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SCOOP: Rep. Mike Collins is eying a bid in the Georgia Senate race to challenge incumbent Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff.
Republicans are salivating at the chance to flip the seat, and Collins, in a video first obtained by Fox News Digital, contended that Ossoff “must go.”
“It was never in my plans to run for the U.S. Senate,” Collins said. “I love what I’m doing now. I think I’ve been effective for my district, the state. I love my district.”
“I mean, just good, solid, hard-working people,” he continued. “But I also understand that sometimes you don’t do what you want to do, but what you need to do.”
Collins, a two-term lawmaker representing Georgia’s 10th Congressional District, still didn’t directly say that he was jumping into the race, and noted that he would first consult with his family and President Donald Trump to determine “where we can be the best, most beneficial help in this mission to make sure that we get a Republican in the U.S. Senate from Georgia.”
The lawmaker became a staple on the road during Trump’s campaign last year, and his bill, the Laken Riley Act, was the first signed into law by the president during his second term.
Collins argued that Ossoff “doesn’t represent the Georgia values that I cherish so much,” and noted that Republicans have largely dominated the state in recent elections, including Trump’s victory in November.
Still, Ossoff, who is seeking re-election for a second term, was the first Democrat to win a Senate seat in the Peach State in roughly two decades.
Speaking on behalf of Ossoff’s campaign, Devon Cruz, spokesperson for the Democratic Party of Georgia, said in a statement to Fox News Digital, “Immediately after voting to rip away health insurance from 750,000 Georgians, Rep. Mike Collins now wants Georgians to give him a promotion?”
Cruz continued, “Collins would join a crowded, messy primary that will leave the GOP nominee badly bruised, while Sen. Jon Ossoff is building massive momentum to take on whichever Donald Trump loyalist limps over the finish line.”
Should Collins dive all the way into the race, he will go face-to-face against fellow Georgia Republican Rep. Buddy Carter and Georgia Insurance Commissioner John King in the Republican primary.
Carter was the first Republican to jump into the contest after Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, who was considered a heavy favorite to run against Ossoff, opted to forgo a Senate bid.
Recent polling on the race has found that Collins may have an edge against his fellow GOP competitors.
The conservative-leaning Trafalgar Group found in a survey conducted in April with 1,426 respondents that Collins held just over a 23-point edge over Carter, who came in second ahead of Rep. Rich McCormick, R-Ga., and King.
In a face-off with Ossoff, however, Collins still trailed the Senator by just shy of 5 points.
In another straw poll conducted during the Georgia Republican Party State Convention earlier this month with roughly 1,200 respondents, Collins earned the support of 39% of those polled compared to Carter’s 13%.
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