{"id":11354,"date":"2026-06-01T16:32:24","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T16:32:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=11354"},"modified":"2026-06-01T16:32:24","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T16:32:24","slug":"jon-ossoff-and-keisha-lance-bottoms-show-off-head-start-in-georgia-as-republicans-battle-in-runoff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=11354","title":{"rendered":"Jon Ossoff and Keisha Lance Bottoms show off head start in Georgia as Republicans battle in runoff"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

By BILL BARROW<\/strong><\/p>\n

ATLANTA (AP) \u2014 Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia blasted his potential general election rivals on Sunday, casting Rep. Mike Collins and former football coach Derek Dooley as unqualified lackeys for President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter which one wins,\u201d Ossoff told an exuberant crowd at The Tabernacle, a downtown Atlanta concert venue. \u201cThey\u2019re both Trump puppets.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ossoff campaigned with Democratic candidate for governor Keisha Lance Bottoms, the former Atlanta mayor, in what their advisers described as the first of many joint rallies intended to showcase them as a team. The Democrats spoke behind a lectern decked with a placard that read \u201cUnited for Georgia.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was a contrast to Republicans, who are still battling amongst themselves to determine their party\u2019s nominees for Senate and governor. Hours before Ossoff and Bottoms appeared together, Collins and Dooley spent the afternoon going after each other on the debate stage ahead of their June 16 runoff.<\/p>\n

They pledged their fealty to the president while rarely mentioning Ossoff, who they describe as too liberal for a state that Trump carried in two out of his three campaigns.<\/p>\n

The competing events, held miles apart in Atlanta, highlight the head start Ossoff and Georgia Democrats have in a midterm campaign that could reshape the final two years of Trump\u2019s presidency and mold the statehouse of this critical battleground state.<\/p>\n

Like Ossoff, Bottoms awaits the winner of a Republican runoff after she trounced her Democratic primary rivals on May 19. And much like Ossoff, she painted potential opponents Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and billionaire businessman Rick Jackson with the same brush.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

\u201cThey don\u2019t see Trump\u2019s reckless policies as a problem, they see them as a playbook,\u201d she said, emphasizing inflation, especially for gas and groceries. \u201cWe already know we\u2019re running against Trump\u2019s do-boys.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ossoff is the only Senate Democrat running for reelection in a state Trump carried in 2024, and holding his seat is critical to Democrats\u2019 chances to flip control of the chamber. Bottoms is trying to become the first Democrat since 1998 to be elected Georgia governor.<\/p>\n

In the governor\u2019s race, Trump has endorsed Jones, who assisted the president\u2019s failed effort to overturn his 2020 defeat to Joe Biden with false claims of voter fraud. The president has not taken a side between Collins and Dooley.<\/p>\n

Republicans spar over ethics and experience<\/h4>\n

With Trump\u2019s firm grip on the Republican Party, Collins and Dooley showed only slight policy differences as each sought to carve out reasons they\u2019d be the better option to defeat Ossoff and bolster the president\u2019s agenda.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

Dooley played up his status as a first-time candidate and, despite Republicans controlling the House, Senate and White House, hit Collins as being part of a do-nothing government.<\/p>\n

\u201cCongress is out of control,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s too much careerism, corruption, nothing\u2019s getting done, Congress is not working for the people the way it should.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet even as he framed himself as an outsider, Dooley touted the endorsement from two-term Republican Gov. Brian Kemp and his own family roots. Dooley\u2019s late father, Vince, was the legendary University of Georgia football coach and longtime athletics director.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI grew up in a football family in Athens,\u201d said Dooley, who was briefly a lawyer before following his father\u2019s career path in college football and the NFL.<\/p>\n

Dooley\u2019s hardest hits on Collins centered on an ethics investigation into whether the congressman abused taxpayer funds by hiring the girlfriend of his former chief of staff for work that the woman allegedly did not perform.<\/p>\n

Collins insisted the issue is simply a \u201ccomplaint\u201d with no merit, not an actual House ethics case. A \u201cnothing burger,\u201d the congressman called it.<\/p>\n

The Office of Congressional Conduct, after an initial inquiry, has nonetheless to the House Ethics Committee, and Dooley noted that Republicans were among those recommending the inquiry continue.<\/p>\n

Collins, the son of a congressman, slapped back at Dooley\u2019s characterization of Capitol Hill. He described himself as \u201ca conservative workhorse\u201d and blamed any gridlock specifically on \u201ca broken Senate\u201d \u2014 where Ossoff serves. He touted his sponsorship of the Laken Riley Act, a 2025 immigration law that, among other provisions, requires immigrants accused of certain crimes to be held without bond.<\/p>\n

Dooley and Collins each offered support for Trump\u2019s tariffs and the war in Iran. While Collins has previously co-sponsored legislation that would effectively ban abortion nationwide, Dooley said states should determine abortion access.<\/p>\n

Ossoff wraps Trump and both Republicans together<\/h4>\n

Ossoff dismissed Trump as \u201ca failed president and a national disgrace.\u201d He held up Trump as the worst offender of a corrupt political system, highlighting his family\u2019s profits from cryptocurrency and foreign real estate deals. And he lumped Collins and Dooley in with him.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re both corrupt political insiders, and they\u2019re both pro-war, pro-tariff, and pro-cutting your health care,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Ossoff hit Collins for the same ethics case that Dooley mentioned. He accused Dooley of benefiting from his brother\u2019s business dealings with government.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe coach\u2019s family got tens of millions of your tax dollars courtesy of Gov. Kemp, and then poured cash into the governor\u2019s pack to prop up the coach\u2019s campaign,\u201d Ossoff insisted.<\/p>\n

He was alluding to Daniel Dooley being the founder of CENTEGIX, a firm that manufacturers and installs school security hardware, including so-called \u201cpanic buttons\u201d that contact law enforcement directly. As governor, Kemp authorized grants for local systems to bolster security and later signed a law requiring Georgia classrooms to have direct contact to police.<\/p>\n

CENTEGIX has secured contracts with school systems throughout Georgia, and Daniel Dooley has donated more than $150,000 to Kemp\u2019s federal PAC that is backing his brother\u2019s Senate campaign. But Dooley and Kemp advisers note that CENTEGIX has contracts in 47 states besides Georgia, and other firms compete for Georgia schools\u2019 business.<\/p>\n

Connor Whitney, a Dooley campaign spokesman, said Ossoff \u201cis already lying about Derek Dooley\u201d because he \u201cknows Dooley is the candidate who will send him to the bench this fall.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Senator Jon Ossoff campaigned with Democratic gubernatorial candidate Keisha Lance Bottoms, while Republicans await nominees in runoffs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11353,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-based-on-facts-either-observed-and-verified-directly-by-the-reporter-or-reported-and-verified-from-knowledgeable-sources","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nJon Ossoff and Keisha Lance Bottoms show off head start in Georgia as Republicans battle in runoff - Silicon Valley Moving Post<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=11354\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Jon Ossoff and Keisha Lance Bottoms show off head start in Georgia as Republicans battle in runoff - 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