Georgia Republicans Head to Runoffs for Senate and Governor Races
· Time
Former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms won the Democratic nomination for governor of Georgia on Tuesday, while Republicans were pushed into costly and potentially bruising runoff elections in both the governor’s race and the contest to challenge Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff, setting up another month of intraparty fighting in one of the nation’s most politically consequential battlegrounds.
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Bottoms, who was endorsed by former President Joe Biden, defeated a crowded Democratic field outright by securing more than 50% of the vote, avoiding a runoff and becoming the third consecutive Black woman nominated by Georgia Democrats for governor. Her victory sets up a November contest to succeed Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, who cannot seek another term because of his term limits. Democrats have not won the governor’s office in Georgia since 2002, though the state has evolved from a Republican stronghold to a fiercely competitive battleground over the past decade.
On the Republican side, Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and the health care executive Rick Jackson advanced to a June 16 runoff after neither candidate cleared the majority threshold required under Georgia law. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who became known nationally for resisting President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election in Georgia, was behind in third and did not advance.
The Republican Senate primary also headed to a runoff, extending a contest that Republicans had once viewed as their clearest pickup opportunities of the 2026 midterms. Rep. Mike Collins, a trucking company executive and close Trump ally, will face former University of Tennessee football coach Derek Dooley, who was recruited into the race by Gov. Kemp. Rep. Buddy Carter, who described himself as a “MAGA warrior,” finished in third.
Trump has not endorsed a candidate in Georgia’s Senate race, despite aggressively shaping Republican primaries elsewhere. All three leading candidates sought to present themselves as aligned with the President and his agenda. Dooley, however, pitched himself as a political outsider and leaned heavily on his endorsement from Kemp, whose relationship with Trump has remained strained since the governor rejected efforts to overturn Georgia’s 2020 presidential results.
With Georgia Republicans now facing runoff elections in both statewide races, the next several weeks could bring sharper attacks and deeper divisions. “It’s in the runoff where the attacks become more personal and more vicious,” Charles Bullock, a political science professor at the University of Georgia, told TIME.
Already the governor’s race had become one of the most expensive and bitter intraparty contests in the country this year. More than $125 million was spent on advertising during the Republican primary, according to AdImpact.
Republican strategists fear a prolonged fight could weaken the eventual nominee and drain money and attention that otherwise could have been directed toward Bottoms and Ossoff.
Georgia’s Senate contest is among the most closely watched races in the country. Ossoff, who faced no serious opposition within his own party, is the only Democratic senator seeking re-election in a state won by President Donald Trump in 2024, making his seat a focal point in the fight for control of the chamber.