north Georgia in 2022. A trucking company owner and son of a congressman, Collins campaigns as a self-described “MAGA warrior” and echoes Trump's false claims that his 2020 election loss in Georgia and nationally was rigged. Dooley, a former football coach who had the support of outgoing Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, did not ratify Trump's lies about the 2020 election.

The other big race on the ballot on Tuesday — the GOP nomination for governor — was won by billionaire businessman Rick Jackson, whose campaign has spent more than $100 million, much of it from the first-time candidate’s personal fortune. He outpaced Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, the president’s pick who was once part of Trump's scheme to overturn the 2020 election. Collins will face Democratic nominee and former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms.

Despite Collins' allegiance to Trump, the congressman notably did not mention the president's endorsement during his victory speech or include the president in a litany of thank yous to his family, staff and supporters who gathered in his hometown of Jackson, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Atlanta. Instead, he pitched himself as a sound conservative who can achieve bipartisan progress by “doing the right thing ... building coalitions and finding common ground.” And he promised to campaign in “every ZIP code and every community” of this closely divided state.

Collins said he’d talked to Dooley and Kemp and that Republicans “stand united around one mission” — defeating Ossoff in November. Dooley offered a similar message to his more subdued crowd in metro Atlanta.

“We have a lot of disagreements but the one thing that hasn’t changed is my opinion of Jon Ossoff,” Dooley said. “We need to work together to fire his (expletive) in November.”

Ossoff, first elected in 2020, has blasted Trump as a “national embarrassment” who is using the presidency to enrich himself and his family. The 39-year-old is the lone Senate Democrat running in a state that Trump won in 2024. Democrats face tremendous pressure to hold his seat as they try to gain a net of four seats to claim a Senate majority.

Unlike his late play in the Senate race, Trump endorsed Jones 10 months ago for governor. As a state lawmaker, Jones was one of Trump's alternate presidential electors in 2020. In the governor's race, it was Kemp who made a late-hour endorsement, announcing his support for Jones on Sunday.

Jackson celebrated his outsider status Tuesday night after overcoming Jones' heavyweight endorsements. “I’m the only candidate who doesn’t owe a thing to the political establishment,” he said. “I can’t be bought and I won’t back down.”

He added: “We proved the people of Georgia are in charge.”

Senate contest will be a titanic fall fight

Republicans have not won a U.S. Senate contest in Georgia since 2016, Trump’s first election.

Despite his ties to Trump and the Republican base, Collins has argued that he can build a broad coalition, and he plans to use immigration as a contrast with Ossoff. In the House, Collins sponsored the Laken Riley Act, a 2025 law that requires immigrants accused of certain crimes to be detained. It is named for a Georgia nursing student killed in 2021 by a Venezuelan man who was in the U.S. illegally. Ossoff voted against a version of the legislation before backing the final proposal after Trump’s return to power.

Collins won the nomination despite his Republican opponents highlighting a House ethics complaint that accuses him of abusing taxpayer funds by paying the girlfriend of his former top adviser for congressional job duties she allegedly did not fulfill. After an initial investigation, a federal panel forwarded the matter to the House Ethics Committee.

The congressman begins his general election campaign at a financial disadvantage. Collins raised about $4.9 million through the end of May, and reported having less than $1.2 million remaining. Through late April, the last time Ossoff had to file before his primary, the incumbent had raised $60.4 million and had $32.5 million on hand.

Gubernatorial primary was a unique challenge for Trump

This election cycle, the president’s preferred primary candidates have a strong record so far in 2026. But Jackson’s spending power was a new variable.

Jackson, a 71-year-old business owner, amassed a fortune from his company that provides contract healthcare personnel, and he's used it to blanket television and online platforms with ads. Appealing to hard core Trump supporters, he’s pledged that immigrants in Georgia illegally will be “deported or departed.” He promises a slew of tax cuts. And previewing a potential general election argument, he’s played up his biography as a product of the state foster care system and featured his grandchildren advising him on how to make friendlier ads.

Jones, 47, comes from a wealthy family but is running a more modest campaign. Framing himself as a “proven leader,” Jones trumpeted his presidential seal of approval and time as a University of Georgia football player in the 1990s. As lieutenant governor, Jones pushed legislation that ultimately did not pass but would have disqualified Jackson’s company from receiving taxpayer-funded contracts.

Trump did not travel to Georgia to campaign with Jones but gave the lieutenant governor a fresh round of support on social media and called in to a telephone rally during the early voting period. Jones “worked tirelessly to help us WIN” and “has been with us from the very beginning,” Trump posted on Truth Social last week.

Runoffs for elections chief could shape 2028

Georgia's secretary of state race was open for the first time since Trump’s attempts to subvert the 2020 election, famously pressuring outgoing Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find 11,800 votes” to overtake Biden. Raffensberger refused.

For his potential successor, Republicans were left to choose between an outright election denier, Vernon Jones, and a state lawmaker, Tim Fleming, who avoids explicitly disputing the president’s 2020 election lies. They went with Fleming, who won the nomination on Tuesday.

Jones, a perennial candidate who was once a Democrat, embraced Trump’s “stop the steal” movement and said he stood “with those who believe there was election fraud.” Fleming, who once served as deputy secretary of state, has said there were “irregularities” in 2020, a word choice that has become code for Republicans who want neither to ratify nor call out Trump’s errant claims.

Democrats voted for Penny Brown Reynolds — a former state judge in Fulton County who also served in the Biden administration as deputy assistant secretary for civil rights for the Department of Agriculture — over Dana Barrett, a Fulton County commissioner.

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Associated Press reporters Kate Brumback in Jackson, Tom Beaumont in Des Moines, Iowa, and Matt Brown in Washington contributed.

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