Georgia GOP Rep Mike Collins joins Senate race to challenge Democratic Sen Ossoff

Georgia Rep. Mike Collins on Monday entered the state's 2026 GOP primary to challenge incumbent Democrat Sen. Jon Ossoff for his seat. 

Collins joins fellow Rep. Buddy Carter in the primary, and former University of Tennessee football coach Derek Dooley is also expected to run, The Associated Press reported.

“I don’t know who Jon Ossoff really works for, but it sure as heck isn’t Georgia,” Collins said in a Youtube video announcing his bid.“It’s time to send a trucker to the U.S. Senate, to steamroll the radical left, deliver on President Trump’s ‘America First’ agenda, and put the people of Georgia back in the driver’s seat.”

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp announced in May that he wouldn't run for Senate, but he and President Trump have met and said they would try to agree on a preferred candidate. Last week, Kemp told Collins and others that he would endorse Dooley, but Trump isn't ready to support anyone yet.

Since the 2020 election, Georgia's Senate seats have been held by Ossoff and Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock, the first time the state has had two Democratic senators since 2002.

Collins, a second-term congressman, is a Trump supporter and calls himself a “MAGA workhorse.”

He is known for the Laken Riley Act that was passed by Congress and signed into law, requiring U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to detain illegal immigrants who are charged with theft. The legislation came after the murder of Riley last year, a Georgia nursing student killed by a Venezuelan man who was in the U.S. illegally and pursuing his immigration case.