Jon Ossoff of Georgia has defeated Republican challenger Rep. Ossoff, once considered by the GOP to be the most vulnerable Democratic senator seeking re-election in the 2026 midterms, will now keep his job representing the southeastern battleground state in the U.S. He took an early lead in the race when polls closed Tuesday night, which only expanded as the hours wore on.
His victory means Georgia, a one-time red bastion that swung to the center in recent years, will continue to have two Democrats representing the state in the Senate. He's the second Democratic senator to hold his seat on Tuesday night after Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., was also projected to win re-election.
DEMOCRACY ’26: STAY UP TO DATE WITH THE FOX NEWS ELECTION HUB "A workhorse for the people of Georgia, Senator Ossoff has spent the last six years in the U.S. Senate providing outstanding constituent services, standing up for children, and fighting to make life better," the Senate Democrats' campaign arm said in a statement after Ossoff's victory. "Georgians sent him back to the Senate because they know he will always show up for them, and now he’ll continue putting Georgia families first." Ossoff and fellow Democratic Sen.
Raphael Warnock were both elected in runoff elections at the end of the 2020 cycle, ending a decade and a half of Georgia's all-Republican representation in the Senate. Weeks earlier, former President Joe Biden became the first Democrat to carry the state in nearly three decades. But Georgia shifted back to the right in 2024, with President Donald Trump reclaiming the state and winning the White House.
At the start of the 2026 cycle, Georgia was atop the GOP's target list of seats to flip, and Republicans aimed to hold their 53-47 Senate majority. While Ossoff built a massive campaign war chest as he cruised unopposed to renomination, Collins was part of a combustible three-way GOP primary Senate battle with Rep. Buddy Carter and former college football coach Derek Dooley, who was supported by popular term-limited conservative Georgia Gov.
Collins and Dooley advanced to a June runoff, which Collins won due in part to an eleventh-hour Trump endorsement. In the general election showdown, Collins made illegal immigration a centerpiece of his campaign, spotlighting the Laken Riley Act, which he authored. The law requires the detention of certain illegal immigrants who are arrested for, charged with, convicted of or admit to committing specified offenses.
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