Victorious Trump-backed candidate boosts Democrats in key swing state

Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA), a far right candidate running for the Republican's Georgia Senate nomination, just defeated a more moderate alternative — and making it easier for Democrats to retain that seat.

Collins defeated football coach Derek Dooley in a primary in which President Donald Trump endorsed Collins at the last second. Republicans reportedly urged Trump to either stay out of the race or support Dooley, who is viewed as more electable, but refused to placate Trump's lie that he had won Georgia during the 2020 presidential election.

Prior to picking Collins, Republicans hopes that Dooley would prevail because he is believed to be a strong candidate against the incumbent. Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA). Ossoff, though popular among Democratic voters, nevertheless needs to win in a state that traditionally votes conservative, and before Collins' nomination was viewed as one of the most vulnerable incumbents seeking reelection.

Collins' victory changes all of that. As MS NOW explained on Tuesday, Trump's endorsement of Collins "has landed with a clear sense of dread" among the GOP, who already saw Trump potentially cost them the Texas Senate race by choosing the loyal-but-extreme-and-scandal-riddled Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton over the Republican incumbent, Sen. John Cornyn. Paxton will face the pastor James Talarico.

"If you went to a laboratory and tried to create the worst general election candidate for this state and environment possible, you couldn’t do better than Mike Collins,” an anonymous Georgia GOP strategist told MS NOW. In addition to being an election denier, Collins has a reputation for posting controversial comments on social media and for taking hard right stances against abortion viewed as extreme even by many other conservatives.

“He has a ton of personal baggage and won’t be able to raise money," the source said. "He possesses the unique ability to offend female voters with that personal baggage, but also with the hardest right abortion stance you can have. He will lose the Atlanta metro in unprecedented fashion, and we have to hope he doesn’t take everyone else down with him.”

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