Rep. Doug Collins announced on Wednesday that he would run for Georgia’s Senate seat, making an already difficult race that much harder for the GOP.
The Republican Party already faces several obstacles in its fight to hold onto former Sen. Johnny Isakson’s seat. The 2018 election proved that Democrats had established a solid foothold in the red state. Stacey Abrams is working on expanding that foothold behind the scenes, raising funds for Democratic advertisements and leading the Democratic Party effort to increase voter registration in liberal areas such as Atlanta.
Gov. Brian Kemp chose to appoint Kelly Loeffler, a former Atlanta businesswoman, to Isakson’s seat late last year, in part because she is better suited to meet those challenges. As a successful businesswoman, she can help Georgia Republicans reach the same suburban women to whom Abrams appeals. Loeffler’s track record of moderation could help in Georgia’s purple districts.
Kemp could have chosen Collins for the role — President Trump wanted him to! — but Kemp made the calculated bet that Loeffler could do what Collins cannot: grow the Republicans’ electoral base in a state that is quickly becoming a battleground.
By announcing his Senate bid now, Collins is not only creating intraparty drama, but he’s also putting the GOP’s Senate majority at risk. He’s dividing Republican votes in a state the GOP needs to hold onto, which means the GOP will need to spend more time and resources in Georgia and less in other embattled states.
Already, the Senate GOP’s campaign arm has slammed Collins’s decision as “selfish.”
“The shortsightedness in this decision is stunning,” said Kevin McLaughlin, National Republican Senatorial Committee executive director. “All [Collins] has done is put two Senate seats, multiple House seats, and Georgia’s 16 electoral votes in play.”
Collins has framed his run around helping the president, but it just made Trump’s job more difficult, too. Now Trump will need to choose between Collins and Loeffler, and if he chooses Collins, he risks upsetting the balance of a Republican-controlled state.
Politics is not an individual effort. It requires teamwork. If Collins truly considers himself an ally of the president, he would do what’s best for the president’s political party instead of thinking only of himself.
