US midterm primaries 2026 live: Mike Collins projected to win Republican nomination for US Senate in Georgia

Key events

NBC News projects that billionaire Rick Jackson will win the Republican primary for Georgia governor, defeating Burt Jones, who was endorsed by both Donald Trump and Brian Kemp.

The Associated Press has not yet called the race, but Jackson currently holds a 6 point lead, 53% to 47%, with 19% of the vote still to be counted.

With 80% of Georgia vote counted, billionaire Rick Jackson leads in Republican primary for governor over candidate backed by Trump

With over three-quarters of the ballots counted in Georgia, billionaire Rick Jackson still leads in the Republican primary for Georgia governor, with 53% of the vote, to 47% for Burt Jones, the current lieutenant governor who is backed by both Donald Trump and the sitting governor, Brian Kemp.

Jackson, who made his fortune from a healthcare staffing firm, and spent more than $100m on his campaign, was endorsed by senator Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican.

Georgia’s Republican primary runoff voters chose US representative Mike Collins over former college football coach Derek Dooley to lead the party’s bid to challenge US senator and rising Democratic star Jon Ossoff in November’s midterm elections.

Ossoff, who has represented Georgia in the US Senate since 2021, has made waves this year by delivering a series of caustic takes on Donald Trump’s administration. He will now face Collins in the race to retain the competitive seat.

Collins, a trucking executive and one-time “freedom caucus” conservative endorsed by Trump, has served in the US House of Representatives since 2023. His father, Mac Collins, served in the House from 1993 to 2002.

An anti-abortion hardliner with a history of incendiary social media commentary, Collins has vigorously denied the legitimacy of the 2020 election and defended January 6 rioters.

Dooley is the son of legendary University of Georgia football coach Vince Dooley. After earning a law degree from UGA, he began working his way through the college coaching ranks, eventually taking the University of Tennessee to three consecutive losing seasons before being fired.

Dooley is close friends with outgoing governor Brian Kemp, who has backed Dooley with his endorsement, political staff and fundraising appeals.

AP projects Penny Reynolds will win Democratic nomination for secretary of state in Georgia

Penny Brown Reynolds, a former Georgia state judge, reality TV judge, and civil rights official in the Biden administration, will be the Democratic candidate for secretary of state in the November midterm, Georgia’s top elections official, the Associated Press projects.

AP projects Maga congressman Mike Collins will win Republican nomination for US Senate in Georgia

The Associated Press projects that Georgia congressman Mike Collins will win the Republican US Senate nomination for the US Senate, defeating former football coach Derek Dooley.

Collins, who earned a very late endorsement from Donald Trump despite reported concerns from the president about his hardline anti-abortion position, will face incumbent Democrat Jon Ossoff in November for a seat that could be crucial to Democratic hopes to recapture the Senate.

A trucking company owner and son of a congressman, Collins campaigns as a self-described “Maga warrior.”

Ossoff, first elected in 2020, has blasted Trump as a “national embarrassment” who is using the presidency to enrich himself and his family. The 39-year-old is the lone Senate Democrat running in a state that Trump won in 2024.

Republicans have not won a US Senate race in Georgia since Trump was first elected in 2016.

Ahead of the runoff, Ossoff referred to Collins as “a congressman who’s only a congressman because his daddy was a congressman” and “the congressman already under investigation for paying your tax dollars to his criminal staffer’s girlfriend for apparently no work”.

NBC News projects Mike Collins, a Trump-backed Republican congressman, will win Republican primary for US Senate

With 55% of the vote counted in Georgia, NBC News projects Mike Collins will defeat former football coach Derek Dooley to win the Republican primary for the US Senate. Collins currently leads by 10 points, 55% to 45%.

The Associated Press has not yet made a call, but NBC’s analysis is based on the fact that Collins is doing better than Dooley in the votes cast on election day, which tend to favor candidates, like Collins, endorsed by Donald Trump, who hates mail-in ballots almost as much as he hates windmills.

Tim Fleming wins Republican nomination for Georgia secretary of state, defeating pro-Trump election denier Vernon Jones

The Associated Press projects that Tim Fleming will win the Republican nomination for Georgia secretary of state, defeating a pro-Trump election denier, Vernon Jones.

Jones, a former Democrat, embraced Trump’s “stop the steal” movement in 2020 and said he stands “with those who believe there was election fraud”. Fleming, who once served as deputy secretary of state to Brian Kemp, the current state governor, said he was “not running on conspiracy theories”, but claimed there were “irregularities” in 2020, a word popular with Republicans who do not want to alienate Trump voters but are not outright election deniers.

“I’ve voted for Donald Trump six times,” Fleming said at a debate in May. “I’ve always been there for Donald Trump.”

Polls close in Alabama, Oklahoma and Washington DC

Polls have now closed in Alabama, Oklahoma and Washington DC.

In Alabama, Donald Trump’s influence is on the ballot in a Republican primary runoff for the US Senate between Trump-backed Barry Moore and former Navy Seal Jared Hudson.

In Oklahoma, Trump has backed Republican congressman Kevin Hern to fill the US Senate seat vacated by the new homeland security secretary, Markwayne Mullin.

Washington DC is voting in a seven-candidate race to succeed Muriel Bowser as the city’s mayor. The district uses ranked-choice voting, so if no candidate passes 50% of the vote tonight, a result may not be known for some time.

The leading candidates are thought to be Janeese Lewis George, a progressive city council member, and Kenyan McDuffie, a former city council member.

With 40% of the vote counted in Georgia Republican primaries, Trump-backed candidate for governor trails

About 40% of the vote has been counted in Georgia and in the Republican primary for governor, the Trump-backed candidate, Burt Jones, trails the healthcare billionaire, Rick Jackson, 58%-42%.

In the Republican primary for the US Senate, the Trump-endorsed candidate, Mike Collins, narrowly leads former football coach Derek Dooley, who is backed by the Georgia governor Brian Kemp, 52%-48%.

Trump's candidate trails in early count in Republican primary race for Georgia governor

With the first 20% of the ballots counted in the Republican primary in Georgia to be the party’s candidate for governor in November, the Trump-endorsed candidate, Georgia’s lieutenant governor, Burt Jones, trails healthcare executive Rick Jackson by nearly 20 points: 59.4% to 40.6%.

Jackson has spent over $100m on his campaign.

Georgia Republican Senate primary on a knife edge in early count

With 15% of the vote counted in Georgia, the race for the Republican nomination for the US Senate, to take on incumbent Jon Ossoff, is very close. Trump-endorsed congressman Mike Collins has 51.9% of the vote so far, to 48.1% for former football coach Derek Dooley, who is backed by the Georgia governor Brian Kemp. The current margin in less than 6,000 votes.

Polls close in Georgia primary runoff elections

Polling places closed at 7pm local time across Georgia, where voters cast ballots in several primary runoff races, including Republican contests to be that party’s nominee for the US Senate and governor. We will bring you updates on the vote count soon.

A trip to the Georgia secretary of state’s website is a reminder that the state’s elections are still overseen by Brad Raffensperger, the top voting official Donald Trump threatened with possible prosecution during a recorded phone call in early 2021, if he did not help the then president “find 11,780 votes”, one more than he needed to overturn his loss to Joe Biden in the state’s 2020 presidential election.

Weighed down by his subsequent unpopularity with Trump voters, for refusing to help him cheat, Raffensperger finished a distant third last month in the Republican primary to be the party’s candidate in the November election for governor.

Raffensperger got less than half the votes of the two leading contenders who faced off in today’s runoff: the Trump-backed Burt Jones, who supported his effort to overturn the 2020 election through false claims of fraud, and a self-funding healthcare billionaire, Rick Jackson.

Peter Stone

The Trump administration is waging war on voting rights using justice department lawsuits, FBI investigations, and an executive order to limit voting by mail, moves mirroring the US president’s false claims he lost the 2020 election due to voting fraud, say election experts and ex-officials.

Since Donald Trump began his second term, numerous 2020 election denialists have been installed in key agencies such as the DoJ, the FBI and elsewhere to pursue widely discredited claims of fraud, which can intimidate election workers and voters in swing states that Trump lost to Joe Biden in 2020.

The justice department has also filed lawsuits seeking sensitive voter data from 30 states – even though, by law, states control elections – and the FBI has launched investigations into debunked allegations of voting fraud in Georgia, Wisconsin and a few other swing states that Trump lost in 2020.

Trump in late March this year issued an executive order sharply tightening mail-in voting rules, which Trump has long claimed without evidence contribute to fraud. The order gives the United States Postal Service unprecedented powers to issue new rules making voting by mail harder.

The administration’s multi-pronged push to change voting rules is under way despite laws that empower states and Congress to set election rules, sparking lawsuits from states and nonpartisan voting rights groups.

Donald Trump has a strong record in this year’s primaries so far – with many of his preferred candidates winning their primaries.

But none have faced a self-funded rival with Rick Jackson’s spending power, the AP reports. Trump has backed Burt Jones, who, as lieutenant governor, was part of Trump’s attempt to overturn his 2020 defeat to Joe Biden, and the president has repeatedly praised Jones’ loyalty.

Jackson has chipped in more than $93m of his own money to win the nomination. The 71-year-old businessman amassed a fortune from his company that provides contract healthcare personnel, and he’s used it to blanket television and online platforms with ads.

Results expected as voters cast ballots in three states and Washington DC

Voters have been casting their ballots in primary elections in Alabama, Oklahoma and Georgia – where a closely watched runoff will decide who faces off against Democratic candidates in Senate and gubernatorial races in November.

In Washington DC - a Democratic stronghold - voters were also selecting a candidate for the party ahead of November’s mayoral election.

In Alabama, a Republican primary runoff for Senate between Trump-backed Barry Moore and Jared Hudson is another test of how far Trump’s endorsement can sway voters.

These primaries are the latest test of Donald Trump’s power over the Republican party. In deeply conservative Oklahoma, Trump has given his early backing to Kevin Hern in the senate seat previously held by homeland security secretary Markwayne Mullin.

Hern has kept other potential big challengers at bay in Oklahoma, which hasn’t elected a Democratic senator since 1990, according to AP.

But a bigger test of Trump’s influence – which has usually proved potent in Republican primaries this year – may come in the crowded race to succeed outgoing governor Kevin Stitt.

In Georgia, meanwhile, Republicans will finalize their selections for gubernatorial and US senate elections.

For the senate, US representative Mike Collins and former University of Tennessee football coach Derek Dooley are the finalists for the Republican nomination. Whoever wins will challenge rising Democratic star Jon Ossoff for the seat in November.

In the Republican primary campaign for Georgia governor, Trump-backed Burt Jones was facing off against the healthcare billionaire and political newcomer Rick Jackson. Brad Raffensperger, the Georgia secretary of state and longtime political enemy of Trump, was locked out of the race when he finished third earlier in the year.

We’ll bring you the latest results and reactions as the night unfolds.