With under 24 hours until Georgia's Republican Senate runoff, Donald Trump has endorsed Rep. Mike Collins while Gov. Brian Kemp is backing Derek Dooley. An InsiderAdvantage poll June 13–14 of 800 likely GOP voters shows Collins narrowly ahead, 48% to 46% (±3.31%). The race has become a proxy battle between Trump and Kemp and could influence the GOP's chances against Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff.
Trump vs. Kemp: Proxy War Shapes Georgia GOP Senate Runoff — Collins Narrowly Leads
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, left, and President Donald Trump shake hands. (SAMUEL CORUM/Getty Images)
With fewer than 24 hours to go before Georgia's Republican runoff for U.S. Senate, former President Donald Trump and Gov. Brian Kemp have turned the contest into a high-stakes proxy battle.
An InsiderAdvantage poll conducted June 13–14 among 800 likely Georgia GOP voters shows Rep. Mike Collins narrowly ahead of former Tennessee coach Derek Dooley, 48% to 46%, with a margin of error of ±3.31%. The numbers, released Sunday, set the stage for a tense finish Tuesday.
On Monday, Trump used Truth Social to endorse Collins and cast doubt on Dooley's profile and voting history. In a lengthy post, Trump praised Collins as "a WARRIOR and WINNER" and added that the congressman "has been with me from the very beginning."
"A WARRIOR and WINNER," Trump wrote of Collins. "I don't know Derek Dooley, and neither does anyone else, but he seems like a nice person."
Trump also highlighted a frequent critique of Dooley: that he did not vote in 2016 or 2020 and has acknowledged long stretches of nonvoting. Dooley has said he voted for Trump in 2024 and, after Trump endorsed Collins, said he nevertheless has "great respect" for the former president.
Policy differences between Collins and Dooley are relatively modest. Dooley has framed himself as a political outsider who he argues would be more competitive against Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff in a general election, while Collins emphasizes staunch alignment with Trump-era priorities.
Trump and Kemp: A Broader Feud
The runoff is also a proxy fight between the state's two most prominent Republicans. Kemp, a two-term governor who declined to run for Senate, has endorsed longtime family friend Dooley and campaigned statewide with him after the first-round primary. The rivalry between Kemp and Trump dates to 2020, when Kemp refused to call a special legislative session to overturn Georgia's certified election results, and it has included Trump's backing of a primary challenger to Kemp in 2022 and a blistering public attack on the governor and his wife at a 2024 Atlanta rally.
Because Trump’s endorsement could sway GOP voters, InsiderAdvantage said it plans to release another Georgia survey ahead of the runoff.
Reporting: John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax.
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