ATLANTA (AP) — Two-term U.S. Rep. Mike Collins advanced to the Republican runoff for the U.S. Senate on Tuesday.
The owner of a family trucking business, Collins, 58, represents a district east of Atlanta. He has made immigration enforcement a focus of his candidacy.
Georgia Republicans are looking for a challenger to Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff. Collins and Buddy Carter are playing up their conservative records on Capitol Hill, while former college football coach Derek Dooley pitches himself as a political outsider.
In the governor primary, Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and healthcare billionaire Rick Jackson have advanced to the June 16 Republican runoff, extending a bruising campaign battle.
Trump endorsed Jones last year and got a thank you from the candidate Tuesday night. A Jones win would boost Trump’s influence in a critical battleground state. The president’s kingmaker record in Georgia had been shaky, failing to dislodge Gov. Brian Kemp and others in 2022 and backing Herschel Walker in a Senate loss that year.