Gov. Brian Kemp (R-GA) and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) are teaming up to host a fundraiser for Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA) as he aims to unseat Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) in Georgia’s U.S. Senate delegation.
As Collins trails incumbent Ossoff in recent polling, the popular Republican governor and the GOP leader in the upper chamber are heading to the Peach State to stump for Collins. Collins’s campaign is hosting the event in Atlanta, with Kemp and Thune headlining as special guests. The event will take place on Thursday, Sept. 24, and feature a roundtable at 6 p.m. and a reception at 6:45 p.m., the Collins campaign confirmed to the Washington Examiner.
The announcement comes three days after Kemp formally endorsed Collins, stepping in line behind the Republican nominee after stumping hard for Collins’s opponent, former football coach Derek Dooley. Collins defeated Dooley in the Senate GOP primary runoff by a margin of 11 percentage points.
“Mike Collins and I share a commitment to making Georgia an even better place to live, work, and raise a family,” Kemp said in a statement. “Mike has delivered results as a businessman and commonsense leader in Washington, and that’s what we need in our next Senator.”
Collins has trailed Ossoff in general election polls, most recently falling behind by 7 points, according to a Trafalgar Group survey. Cook Political Report has designated the race as a “leans Democrat” race. However, Collins is endorsed by President Donald Trump, who won the state by a 2.2-percentage-point margin in 2024.
Ossoff’s campaign has hit Collins hard on two controversial people associated with Collins’s campaign, his son-in-law and a former Capitol Hill staffer of his, who have posted white supremacist and antisemitic imagery on social media. Collins has denounced each of their remarks, adding that they have no role in his Senate campaign.
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In a statement slamming Kemp’s endorsement of Collins this week, Ossoff campaign spokesperson Valeria Rivadeneira-Crandell said that Collins is “surrounded at work and at home by neo-Nazis and white nationalists.”
The Washington Examiner has reached out to Ossoff’s campaign for comment on the fundraiser.