Incumbent Democrat Jon Ossoff has retained his US Senate seat in Georgia, securing victory in one of the most closely watched races of the midterm cycle.
He beat Republican Congressman Mike Collins, a firm supporter of President Donald Trump. Collins faced heavy scrutiny during the campaign over alleged links to people who promote white supremacist ideology.
Campaign themes and Republican hopes in Georgia
Ossoff, who has sat in the Senate since 2021, ran on affordability, healthcare and government accountability. Collins focused on the president’s agenda, immigration enforcement and cutting the size of government.
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Republicans had aimed to unseat Ossoff, who is the first Jewish senator from Georgia. The state backed Joe Biden in 2020, then narrowly supported Trump four years later.
Early vote count and Democratic prospects ahead
According to the Associated Press, Ossoff led Collins 63 percent to 29 percent with 56 percent of votes counted. Some observers see Ossoff as a possible contender for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination.
He will return to the Senate alongside fellow Democrat Raphael Warnock, Georgia’s first Black senator, who is also rumoured to be considering a presidential run. Georgia’s Senate seats have been critical to the Democratic Party’s power in Congress and in the South, a largely Republican stronghold.
Trump narrowly won Georgia in 2024 after losing it to Biden in the 2020 presidential election. In 2023, Trump and others were charged in Georgia with attempting to overturn the 2020 loss by pressuring a senior state official to recalculate the results in his favour. That case was dismissed after Trump returned to office in 2025.
