Gov. Brian Kemp (R-GA) fell in line behind Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA) on Monday, endorsing Collins’s candidacy to be Georgia’s next U.S. senator after initially campaigning hard for Collins’s Republican primary opponent.
Kemp backed Collins in his senate race against incumbent Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA), calling Collins a “businessman and commonsense leader in Washington” who will “always put Georgia first.” The endorsement from the popular outgoing Republican governor comes as Collins has trailed Ossoff in polling and election forecasters have tipped the race as “leans Democrat.”
“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.”
The Peach State governor also took aim at Ossoff’s campaign in the statement backing Collins.
“Jon Ossoff’s far-left agenda doesn’t represent Georgia values, and the future of our state and country demands a different direction,” Kemp said.
Kemp had initially put his full weight behind former football coach Derek Dooley in the Republican Senate runoff, splitting endorsements with President Donald Trump, who has backed Collins in the Senate race since June. Kemp’s endorsement of Collins puts him in the same boat as Trump, with whom he has had a sometimes-tenuous relationship, as the two of them join to support Collins. Kemp and Trump have each also backed GOP gubernatorial candidate Rick Jackson, after initially supporting Jackson’s primary opponent, Lt. Gov. Burt Jones (R-GA).
“I’m honored to have Governor Kemp’s endorsement and even more proud to call him a friend,” Collins said in a statement Monday. “Governor Kemp has never been afraid of a tough fight, and Georgia is stronger today because he’s been willing to take them on. I’m grateful to have him standing with me to take back Georgia’s Senate seat, stand up to the far-left agenda, and defeat Jon Ossoff this November.”
MAINE AND GEORGIA COULD TEST WHETHER TICKET-SPLITTING IS MAKING A COMEBACK
Collins has fallen behind Ossoff by between 4 and 13 points in the latest polls for their general election matchup.
Collins has had to field several controversies throughout the campaign, as multiple people associated with him — including his son-in-law and a former Capitol Hill staffer of his — have been caught posting white supremacist and antisemitic imagery. Collins has denounced each of their remarks and clarified that they have no role in the campaign.
Ossoff campaign spokesperson Valeria Rivadeneira-Crandell said: “There’s a reason Brian Kemp worked so hard to defeat bigot Mike Collins in the GOP primary and waited to endorse the congressman until less than two months from Election Day, and it’s that Collins, who’s only a congressman because his daddy was a congressman, is surrounded at work and at home by neo-Nazis and white nationalists.”