President Donald Trump endorsed Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA) on Sunday over former Tennessee football coach Derek Dooley just ahead of Tuesday’s runoff between the two GOP candidates.The late-stage endorsement marked Trump’s choice of one MAGA candidate over the other, with both vying to face incumbent Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) in November’s midterm elections. Ossoff, who has raised substantial campaign funds and sits in a crucial Senate seat for Republicans, has recently been touted as a rising leader in the Democratic Party and a possible 2028 presidential candidate.
“Mike Collins is a true FRIEND, FIGHTER, and WARRIOR,” Trump said in a Truth Social post, “who has been with us from the very beginning, and has my Complete and Total Endorsement to be your next United States Senator.”
Collins is the former owner of a trucking company who has campaigned as an America First, Trump-aligned candidate. Trump also said in his announcement that Collins is “strongly supported by the most Highly Respected MAGA Patriots in Georgia and beyond, and many Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate.”
The president offered a brief explanation of why he didn’t endorse Dooley, saying the candidate has lived outside of Georgia for most of his life and “said that I lost Georgia in 2020 when, in actuality, the facts have now proven that I won by a lot!” Trump also said he doesn’t know Dooley and “neither does anyone else” despite him seeming “like a nice person.”
