The Associated Press called the race at 7:55 p.m. EST on Tuesday, with Ossoff leading Collins 63 percent to 29 percent with 56 percent of votes counted, according to AP figures reported by Al Jazeera.
Ossoff, 39, was the only Senate Democrat seeking re-election in a state Trump carried in 2024, and holding the seat was critical to his party's hopes of flipping control of the Senate. He was considered vulnerable at the start of the cycle, but outraised Collins by a wide margin, pulling in more than $100 million, and ran an aggressive campaign built on blistering critiques of the president.
'In sweeping and decisive victories the American people have rebuked the depravity, corruption and incompetence of the failed lame duck President Donald J Trump,' Ossoff said after the race was called. 'The fact is we've been too long mired in small and selfish politics bought by big money, unmoored from fixed, moral principles, and resigned to intractable division.'
During the campaign, Ossoff said 'corruption in American politics runs a lot deeper than Donald Trump,' and accused Collins of blind loyalty: 'Whatever Donald Trump says, Mike Collins does. Doesn't matter what it is. Doesn't think for himself.' He repeatedly called Collins a 'bigot,' citing the congressman's past social media posts, communications by his onetime chief of staff with white supremacists and white nationalist advocacy by Collins' son-in-law. 'If John Lewis were marching today from Selma to Montgomery, Mike Collins would be grabbing a billy club,' Ossoff said.
Collins, a two-term congressman who won Trump's endorsement during an extended Republican primary, insisted he had always denounced racism and antisemitism. He accused Ossoff of being too liberal for Georgia, saying the senator supported open borders, allowed transgender athletes to compete in girls' and women's sports and voted '100% of the time with Bernie Sanders.' Collins struggled to raise money and to defend against his ties to white nationalists and an unresolved House ethics investigation, according to OPB. 'No one has ever asked or held Jon Ossoff accountable for any of his votes,' Collins said.
Ossoff was first elected in 2020, defeating Republican Sen. David Perdue in a runoff held the day before Trump supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol. His fellow Democrat, Sen. Raphael Warnock, won a special election at the same time, making Warnock Georgia's first Black senator and Ossoff its first Jewish senator. Warnock won re-election in 2022 with a campaign aimed more at moderate swing voters.
Ossoff's aggressive approach initially struck some Democrats as a gamble but quickly became a model, with Ossoff holding carefully produced rallies and young aides cutting video clips that were distributed online in real time. He mocked 'Prince Don Jr.,' Eric Trump and Jared Kushner for their international business deals, called for ending the Iran war, proposed rolling back many of Trump's tax cuts and blasted the president's tariffs. He also highlighted his stalled proposal to bar members of Congress from trading individual stocks and pitched a constitutional amendment to limit corporate money in campaigns.
On Israel, Ossoff said he values Israel's security and 'the lives of innocent Palestinians,' has voted for some U.S. military aid to Israel and against other munitions grants, and said the Israeli military has violated international standards of warfare in Gaza, while saying whether Israel is committing genocide is a matter for the International Criminal Court to decide.
Ossoff also earned endorsements from some local Republican officials who praised his work on hurricane relief, infrastructure investments and other federal funding. 'This is what small men like Donald Trump and Mike Collins will never understand,' he said, 'that our national greatness flows not through our blood or our genes, but through our ideas and our aspirations and our care for one another.'
For Trump, Ossoff's victory is a notably bitter confirmation of his decline toward lame duck status, according to OPB. Trump endorsed Collins in a state where he anchored his false claims that his 2020 defeat was rigged. Ossoff has sparked speculation about a potential 2028 presidential bid, with Warnock also rumoured to be considering a run.