<mediadc-video-embed data-state="{"cms.site.owner":{"_ref":"00000161-3486-d333-a9e9-76c6fbf30000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b93390000"},"cms.content.publishDate":1655749202346,"cms.content.publishUser":{"_ref":"00000175-4195-d820-abff-7fdf1f080000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"cms.content.updateDate":1655749202346,"cms.content.updateUser":{"_ref":"00000175-4195-d820-abff-7fdf1f080000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"rawHtml":"
var _bp = _bp||[]; _bp.push({ "div": "Brid_55748421", "obj": {"id":"27789","width":"16","height":"9","video":"1036615"} }); ","_id":"00000181-8257-df44-ad8b-c37fa7aa0000","_type":"2f5a8339-a89a-3738-9cd2-3ddf0c8da574"}”>Video EmbedTrucking executive Mike Collins beat Vernon Jones, the self-described “black Donald Trump,” in a Republican runoff race on Tuesday that pitted the endorsement power of the former president against his political adversary, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp.
Collins, the son of a congressman, will be the Republican nominee for Georgia’s 10th Congressional District. Collins is highly favored in November to claim the deep-red seat.
Georgia’s 10th District, a conservative stronghold made up of 18 counties, stretches from the outskirts of Henry County in metropolitan Atlanta to the South Carolina state line.
House Republicans need to net five seats in the 435-member chamber to win back the majority they lost in 2018.
The governor, who has lived in the 10th District for decades, rallied around Collins during the final days of the runoff, calling him a “trusted conservative.” Kemp won several of the district’s counties by more than 80% during his landslide primary victory over Trump’s hand-picked candidate, former Sen. David Perdue. The monster win turned Tuesday’s congressional contest into a proxy war between the two political heavyweights for the soul of Georgia’s GOP.
Collins narrowly lost the primary to Rep. Jody Hice in 2014. Hice left his east Georgia House seat to run for secretary of state with Trump’s blessing, but he was beaten in the May 24 primary by incumbent Brad Raffensperger.
Jones, who has bashed Kemp at every turn, cut a deal with Trump early on to win his blessing to represent the state’s 10th District.
Both candidates ran as unabashed pro-Trump conservatives, though only Jones got his seal of approval.
In a taped call that was distributed districtwide late last week, Trump called Jones a “friend” and urged his base to rally behind the bombastic Georgian.
“President Trump endorsed Vernon because he knows that Vernon is the only person in this race who can be trusted to advance the America First agenda, tackle inflation, and fight for Georgia families,” Jones’s campaign told the Washington Examiner. “While our opponent may claim to be pro-Trump, President Trump has shown time and again that he is not pro-him. And for good reason.”
David McLaughlin, the host of the Kudzu Vine political podcast, said it was clear why Kemp aligned with Collins and Trump with Jones.
“Brian Kemp and Mike Collins are cut from the same middle-aged white male insider cloth that the Georgia Republican Party is built on,” McLaughlin told the Washington Examiner. “At the same time, Donald Trump and Vernon Jones have a de facto, quid pro quo relationship supporting each other. Trump gets to point to some diversity in his coalition, and Jones gets to claim Republican cred through Trump’s support. I am just interested to see what happens when one no longer finds the other one useful.”
The tone during the last days of the runoff race took an ugly turn, with both candidates launching nasty attack ads and hurling insults at one another.
In one mailer, a picture of Jones appeared next to rapper and felon Rick Ross alongside “a random white woman crying.”
There was also a problematic tweet sent by Collins’s campaign.
It read: “Although some use a rape whistle for protection against sexual assault, a 9 mm is the more preferred form of protection,” followed by the hashtag “#TheMoreYouKnow.”
The tweet included two photographs — one of a rape whistle with RealVernonJones.com printed on it and the other of a pink handgun. The context of the tweet dated back to a 2005 rape allegation against Jones, who was then a Democrat and the CEO of DeKalb County. The Georgia Bureau of Investigations looked into the rape allegations, but Jones was never criminally charged.
Following the tweet, Jones told the Washington Examiner he thought the Collins camp was advocating violence against him, his family, and his supporters. Jones also filed a complaint with the Morgan County Sheriff’s Office.
“By all appearances, it appears as if Mike Collins’s campaign is being run by Amber Heard herself, using the same false attacks the Left used against President Trump and Justice [Brett] Kavanaugh to halt the momentum of our America first campaign,” Jones told the Washington Examiner. “It didn’t work then, and it won’t work now.”
Collins’s spokesman, Stephen Lawson, accused Jones of using the tweet to bypass having to address the thorny issue head-on.
“I think it’s just another case of Vernon Jones trying to distract from the truth,” Lawson told FOX5 Atlanta. “He doesn’t want the voters of the 10th District to know about his shady, corrupt past.”
Jones was previously a member of the Georgia House of Representatives, as a Democrat. He was on the outs with his then-party when, in 2020, he rose to national prominence as one of the loudest black voices to endorse Trump’s reelection. He announced he was switching parties during a Washington, D.C., pro-Trump demonstration organized by Women for America First, just hours before the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
Collins’s father, Mac Collins, was elected as a Democratic county commissioner in Butts County decades ago but switched to the Republican Party and was a GOP congressman for 12 years.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
In a moment of irony not lost on anyone, Jones attacked Collins during an Atlanta Press Club runoff debate for not being conservative enough for the district.
“His dad is a Democrat. He was raised a Democrat. It’s in his blood,” Jones said about Collins. “If you want to run as a Democrat, then run as a Democrat.”
