Collins make his case to Macon voters as he battles Warnock, Loeffler in senate race
Rep. Doug Collins, a Republican candidate for one of Georgia’s two Senate seats, visited Macon last week on his “Trump Defender Tour,” a series of campaign stops across the state.
Bibb County has consistently voted for Democrat presidential and senate candidates, but Collins isn’t “writing off” Macon. In an interview with the Telegraph, he said that Maconites “need to know that the person they need to vote for senate is Doug Collins.”
“We’re out there asking for their vote; we’re out there trying to earn their vote,” he said. “They know of my record, they’ve seen me in Congress, and they’ve seen me in body. I wanted to let them know face-to-face that they have a fighter in me as we go into the Senate race’s next steps.”
Special election
The Senate special election’s next step is likely a run-off if one of the top three candidates — the Rev. Raphael Warnock, incumbent Sen. Kelly Loeffler, annd Collins — doesn’t reach 50% of the vote. The latest polls show the three candidates polling below 50%, with Warnock surging ahead at 32%, Loeffler at 23%, and Collins at 17%. If Warnock was the sole Democratic candidate and Collins or Loeffler were the sole Republican candidate, Warnock is polling 45% to the Republican’s 41%.
Collins called the special election “simply a primary that should’ve happened in June,” adding that he doesn’t think his campaign will divide Republican voters.
“It will be two candidates, a Republican and a Democrat. And conservatives are not going to vote for a liberal, and a liberal isn’t going to vote for a conservative,” Collins said.
Fundraising
Still, Collins wants to be the Republican candidate for Senate in January, not Loeffler. In the interview, he criticized the $20 million of her own money that Loeffler has loaned her campaign. According to the Federal Election Commission, Collins has spent $60 of his money in his campaign.
“She’s outraising us with her checkbook, but the people of Georgia are not going to be bought,” he said. “Sen. Loeffler is having to try and explain to Georgia who she is because they don’t know who she is. And really, when they’re finding out who she is, they’re not real happy about what they’re finding out.”
Collins also said that he isn’t concerned that President Donald Trump has declined to endorse either candidate. At his Oct. 16 rally in Macon, Trump praised both candidates, stating that he told the two to “run it out.”
“[President Trump] told the Governor [Brian Kemp] last November when the seat was open that he wanted me picked, and he told the governor multiple times.” Collins said, adding that “it should be a bigger story that a sitting senator has not gotten an endorsement from the president.”
Zoe Katz is an Election SOS fellow covering the 2020 election for the Macon Telegraph. She is a Georgia-based writer and recent graduate of Agnes Scott College.