据美联社(Associated Press)报道，几天前获得唐纳德·特朗普(Donald Trump)总统支持的佐治亚州众议员迈克·柯林斯(Mike Collins)预计将赢得美国参议院共和党提名的决选，并在秋季与民主党参议员乔恩·奥索夫(Jon Ossoff)较量。
据美联社报道，大约59%的预期选票已经统计完毕，柯林斯以55%比45%领先德里克·杜利。
前足球教练杜利得到了佐治亚州州长布赖恩·坎普的支持。
现在，柯林斯预计将在11月与民主党现任总统奥索夫(Ossoff)对抗，预计这将是2026年地图上竞争最激烈、最昂贵的比赛之一。如果民主党人有机会进入参议院，他们需要保住奥索夫的席位，而共和党人则认为佐治亚州的席位是他们获得参议院席位的最佳机会之一。
特朗普在周二初选前两天支持柯林斯。
总统在他的社交媒体平台上写道:“我非常荣幸地支持‘MAGA’迈克·柯林斯，这位备受尊敬的国会议员从一开始就与我在一起。”
特朗普的支持使他与受欢迎的即将离任的州长坎普产生了分歧，后者在决定自己不竞选该席位后，在竞选初期支持了前田纳西大学足球教练、佐治亚大学传奇足球教练文斯·杜利的儿子杜利。坎普是有任期限制的，他将在任职两届后于今年年底离开州长官邸。
这场比赛是对肯普政治权力的一次重大考验，因为这位佐治亚州州长没有排除2028年总统竞选的可能性，并在竞选的大部分时间里与杜利在该州穿梭往来，并将他的政治运作的全部力量投入到这位政治新手的身后。
这不是特朗普和坎普第一次发现自己针锋相对。在肯普拒绝推翻佐治亚州2020年的选举结果后，佐治亚州政坛两位最重要的共和党人之间长达数年的世仇开始了，最终导致特朗普在2022年支持一名初选挑战者，试图将肯普赶出州长官邸的努力失败。
近六年后，2020年总统大选仍是周二竞选的中心:在支持柯林斯的过程中，特朗普点名杜利承认乔·拜登在2月份的一次竞选活动中赢得了该州。杜利一直将自己标榜为政治局外人。
“[杜利]说我在2020年失去了佐治亚州，而事实上，现在事实证明我赢了很多!”特朗普写道。
选举后，佐治亚州官员审核并认证了乔·拜登获胜的结果，法院驳回了许多质疑该州选举结果的诉讼。
甚至在特朗普支持之前，“MAGA”煽动者柯林斯和坎普支持的局外人杜利之间的竞争被广泛视为佐治亚州共和党两翼之间的代理人之战。柯林斯在整个竞选过程中一直宣扬他对特朗普的忠诚，大力讨好佐治亚州的“让美国再次伟大”基地。这位保守派议员以其有争议的社交媒体存在而闻名，这引发了丑闻——就在上个月，科林斯解雇了他的一名工作人员，因为他的官方竞选账户在社交媒体上发文嘲笑杜利竞选顾问，他的妻子在指控前NBC主播马特·劳厄尔强奸后试图自杀。劳尔否认了这些指控，并表示这次相遇是双方自愿的。
埃默里大学(Emory University)政治学教授安德拉·吉莱斯皮(Andra Gillespie)在决选前告诉美国广播公司(ABC News)，这次决选的最大问题或考验是佐治亚州共和党的非“MAGA”派是否保留了一些影响力。
商人里克·杰克逊预计将击败特朗普支持的伯特·琼斯
在备受关注的共和党州长提名的决选中，美联社预测亿万富翁商人里克·杰克逊将在一场激烈的竞争中击败副州长伯特·琼斯，这场竞争的特点是尖锐的攻击广告占据了佐治亚州的电视频道。
特朗普和坎普都在决选中支持琼斯。
“今年秋天，格鲁吉亚人将对他们的下一任州长做出明确的选择。我相信伯特·琼斯将向选民强有力地证明，保守党的领导将再有四年，这将确保我们州的好日子就在前面，”坎普在x的一份声明中写道。
与参议院决选不同，两位共和党州长候选人在整个竞选过程中都赢得了特朗普的支持。但只有长期忠于特朗普、试图推翻2020年大选的琼斯(Jones)拥有特朗普的支持。
在特朗普支持的候选人战胜了路易斯安那州参议员比尔·卡西迪和肯塔基州众议员托马斯·马西等共和党现任者的循环中，吉莱斯皮说，与其他州相比，佐治亚州共和党的温和派可能在佐治亚州拥有更多权力——正如肯普在特朗普的愤怒中幸存下来并在2022年连任的能力所证明的那样。
“特别是在南方，除了德克萨斯州和佛罗里达州，佐治亚州实际上非常多样化，这使得民主党人在该州更具竞争力，即使他们在数量上仍然是较小的群体。这种做法让共和党人成为了实用主义者。
Trump-endorsed Rep. Mike Collins wins Georgia GOP runoff to take on Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff: AP projects
Georgia Rep. Mike Collins, who was endorsed by President Donald Trump just days ago, is projected to win the runoff for the GOP nomination for the U.S. Senate and take on Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff in the fall, according to the Associated Press.
With about 59% of the expected vote counted, Collins led Derek Dooley 55% to 45%, according to the AP.
Dooley, a former football coach, had been endorsed by Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp.
Collins is now projected to face off against Ossoff, the Democratic incumbent, in November, in what is expected to be one of the most competitive --and most expensive--races on the map in 2026. Democrats need to keep Ossoff's seat if they have any chance of taking the Senate, and Republicans see the Georgia seat as one of their best Senate pick-up opportunities.
Trump endorsed Collins just two days before Tuesday's primary.
"It is my Great Honor to endorse "MAGA" Mike Collins, a Highly Respected Congressman who has been with me from the very beginning," the president wrote on his social media platform.
Trump's endorsement put him at odds with Kemp, the popular outgoing governor, who endorsed Dooley --a former University of Tennessee football coach and son of legendary University of Georgia football coach Vince Dooley --early on in the race after deciding against running for the seat himself. Kemp is term-limited and will be leaving the governor's mansion at the end of this year after serving two terms.
This race was major a test of Kemp's political power as the Georgia governor has not ruled out a 2028 presidential run and spent the bulk of the campaign crisscrossing the state with Dooley and throwing the full force of his political operation behind the political novice.
It wasn't the first time Trump and Kemp found themselves going head-to-head. The yearslong feud between the two most important Republicans in Georgia politics began after Kemp refused to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia, eventually resulting in Trump's failed effort to oust Kemp from the governor's mansion by endorsing a primary challenger in 2022.
The 2020 presidential election remained at the center of Tuesday's race nearly six years later: In his endorsement of Collins, Trump called out Dooley -- who has branded himself as a political outsider -- for acknowledging that Joe Biden won the state at a campaign event in February.
"[Dooley] said that I lost Georgia in 2020 when, in actuality, the facts have now proven that I won by a lot!" Trump wrote.
Georgia officials audited and certified the results for a Joe Biden victory following the election and numerous lawsuits challenging the election results in the state were rejected by the courts.
Even before Trump's endorsement, the race between the "MAGA" firebrand Collins and the Kemp-backed outsider Dooley was widely seen as a proxy battle between the two wings of Georgia's Republican Party. Collins has touted his loyalty to Trump throughout his campaign, heavily courting Georgia's "Make America Great Again" base. The conservative congressman is known for his controversial social media presence, which has attracted scandal -- just last month, Collins fired one of his staffers after his official campaign account made a social media post mocking a Dooley campaign adviser whose wife attempted suicide after accusing former NBC anchor Matt Lauer of rape. Lauer has denied the allegations and said the encounter was consensual.
"The big issue or test for this runoff is whether or not the non-'MAGA' wing of the Georgia Republican Party retains some of its influence," Andra Gillespie, a political science professor at Emory University, told ABC News ahead of the run-off.
Businessman Rick Jackson projected to defeat Trump-backed Burt Jones
In the closely watched runoff for the Republican nomination for governor, the Associated Press projected billionaire businessman Rick Jackson will defeat Lt. Gov. Burt Jones in a race that has been defined by an onslaught of razor-sharp attack ads dominating Georgia's airwaves.
Both Trump and Kemp had endorsed Jones in the runoff.
"This fall, Georgians will have a clear choice to make in their next governor. I believe Burt Jones will make a strong case to the voters for four more years of conservative leadership that ensures our state's best days are ahead," Kemp wrote in a statement on X.
Unlike in the Senate runoff, both Republican candidates for governor courted favor with Trump's base throughout the race. But only Jones, a longtime Trump loyalist who tried to help overturn the 2020 election, boasts Trump's endorsement.
In a cycle where Trump-endorsed candidates have prevailed against Republican incumbents like Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Gillespie says that the moderate wing of Georgia's GOP might hold more power in Georgia compared to other states -- as evidenced by Kemp's ability to survive Trump's ire and get re-elected to a second term in 2022.
"In the South in particular, with the exception of Texas and Florida, Georgia's actually incredibly diverse, which makes Democrats more competitive in the state, even if they're still numerically the smaller group. And what that has done is that has lent itself to Republicans being pragmatists," Gillespie said.
