Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) handily survived a challenge from Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA) in the midterm election on Tuesday and was elected to a second term, in a win that could help Democrats on their road to a Senate majority and potentially pave the way for a 2028 presidential bid.
The Associated Press called the race for Ossoff shortly before 8 p.m. Eastern in the first big win for Democrats of Tuesday night. The incumbent had 62.9% of the vote with 37% of votes counted.
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Georgia has become a crucial swing state over the past decade. Republicans once eyed it as a prime pickup opportunity in their quest to keep control of the Senate, but Ossoff maintained a steady lead in polling throughout much of the race. By the end of the campaign, Republicans had largely concluded they did not have a good chance of flipping the seat.
Ossoff and Collins viciously debated each other on several occasions this fall. Debates largely focused on data centers, healthcare costs, affordability, and the Iran war.
Ossoff campaigned on expanding Medicaid to prevent rural hospital closures, capping insulin costs, fighting the White House on tariffs, securing more federal funding for statewide projects, and focusing on removing illegal immigrants who have violent criminal convictions. He appeared to benefit throughout the race from the favorable political environment for Democrats, while Collins struggled at times to escape from the drag Trump’s unpopularity created for Republican candidates across the country.
Collins called for the expansion of President Donald Trump’s mass deportations, curbing inflation through various federal efforts, expanding Health Savings Accounts, and protecting Second Amendment rights.
In the final two weeks of the election, Ossoff held a campaign event in Atlanta flanked by former President Barack Obama, while Collins campaigned alongside Trump in Perry, Georgia. Democrats appeared so confident in their chances of holding Ossoff’s seat in the final stretch of the race that their main Senate PAC pulled funding from ads in the Peach State.
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Trump narrowly beat former Vice President Kamala Harris in Georgia two years ago, by roughly 2 percentage points, but he lost the 2020 election to former President Joe Biden four years earlier by less than 1 percentage point.
A RealClearPolitics average of polls conducted in September and October showed Ossoff with an 8.2-point advantage over Collins.