Jon Ossoff Wins Reelection in Georgia, Beating Trump-Endorsed Rep. Mike Collins
The 39-year-old Democrat was the only Senate Democrat defending a seat in a state Trump carried in 2024, and the race was called early in the evening.
Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff won a second term in Georgia on Tuesday night, defeating Republican Rep. Mike Collins in a race that CBS News and the Associated Press called early in the evening. Ossoff, 39, was the only Senate Democrat seeking reelection in a state that President Donald Trump won in 2024, and his victory kept a seat Republicans had once viewed as a top target.
A year ago, both parties pictured Georgia as one of the marquee Senate showdowns of the cycle. It did not turn out that way. NPR reported that Ossoff won easily, and CBS News said Collins was unable to make meaningful inroads after a messy primary fight, personal controversies and national headwinds for the GOP.
On paper, the race should have been closer. Democrats flipped both of Georgia's Senate seats in 2021, but Sen. Raphael Warnock only narrowly held his seat in a 2022 runoff against a deeply flawed opponent, and Republicans have won nearly every other statewide race in the state. Ossoff first came to the Senate in the 2021 runoff, and Republicans hoped to unseat him as they worked to protect their majority in the chamber.
The Republican primary shaped the general election. Trump endorsed Collins, the owner of a family trucking company, over former football coach Derek Dooley, a first-time candidate backed by Georgia's popular Republican Gov. Brian Kemp. Collins then struggled to move past scrutiny of his ties to family members and former staffers who have promoted white nationalist and antisemitic views. NPR also noted that he continued to embrace Trump's false claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 election, which cost him ground with independents and some Republican-leaning voters.
Ossoff, a former congressional aide and documentary filmmaker, first became a national figure in 2017 when he came closer than expected to flipping a suburban Georgia House seat in a special election. In the Senate he built a reputation for methodically questioning Trump appointees in hearings, and clips of him accusing people in Trump's orbit of graft spread widely online and in rally speeches during the campaign. NPR reported that even some Republican officials in Georgia respected the strength of his constituent services.
His performance has made him a figure in conversations about the Democratic Party's future. Many Democrats looking for fresh faces have mentioned him as a possible presidential candidate, though NPR reported that Ossoff has said he is not running for the White House in 2028.
The win was one of three Democratic Senate results in the first hours of the night. Roy Cooper flipped the open North Carolina seat, and Rep. Chris Pappas won New Hampshire's open seat. Democrats need a net gain of four seats to take control of the Senate, where Republicans hold a six-seat majority. Six races had been rated toss-ups going into election night, and votes were still being counted in those contests.
Georgia's governor's race, which CBS News rated a toss-up on Tuesday, was among the contests still being tallied. Ossoff's result gives Democrats a firmer base from which to pursue a majority, and it is a rebuke to a Republican strategy that leaned on Trump's endorsement in a state where Kemp's preferred candidate had been available.
