Tipsheet

We Know Who Will Be Competing for Georgia's Senate Seat and Governor's Mansion in the Fall

Matt Vespa
Matt Vespa  |  June 16, 2026 8:12 PM

Well, Georgia’s GOP Senate runoff has concluded. We now know who will face Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff in the fall. Rep. Mike Collins easily defeated Derek Dooley with 53 percent of the vote so far. Trump endorsed Collins, though it was widely seen as a race Collins would cruise to victory in. He was a key player in securing the passage of the Laken Riley Act. 

This will be a tough fight. Ossoff has learned a lot from his 2017 loss in the 6th congressional special election to Karen Handel. He’s the incumbent, has stayed relatively quiet on some of his party’s wildest policy positions, and has raised a lot of money to win another term. 


This won’t be easy. 

UPDATE: Rick Jackson has won the Georgia GOP gubernatorial runoff. He'll be facing Keisha Lance Bottoms in the general (via NBC News):

Billionaire businessman Rick Jackson won the Republican primary runoff in Georgia’s race for governor, NBC News projects, defeating President Donald Trump’s endorsed candidate, Lt. Gov. Burt Jones.

Jackson, a healthcare executive and first-time candidate who poured more than $100 million of his own money into his campaign, will now face Democratic nominee Keisha Lance Bottoms in the November general election in the battleground state.

The contest between Jackson and Jones, which went to a runoff after neither candidate won 50% of the vote in the May 19 primary, boiled down to a fierce battle for the MAGA base.

For Jackson, that took on the form of comparing himself in ads and on the stump to Trump painting himself as a political outsider — even though he didn’t have the president’s official support. For Jones, that meant leaning heavily into highlighting the Trump’s “complete and total endorsement.”

But ultimately, that support from Trump — which first came for Trump last August and was reiterated in tele-rallies and social media posts — wasn’t enough. Jones is only the second Trump-backed candidate to lose a Republican primary for governor this election cycle as the president has sought to put his stamp on the party across the country.