ATLANTA, Ga. \u2013 Polls are now closed in Alabama, Oklahoma, and Washington D.C., which are all holding key Democratic and Republican primaries and runoff elections on Tuesday.
\nAnd while he isn\u2019t on the ballot, President Donald Trump\u2019s immense clout over the GOP faces more key tests in high-stakes Republican runoffs in Georgia, where polls closed an hour ago, and in neighboring Alabama.
\nTrump-endorsed candidates are fighting in competitive showdowns against Republican rivals for the GOP gubernatorial and Senate nominations in battleground Georgia and for the Senate in solidly red Alabama.
\nTuesday\u2019s contests in Georgia and Alabama come as Oklahoma and the District of Columbia hold primary elections, and voters in California\u2019s 14th Congressional District will vote in a special election to narrow the field of nearly a dozen candidates hoping to fill the seat left vacant when scandal-plagued Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell resigned.
\nBut the biggest spotlight is on Georgia, where Trump made an 11th-hour endorsement this past weekend in the Senate race, which is one of a handful of midterm election contests across the country that will decide if the GOP holds its slim majority in the chamber.
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Trump endorsed Republican Rep. Mike Collins, a MAGA champion and strong supporter of the president, who is facing off against former college football coach Derek Dooley, who has the support of popular conservative Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s an honor to have that endorsement. It just shows that he has confidence that we know how to win this race, we know we\u2019re in the lead in this thing,\u201d Collins told Fox News Digital on Sunday, hours after landing Trump\u2019s endorsement.
\nAsked if Trump\u2019s endorsement in Georgia came too late to make a difference, Collins said, \u201cI don\u2019t think President Trump ever is too late. He has this impeccable ability of putting his thumb right on the scale at the right time with whatever he wants to do.\u201d
\nDooley, who\u2019s running as an outsider, said in a Fox News Digital interview on the eve of the runoff that the president\u2019s backing of his rival \u201cdoesn\u2019t change how I feel.\u201d
\nTHESE MIDTERM RACES WILL DETERMINE WHETHER REPUBLICANS HOLD THEIR SENATE MAJORITY<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m honored to have Governor Kemp\u2019s endorsement. I certainly would have been honored to have the President\u2019s endorsement. But the most important endorsement that I\u2019m fighting for is the people of Georgia,\u201d he emphasized.
\nCollins, who represents Georgia\u2019s 10th Congressional District, which is located between Atlanta and Augusta, is the son of the late Rep. Mac Collins, and is the founder and co-owner, along with his wife, of a trucking company.
\nDooley, a lawyer, a former University of Tennessee football coach and the son of legendary University of Georgia head football coach Vince Dooley, is strongly backed by Kemp, who is a lifelong friend. The governor and his wife, Georgia First Lady Marty Kemp, have regularly appeared with Dooley on the campaign trail, and the governor\u2019s top political advisor is a senior consultant for Dooley\u2019s Senate bid.
\nCollins and Dooley were the top two finishers in a crowded field of candidates in last month\u2019s primary that also included Rep. Buddy Carter. Since no one topped 50%, Collins and Dooley advanced to Tuesday\u2019s runoff election.
\nThe winner of the GOP Senate nomination in Georgia will face off in the midterms against Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff. Republicans view Ossoff as the most vulnerable Senate Democrat seeking re-election and are heavily targeting the first-term senator. But while Republicans have been battling for their party\u2019s nomination over the past year, Ossoff\u2019s built a powerful war chest that will give him a major fundraising advantage as the general election gets underway.<\/p>\n
The power of a Trump endorsement is also facing a key test in Georgia\u2019s gubernatorial nomination runoff, where Trump last year backed Lt. Gov. Burt Jones in the race to succeed the term-limited Kemp. Jones is battling billionaire businessman Rick Jackson, who has dished out over $100 million of his own money on his campaign, in the runoff.
\nThe winner will take on former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, who served in the Biden administration, in this autumn\u2019s general election. Bottoms avoided a runoff by winning a majority of the vote as she topped six other candidates in last month\u2019s Democratic gubernatorial primary.
\nJones and Jackson were the top two finishers in last month\u2019s crowded and competitive GOP gubernatorial primary, which also included state Attorney General Chris Carr and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. Because no candidate topped 50%, Jones and Jackson advanced to the runoff.
\nPointing to a tele-rally Trump headlined for him last week, Jones told Fox News Digital: \u201cThe president\u2019s endorsement carries a lot of weight here in Georgia.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kemp made a last-minute endorsement on Sunday, backing Jones. And at an event Monday morning, Kemp explained that his mission is \u201cto make sure that we have the best folks at the top of the ticket that can win in November and you know that\u2019s why I\u2019m supporting Burt Jones for governor.\u201d
\n\u201cWhen you think about the direction of the state, the great things that we\u2019ve been able to do, I think he\u2019s best suited to move the state forward,\u201d Kemp said. And he warned of the \u201cconsequences of not winning, like we\u2019ll be going the way of Virginia, New York, California, we just cannot afford to do that.\u201d
\nJones, a former captain of the University of Georgia football team, an oil executive and heir to the Jones Petroleum Company, served as a state senator before winning election in 2022 as lieutenant governor.
\nJackson was unknown to Georgia voters before launching his gubernatorial campaign in February, but thanks to an avalanche of ads, his story of building a business empire despite growing up in foster care and not being able to afford college became well known in the Peach State.
\nAnd he\u2019s repeatedly highlighted that, like Trump, he\u2019s an outsider and businessman. \u201cI\u2019m going to be Trump\u2019s favorite governor because we\u2019re just alike on the way that we handle business and handle problems, and I want to do exactly in Georgia what he\u2019s doing at the federal government,\u201d he reiterated in a Fox News Digital interview Sunday.<\/p>\n
And on the eve of the runoff, he predicted, \u201cI think people are ready for an outsider. That\u2019s what they want, and that\u2019s what they\u2019re going to vote for. And that\u2019s why we\u2019re going to win tomorrow.\u201d
\nJackson also landed a last-minute endorsement, as conservative firebrand Sen. Ted Cruz backed Jackson on Friday and joined him on the campaign trail for a runoff eve rally.
\n\u201cRick has an extraordinary record, an extraordinary life story. And I also think he\u2019s positioned to win. And the stakes are too high. This election is a battleground all across the country. We can\u2019t afford to lose Georgia,\u201d Cruz told Fox News.
\nWhen Cruz endorsed Jackson on Friday, he also supported South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson, who is facing off in a week against Trump-backed Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette.
\nAsked if he\u2019s trying to put some daylight between himself and the president on the campaign trail, Cruz quickly responded, \u201cNo. Not remotely\u2026.The president and I agree on the vast majority of races. What I try to do in every race is endorse the strongest conservative who can win. And typically I get in races late in the race at a time where my support might be able to make a difference and be helpful.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jones, on the eve of the Cruz visit, took aim at Jackson.
\n\u201cHe keeps on bringing in these out-of-state senators, and I would much rather have the president\u2019s endorsement,\u201d he said. \u201cHe\u2019s having to go out of state to get his support. We\u2019re keeping all our stuff in state.\u201d
\nIn neighboring Alabama, Trump is supporting Rep. Barry Moore, who is facing off with former Navy SEAL sniper Jared Hudson in the GOP Senate runoff, in the race to succeed Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville, who is running for governor this year rather than seeking re-election.
\nMoore, who founded a waste hauling company and later served as a state lawmaker before first winning election to the U.S. House in 2020, and was one of the first politicians to endorse Trump in 2015 when the president first ran for the White House, is also endorsed by Vice President JD Vance and Senate Majority Leader Sen. John Thune.<\/p>\n
Moore, who represents Alabama\u2019s 1st Congressional District, in the southern portion of the state, is a member of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus.
\nHudson, running as an outsider, edged out state Attorney General Steve Marshall to advance to the runoff with Moore.
\nBesides being a combat veteran, Hudson has served as a sheriff\u2019s deputy, firefighter, small business owner and current head of a nonprofit that trains law enforcement in taking out human traffickers.
\nHudson was endorsed by then-Sen. Markwayne Mullin, who is now Trump\u2019s Department of Homeland Security secretary, as well as Sen. Tim Sheehy, the National Association for Gun Rights PAC, and conservative activist and media star Riley Gaines.<\/p>\n
Moore or Hudson will be considered the clear front-runner in November against the winner of the Democratic runoff between small business owner Dakarai Larriett and attorney and former judge Everett Wess.
\nIn Oklahoma, Trump is backing Mike Mazzei, a former state senator and Oklahoma budget secretary, in the GOP gubernatorial primary in the race to succeed term-limited GOP Gov. Kevin Stitt.
\nThe president is also supporting minister Jackson Lahmeyer, who founded the group Pastors for Trump, in the Republican primary in the state\u2019s 1st Congressional District, in the race to succeed Rep. Kevin Hern, who is running for the Senate.
\nAnd in deep blue Washington D.C., the Democratic primary between seven candidates trying to succeed outgoing Mayor Muriel Bowser will effectively decide her successor in the District of Columbia.
\nThe brute force of the president\u2019s endorsement power has been on display in GOP primaries over the past month and a half, with his candidates ousting incumbents he targeted in showdowns in Indiana, Louisiana, Kentucky and Texas that grabbed plenty of national attention.
\nBut Trump\u2019s endorsement streak in statewide and congressional Republican primaries was snapped two weeks ago when his 11th-hour endorsement of Republican Rep. Randy Feenstra of Iowa in the race to succeed retiring GOP Gov. Kim Reynolds wasn\u2019t enough to propel the three-term congressman to victory.
\nFeenstra was narrowly edged by Zach Lahn, a businessman, farmer and former political strategist who was backed by the political wings of MAHA \u2014 the acronym for the Make America Healthy Again movement aligned with Trump Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. \u2014 and Turning Point USA, the powerful conservative organization co-founded by the late Charlie Kirk.
\nTrump rebounded last week, as the candidate he endorsed in the South Carolina GOP gubernatorial primary, Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette, finished first in a crowded field and clinched one of the two tickets in the race for the nomination.
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\nMeanwhile, longtime Trump ally Sen. Lindsey Graham did win a majority of the vote in the Republican Senate primary, and avoided a runoff.
\nGraham, who was endorsed by Trump, was facing primary challenges from five candidates, including conservative businessman Mark Lynch, who took aim at the senator over his support for the war in Iran. Lynch was backed by some MAGA leaders who have been critical of the president.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"