WOODSTOCK, Ga. (AP) — In the closing stretch of Georgia's Republican U.S. Senate runoff, Rep. Mike Collins celebrated his 11th-hour endorsement from Donald Trump on Sunday and dismissed any ideas that the Republican president's stamp of approval is a risky bet in a potential showdown with Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff in November.

Trump disclosed his choice of Collins over former football coach Derek Dooley in a middle-of-the-night social media post that praised the second-term congressman for his loyalty.

“I’ve always said that President Trump has this just impeccable ability to put his thumb on the scale at the right time,” Collins said at a campaign stop Sunday in the northern Atlanta exurbs.

The Republican candidates are competing Tuesday for the chance to unseat Ossoff in one of the most closely watched campaigns in the November midterm elections. Dooley, a political newcomer, is backed by outgoing Gov. Brian Kemp, who has clashed with Trump in the past.

Collins called it “encouraging” to have the president's approval. Looking past Dooley to the potential matchup with Ossoff, the congressman said he planned to invited Trump to Georgia, even as the president's approval ratings have slipped in the battleground state that he won twice and lost once.

“I’d love to have President Trump in Georgia every day, any day he wants to come down,” Collins said.

Collins has been a stalwart Trump ally

Collins has backed Trump's “Make America Great Again” movement since his first House campaign in 2022, and the president said in his announcement early Sunday on social media that the trucking company owner and second-term congressman “has been with me from the very beginning” and is a ”true friend, fighter, and WARRIOR."

“I don’t know Derek Dooley, and neither does anyone else, but he seems like a nice person,” Trump wrote, while noting that Dooley did not vote in 2016 or 2020, when Trump was on the ballot. Dooley has acknowledged going nearly two decades without voting but says he did vote for Trump in 2024.

Trump also complained that Dooley — accurately — said Trump lost Georgia to Democrat Joe Biden in 2020, refusing to back the president's lie that the election was stolen from him.

Collins has consistently echoed Trump's false claims about his defeat and, on Sunday, called the 2020 election “legitimately rigged,” arguing that elections officials in Georgia and other states erred by expanding absentee voting and, in the congressman's views, relaxing other election controls.

Collins led Dooley in the May 19 primary but neither surpassed 40%, leaving many Republican votes up for grabs. Trump’s endorsement has proved powerful as he shapes a party identity that is increasingly indistinguishable from his own.

Still, the president’s choice puts him at odds with more traditional Republicans, including Kemp. The endorsement is reminiscent of Trump’s decision to back Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton before his victory over U.S. Sen. John Cornyn in that state’s recent primary runoff.

Dooley maintains confidence despite Trump's decision

Collins supporters cheered enthusiastically at the mention of Trump's endorsement.

“He waited a little bit,” said James Haddad, a 66-year-old retired engineer from Woodstock in Cherokee County. “But he's studied the candidates, and he did the right thing. It's going to help.”

Dooley responded to the president's pick by saying Georgia voters do not want “typical D.C. politicians like Mike Collins.” In an X post, Dooley expressed confidence that he'd still win.

With Kemp as his top surrogate, Dooley argues that a first-time candidate has a better shot to defeat Ossoff, the only Democratic senator facing voters in a state Trump carried in 2024.

Kemp was the top choice of Senate Republican leaders looking for an Ossoff challenger. Kemp recruited Dooley, a childhood friend, to run instead.

Haddad said he voted for Kemp twice and appreciates the job he's done but did not consider the outgoing governor's opinion when deciding who to back for the Senate.

Collins did not mention Kemp on Sunday, paid little attention to Dooley and spent more time criticizing Ossoff.

“He doesn't reflect the state of Georgia,” he told supporters from the bed of a pickup truck. “He doesn’t represent our values — matter of fact, he shouldn’t even be there.”

Trump's uneasy relationship with Kemp

Trump’s choice, and his insistence on bringing up the 2020 election again, puts the spotlight again on his uneasy relationship with Kemp. The governor resisted Trump's pressure not to certify Biden’s presidential electors before the Electoral College convened in December of the election year.

Trump criticized Kemp in the years after and backed a primary challenger, former Sen. David Perdue, against the governor in 2022. Kemp trounced Perdue and coasted in the general election. By 2024, he and Trump managed a detente as Trump worked to return Georgia to the GOP presidential column.

But behind the scenes, it's been clear the alliance was fragile and circumstantial. Kemp’s decision to recruit Dooley in the first place, with an emphasis on the need for a political outsider, has itself been a subtle rejection of Trump’s domination of the party.

In his many campaign stops alongside Dooley, Kemp has reminded voters that Republicans have not won a Senate election in Georgia since 2016 — when Trump was first elected. Each time, the GOP nominee has fully embraced Trump.

The governor points to a trio of first-term Republican senators — Montana’s Tim Sheehy, Pennsylvania’s Dave McCormick and Ohio’s Bernie Moreno — who defeated Democratic incumbents in 2024 running as outsiders who still aligned with the president.

Collins pushed back at Kemp's framing, saying his record in Washington shows he can be staunchly conservative, align with Trump and still court moderates voters who may not like the president.

The congressman sponsored the Laken Riley Act, a 2025 law that requires immigrants be detained when charged with certain crimes. Republicans believe the issue damages Ossoff because he initially voted against the measure before supporting it after Trump returned to the White House.

Collins noted that dozens of Democrats supported the measure.

“Bipartisan is not a bad word,” he said, arguing that metropolitan voters will reward him for results.

And even Kemp deviated from his Senate argument Sunday by endorsing Lt. Gov. Burt Jones in the GOP's primary runoff for government. That choice puts Kemp on the side as Trump — who endorsed Jones last year — and against billionaire businessman Rick Jackson, who's run as an outsider like Dooley.

Trump's primary track record

Dooley’s and Kemp's argument is matched against Trump’s winning streak inside the party. In a matter of weeks, Trump has celebrated victories over Republicans who did not pass his test of loyalty.

Cornyn lost to Paxton, U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky lost to Ed Gallrein, U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana failed to make a runoff and several Indiana state senators were defeated by challengers. Dooley needs Georgia to look more like Iowa, where Trump was unable to lift U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra to victory in the state's gubernatorial primary.

Dooley has told voters he will “work with President Trump but fight for you.”

He will campaign again Monday, and Kemp will be at his side.