Republicans are wary that a visible President Donald Trump in Georgia could do more harm than good as they try to win back Sen. Jon Ossoff’s seat.
Ossoff was widely seen as one of the most vulnerable Democrats up for reelection this year — particularly after Trump won the state in 2024. But with Mike Collins’ campaign already in a rut, they’re worried Trump’s underwater approval rating in the state could further sink his chances.
“We’re already seeing Ossoff at every turn trying to tie Collins to Trump,” a Republican operative, who requested anonymity due to his role on an active campaign, said. The operative added that when Trump’s approval rating sits below 40%, as it does now, “there’s headwinds there.”
Collins’ general election campaign has struggled with scandal. One longtime staffer was fired after Collins’ campaign account mocked a woman by referencing the fact that she said she was a victim of sexual assault; Collins called the post “despicable and unauthorized.” Another official aide reportedly said in a group chat that he tried to leverage his position to get a Holocaust denier out of prison. And CNN reported that Collins’ son-in-law has a history of antisemitic statements and white nationalist ties.
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A Fox News poll released on July 1 showed Ossoff with 56% support from registered voters, while Collins trailed with 43%. An AARP poll released on Thursday showed Ossoff with a 9 percentage point advantage.
Some Georgia Republicans feel that if Trump becomes more involved, Collins’ chances will further erode.
“Collins is gonna get smashed,” Eamon Keegan, a Republican pollster in Georgia, said.
But, Keegan added, Trump’s dismal approval ratings would only exacerbate the issue — particularly if the president is unable to resolve the ongoing war in Iran, which continues to drag down Republicans’ election prospects.
“One-hundred percent,” said another operative when asked if he believed that Trump could hinder Republican efforts in Georgia.
Trump visited Georgia on Wednesday for an official White House event in Marietta, an Atlanta suburb. Several state and federal officials joined him, including Kelly Loeffler, a former Georgia senator and head of the U.S. Small Business Administration, Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Jackson, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
Billed as an official event about Trump savings accounts, much of his speech was about politics, including Collins.
Collins, however, didn’t attend. He posted a video to X before the event, saying he needed to be in Washington for House votes, and he knew “the president and the great leaders of Georgia could hold the line today until I get back home.”
During his speech, Trump gave an extended shout-out to Collins.
“Maybe the most important man in this room right now is not here. His name is Mike Collins, and he’s going to beat Pee-wee Herman,” Trump said, referring to Ossoff.
“I said, ‘Mike, I’m sort of here because of you,’” Trump added. “I said, ‘Mike, if you’re here I’m going to be extremely upset with you.’ Because he has to vote.”
Sam Densmore, deputy communications director for Collins’ campaign, disputed in a statement that Collins’ campaign is in tenuous territory.
“[Collins] is going to win this race because he has the business background, bipartisan record of results and positive vision to make life more affordable, safer, and better off for every person in this state, while Jon Ossoff has never had a real job, has gotten nothing accomplished and has a radical voting record,” Densmore said.
The RNC and White House also disputed that Trump could hinder Collins.
“Democrats can spin all the fake narratives they want, but Georgia is President Trump country, and Jon Ossoff’s days in the Senate are numbered,” RNC spokesperson Emma Hall told NOTUS in a statement that targeted Ossoff’s voting record in the Senate.
White House spokesperson Olivia Wales called the president “the Republicans’ best messenger and motivator” to contrast his agenda with congressional Democrats’.
Trump’s focus on the Georgia Senate race was welcome to Democrats and the Ossoff campaign.
“If they could bring back Trump every week, we’d love it,” David Brand, a Georgia Democratic operative supporting the Ossoff campaign, told NOTUS.
The Ossoff campaign has sought to amplify Collins’ relationship with Trump, with ads that feature Trump using Collins’ name at rallies and events over the years. Collins has aligned himself closely with Trump during his time in the House.
“We welcome anything that brings Mike Collins out of hiding and forces him to address his latest scandal, including visits from an increasingly unpopular president who has driven up costs and cut access to health care with the help of his puppet, MAGA loyalist Mike Collins,” Valeria Rivadeneira-Crandell, an Ossoff campaign spokesperson, said in a statement.
The counterargument among Republicans is that Trump’s knack for drawing low-propensity voters to the polls could provide a needed boost to Collins’ chances.
The first Republican operative also said that Collins could benefit from the president’s ability to stoke the MAGA voting base. Trump carried a significant advantage with low-propensity Republican voters in Georgia in 2024, particularly in rural areas. That advantage is harder to calculate compared to his poll numbers before Election Day, but it paid dividends in battleground states for him and his party in 2024.
While he is not on the ballot in 2026, operatives hope his visible support for Collins in the state could still bolster turnout.
“But Collins is going to wear the negative of it as well,” the first Republican operative said.
During the Marietta event, the president avoided the topic that makes Georgia operatives sweat most: complaints about election integrity. Just last week, the president made a prime-time address on the topic — a speech that Georgia Republican operatives were relieved didn’t specifically mention their state — while his dedication to passing the SAVE America Act, a voter-ID bill, has derailed congressional Republicans’ agenda this year.
Georgia has frequently been at the epicenter of Trump’s attacks on elections. After former President Joe Biden’s narrow victory in the state in 2020, Trump demanded that Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger find him additional votes to flip the outcome.
“Those issues are definitely net negatives for Republicans in the state,” the first Republican operative said. “A general election electorate doesn’t have much patience for that.”
Other Georgia Republicans feel it shouldn’t be overanalyzed. He’s the president, his supporters are incredibly loyal, and his words and presence have wooed middle of the road people before, they argue. One Republican member of the Georgia congressional delegation said as much — with an essential caveat.
“If he stays on message,” the Republican member said, then asked of the Marietta speech: “Did he?”
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