While he isn’t on the ballot, President Donald Trump’s immense clout over the GOP faces more key tests on Tuesday in high-stakes Republican runoffs in Georgia and Alabama.
Trump-endorsed candidates are fighting in competitive showdowns against Republican rivals for the GOP gubernatorial and Senate nominations in battleground Georgia and for the Senate in solidly red Alabama.
Tuesday’s contests in Georgia and Alabama come as Oklahoma and the District of Columbia hold primary elections, and voters in California’s 14th Congressional District will vote in a special election to narrow the field of nearly a dozen candidates hoping to fill the seat left vacant when scandal-plagued Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell resigned.
But the biggest spotlight is on Georgia, where Trump made an 11th-hour endorsement this past weekend in the Senate race, which is one of a handful of midterm election contests across the country that will decide if the GOP holds its slim majority in the chamber.
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Trump endorsed Republican Rep. Mike Collins, a MAGA champion and strong supporter of the president, who is facing off against former college football coach Derek Dooley, who has the support of popular conservative Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp.
“It’s an honor to have that endorsement. It just shows that he has confidence that we know how to win this race, we know we’re in the lead in this thing,” Collins told Fox News Digital on Sunday, hours after landing Trump’s endorsement.
Asked if Trump’s endorsement in Georgia came too late to make a difference, Collins said, “I don’t think President Trump ever is too late. He has this impeccable ability of putting his thumb right on the scale at the right time with whatever he wants to do.”
Dooley, who’s running as an outsider, said in a Fox News Digital interview on the eve of the runoff that the president’s backing of his rival “doesn’t change how I feel.”
THESE MIDTERM RACES WILL DETERMINE WHETHER REPUBLICANS HOLD THEIR SENATE MAJORITY
“I’m honored to have Governor Kemp’s endorsement. I certainly would have been honored to have the President’s endorsement. But the most important endorsement that I’m fighting for is the people of Georgia,” he emphasized.
Collins, who represents Georgia’s 10th Congressional District, which is located between Atlanta and Augusta, is the son of the late Rep. Mac Collins, and is the founder and co-owner, along with his wife, of a trucking company.
Dooley, a lawyer, a former University of Tennessee football coach and the son of legendary University of Georgia head football coach Vince Dooley, is strongly backed by Kemp, who is a lifelong friend. The governor and his wife, Georgia First Lady Marty Kemp, have regularly appeared with Dooley on the campaign trail, and the governor’s top political advisor is a senior consultant for Dooley’s Senate bid.
Collins and Dooley were the top two finishers in a crowded field of candidates in last month’s primary that also included Rep. Buddy Carter. Since no one topped 50%, Collins and Dooley advanced to Tuesday’s runoff election.
The winner of the GOP Senate nomination in Georgia will face off in the midterms against Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff. Republicans view Ossoff as the most vulnerable Senate Democrat seeking re-election and are heavily targeting the first-term senator. But while Republicans have been battling for their party’s nomination over the past year, Ossoff’s built a powerful war chest that will give him a major fundraising advantage as the general election gets underway.
The power of a Trump endorsement is also facing a key test in Georgia’s gubernatorial nomination runoff, where Trump last year backed Lt. Gov. Burt Jones in the race to succeed the term-limited Kemp. Jones is battling billionaire businessman Rick Jackson, who has dished out over $100 million of his own money on his campaign, in the runoff.
The winner will take on former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, who served in the Biden administration, in this autumn’s general election. Bottoms avoided a runoff by winning a majority of the vote as she topped six other candidates in last month’s Democratic gubernatorial primary.
Jones and Jackson were the top two finishers in last month’s crowded and competitive GOP gubernatorial primary, which also included state Attorney General Chris Carr and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. Because no candidate topped 50%, Jones and Jackson advanced to the runoff.
Pointing to a tele-rally Trump headlined for him last week, Jones told Fox News Digital: “The president’s endorsement carries a lot of weight here in Georgia.”
Kemp made a last-minute endorsement on Sunday, backing Jones. And at an event Monday morning, Kemp explained that his mission is “to make sure that we have the best folks at the top of the ticket that can win in November and you know that’s why I’m supporting Burt Jones for governor.”
“When you think about the direction of the state, the great things that we’ve been able to do, I think he’s best suited to move the state forward,” Kemp said. And he warned of the “consequences of not winning, like we’ll be going the way of Virginia, New York, California, we just cannot afford to do that.”
Jones, a former captain of the University of Georgia football team, an oil executive and heir to the Jones Petroleum Company, served as a state senator before winning election in 2022 as lieutenant governor.
Jackson was unknown to Georgia voters before launching his gubernatorial campaign in February, but thanks to an avalanche of ads, his story of building a business empire despite growing up in foster care and not being able to afford college became well known in the Peach State.
And he’s repeatedly highlighted that, like Trump, he’s an outsider and businessman. “I’m going to be Trump’s favorite governor because we’re just alike on the way that we handle business and handle problems, and I want to do exactly in Georgia what he’s doing at the federal government,” he reiterated in a Fox News Digital interview Sunday.
And on the eve of the runoff, he predicted, “I think people are ready for an outsider. That’s what they want, and that’s what they’re going to vote for. And that’s why we’re going to win tomorrow.”
Jackson also landed a last-minute endorsement, as conservative firebrand Sen. Ted Cruz backed Jackson on Friday and joined him on the campaign trail for a runoff eve rally.
“Rick has an extraordinary record, an extraordinary life story. And I also think he’s positioned to win. And the stakes are too high. This election is a battleground all across the country. We can’t afford to lose Georgia,” Cruz told Fox News.
When Cruz endorsed Jackson on Friday, he also supported South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson, who is facing off in a week against Trump-backed Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette.
Asked if he’s trying to put some daylight between himself and the president on the campaign trail, Cruz quickly responded, “No. Not remotely….The president and I agree on the vast majority of races. What I try to do in every race is endorse the strongest conservative who can win. And typically I get in races late in the race at a time where my support might be able to make a difference and be helpful.”
Jones, on the eve of the Cruz visit, took aim at Jackson.
“He keeps on bringing in these out-of-state senators, and I would much rather have the president’s endorsement,” he said. “He’s having to go out of state to get his support. We’re keeping all our stuff in state.”
In neighboring Alabama, Trump is supporting Rep. Barry Moore, who is facing off with former Navy SEAL sniper Jared Hudson in the GOP Senate runoff, in the race to succeed Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville, who is running for governor this year rather than seeking re-election.
Moore, who founded a waste hauling company and later served as a state lawmaker before first winning election to the U.S. House in 2020, and was one of the first politicians to endorse Trump in 2015 when the president first ran for the White House, is also endorsed by Vice President JD Vance and Senate Majority Leader Sen. John Thune.
Moore, who represents Alabama’s 1st Congressional District, in the southern portion of the state, is a member of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus.
Hudson, running as an outsider, edged out state Attorney General Steve Marshall to advance to the runoff with Moore.
Besides being a combat veteran, Hudson has served as a sheriff’s deputy, firefighter, small business owner and current head of a nonprofit that trains law enforcement in taking out human traffickers.
Hudson was endorsed by then-Sen. Markwayne Mullin, who is now Trump’s Department of Homeland Security secretary, as well as Sen. Tim Sheehy, the National Association for Gun Rights PAC, and conservative activist and media star Riley Gaines.
Moore or Hudson will be considered the clear front-runner in November against the winner of the Democratic runoff between small business owner Dakarai Larriett and attorney and former judge Everett Wess.
In Oklahoma, Trump is backing Mike Mazzei, a former state senator and Oklahoma budget secretary, in the GOP gubernatorial primary in the race to succeed term-limited GOP Gov. Kevin Stitt.
The president is also supporting minister Jackson Lahmeyer, who founded the group Pastors for Trump, in the Republican primary in the state’s 1st Congressional District, in the race to succeed Rep. Kevin Hern, who is running for the Senate.
And in deep blue Washington D.C., the Democratic primary between seven candidates trying to succeed outgoing Mayor Muriel Bowser will effectively decide her successor in the District of Columbia.
The brute force of the president’s endorsement power has been on display in GOP primaries over the past month and a half, with his candidates ousting incumbents he targeted in showdowns in Indiana, Louisiana, Kentucky and Texas that grabbed plenty of national attention.
But Trump’s endorsement streak in statewide and congressional Republican primaries was snapped two weeks ago when his 11th-hour endorsement of Republican Rep. Randy Feenstra of Iowa in the race to succeed retiring GOP Gov. Kim Reynolds wasn’t enough to propel the three-term congressman to victory.
Feenstra was narrowly edged by Zach Lahn, a businessman, farmer and former political strategist who was backed by the political wings of MAHA — the acronym for the Make America Healthy Again movement aligned with Trump Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — and Turning Point USA, the powerful conservative organization co-founded by the late Charlie Kirk.
Trump rebounded last week, as the candidate he endorsed in the South Carolina GOP gubernatorial primary, Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette, finished first in a crowded field and clinched one of the two tickets in the race for the nomination.
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Meanwhile, longtime Trump ally Sen. Lindsey Graham did win a majority of the vote in the Republican Senate primary, and avoided a runoff.
Graham, who was endorsed by Trump, was facing primary challenges from five candidates, including conservative businessman Mark Lynch, who took aim at the senator over his support for the war in Iran. Lynch was backed by some MAGA leaders who have been critical of the president.