Georgia Republican Rep. Mike Collins is entering one of the most high-stakes Senate races of the 2026 cycle armed with dollars and endorsements.
The mullet-sporting congressman announced his bid Monday to unseat Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., who narrowly won the state in a 2022 runoff election. Since then, Collins has secured the support of important stakeholders.
Georgia state House Majority Whip James Burchett, as well as Matthew Gambill, the state House’s governor’s floor leader, were early endorsers of Collins. These state-level Republican leaders have been joined by more than a dozen other state legislators.
Additionally, former U.S. Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., has expressed his support for Collins as a viable alternative to Ossoff.
“Congressman Mike Collins would make a dramatically better senator for Georgia than Jon Ossoff,” Gingrich wrote Tuesday on the social media platform X.
“Ossoff’s voting record is perfectly left radicalism and would fit California, where he gets a lot of his campaign money. Ossoff is California’s third senator. Georgia needs a [Georgia] senator and Mike Collins would be one,” Gingrich said.
The son of former Rep. Mac Collins, R-Ga., Collins has represented Georgia’s 8th Congressional District since 2023. He also owns and operates a large trucking business.
In the House, Collins has been an outspoken supporter of President Donald Trump and introduced the Laken Riley Act, which the president signed into law in January. The legislation, named for a young Georgia woman killed by an illegal immigrant in February 2024, requires the Department of Homeland Security to detain noncitizens who have been arrested for violent crimes.
He has made this accomplishment a main focus of his early campaign promotional materials.
But beyond the support of his Republican colleagues, Collins will need money if he is going to unseat Ossoff, who has raised a reported total of more than $21 million since the beginning of 2025.
Collins claims to already be on a roll in that regard, announcing on Monday he had raised $220,000 in the first 12 hours of his campaign being active.
Collins is not the sole Republican seeking the Georgia seat. Rep. Buddy Carter, R-Ga., announced his campaign in May.
Gov. Brian Kemp, who turned down calls to run for the seat, is reportedly considering backing Derek Dooley, a longtime friend and Georgia native who formerly coached the football teams of Louisiana Tech University and the University of Tennessee. Dooley, however, has not announced a run, and Kemp has not publicly affirmed he is backing him.