Top U.S. Senate Republican stumps with Collins in Georgia as seat appears to slip out of reach

U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune came to Atlanta to keep hope alive for the Mike Collins campaign as Collins challenges Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff in the Nov. 3 midterm election.

Thune’s visit came amid reports that national Republicans are deprioritizing Georgia’s Senate race in favor of states they feel they have a better shot of winning, like Texas, Maine, Alaska, Ohio, Michigan and New Hampshire.

Pollsters give Ossoff a sizable lead, with the Real Clear Politics polling average placing him nearly eight points ahead of Collins, 51.1% to 43.3%, and the Cook Political Report this week changed its rating for the race from “lean Democrat” to “likely Democrat.”

But speaking with reporters at a Buckhead cafe Friday, Thune said the Senate Republican caucus believes the Trump-endorsed Collins has a shot at becoming its next member.

“I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t think that we could win the state of Georgia,” the South Dakota Republican said. “It’s going to come down to who gets out to vote on Election Day, and there’s been a significant investment made now in ensuring that we turn our voters out on Election Day.”

Thune also appeared with Collins at a closed-door fundraiser Thursday night featuring Gov. Brian Kemp and other top Georgia Republicans. Kemp had previously supported Collins’ opponent in the GOP primary and cast doubts on Collins’ ability to win in a general election.

Thune’s PAC, Senate Leadership Fund, reported spending $1.7 million this week on ads opposing Ossoff, part of a nearly $4.5 million expenditure in Georgia, Michigan, Maine and Iowa’s U.S. senate races.

So far, Senate Leadership Fund and the associated One Nation nonprofit have spent $25.9 million in the Georgia race, and the fund has an additional $17.3 million in television ad reservations in the state, according to the Collins campaign.

All those dollars could be a big help to Collins in a race where Ossoff has had a strong financial edge.

During the last fundraising reporting period, Ossoff was the top political fundraiser in the country, according to the Federal Election Commission, entering into the current reporting period with $42 million on hand. Collins’ report showed a relatively meager warchest containing $2.2 million.

“It takes resources to communicate, no question about it,” Thune said Friday. “It’s an expensive state, especially in the Atlanta market, but we’re doing everything we can to get resources in this direction, and we believe that Mike Collins is going to win here.”

Collins said flipping the seat won by Ossoff in early 2021 was always going to be a tough battle, but he expressed confidence that Georgians would learn about the candidates over the coming weeks and find Ossoff’s record too liberal.

“It’s the number one race in the country,” he said. “Jon Ossoff has been the most vulnerable Democrat out there, period, and it is because of the way he votes. You’ve got a crystal clear choice in this race.”

Georgia GOP Chairman Josh McKoon said the key to a Collins win will be mobilizing the coalition that helped President Donald Trump win the state in 2024 even though Trump is not on the ballot this year.

“We’ve got hundreds of thousands of voters that voted for Donald Trump in 2024 that have never voted in a midterm election, and at the Georgia Republican Party, we are laser focused on getting those people off the couch and in the voting booth,” McKoon said Friday. “If we turn those people out, we’re gonna win these elections.”

Speaking to reporters during a virtual press conference Thursday, Ossoff expressed confidence that voters would find Collins too distasteful to elect to the U.S. Senate in large part because of his connections to Trump.

“Congressman Mike Collins is a Trump puppet who has voted seven times for the disastrous Iran war that has sent gas prices through the roof,” Ossoff said. “He’s voted repeatedly for the Trump tariffs that sent grocery prices soaring, and he voted with Donald Trump to double health insurance premiums for more than a million Georgians. He possesses not a shred of independence. He is Donald Trump’s puppet, and we will be sure to remind voters of that over the next 40 days.”

Ossoff cited scandals that have rocked Collins’ campaign, including an House ethics investigation into allegations that his office used government funds to pay a top aide’s girlfriend for work she didn’t do, antisemitic videos from his son-in-law, apparent efforts from another top aide to intervene on behalf of an associate who had minimized the extent of the Holocaust who had been jailed for contempt of court and bizarre posts from another former staffer, including an image of the staffer wearing Ku Klux Klan robes and of a swastika made out of the word “twink.”