Trump will rally Georgia Republicans despite party divisions in
battleground state
[October 16, 2026]
By BILL BARROW
ATLANTA (AP) — Donald Trump's midterm campaign blitz arrives in Georgia
on Friday for a rally with top Republican candidates in a state that has
long been the epicenter of the president's false claims about election
fraud.
In Dalton, the population center of conservative northwest Georgia,
Trump will appear with Senate candidate Mike Collins and gubernatorial
nominee Rick Jackson as part of the White House effort to boost
Republican enthusiasm in an election that could reshape the final years
of Trump's second presidency.
“President Trump is the unequivocal leader, best messenger, and
unmatched motivator for the Republican Party,” said White House
spokesperson Davis Ingle.
Yet unlike some of Trump's recent trips to solidly Republican states —
Alabama, Montana, Tennessee — Georgia is a critical battleground. That
means Jackson, a billionaire businessman, and Collins, a two-term
congressman, need more than Trump stalwarts to defeat their respective
Democratic opponents, former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and Sen.
Jon Ossoff.
“I’m surprised Georgia Republicans want the president here,” Ossoff
said. “The president coming to town reminds Georgians that Donald Trump
and Mike Collins” have pushed policies that have “driven the cost of
groceries, fuel and healthcare to their all-time highs.”
Collins spokesperson Meyer Siegfried said the congressman welcomes the
president's attention. But he also stressed that Collins is a
“bipartisan workhorse who will work with anybody,” while adding that
“Ossoff hates Trump more than he loves our state.”
Bottoms also seemed thrilled with Trump's visit.
“When Donald Trump says he wants people to imagine that he is on the
ballot, I am asking the people of Georgia to do just that,” she said,
pointing to Jackson's promise to be Trump's “favorite governor.”
The risks have been evident even in the heavily Republican corner of
Georgia where the president will visit. Voters there sent erstwhile
Trump ally Marjorie Taylor Greene to Congress before she broke with the
president and resigned. Trump won the district by about 37 points in
2024 and Greene won by 29. In the April special election to replace
Greene, Republican Rep. Clay Fuller won by 12 points.
Republican candidates have run separately
The Dalton event will be the first time this fall that Jackson and
Collins have appeared at the same venue. That contrasts with Ossoff and
Bottoms holding joint rallies across Georgia, with the next scheduled
for Saturday in Cobb County outside Atlanta.
Collins has been dogged by anemic fundraising and controversies that
leave even Republicans questioning his viability against Ossoff. Jackson
has focused on sharing the stage with other statewide Republican
nominees and party leaders, and none mention Collins.
“That was not a neglect,” Trump’s former agriculture secretary and
onetime Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue said after one rally. “I think it was
really respecting a Rick Jackson event and focusing on his election as
governor.”
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President Donald Trump speaks in the Rose Garden of the White House
during an event for first responders, Thursday, Oct. 15, 2026, in
Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
Asked about the joint rally, a Jackson spokesman said only, “Rick
will be in Dalton and looks forward to reminding Georgia voters that
bad mayors do not make good governors.”
Trump was last in Dalton on Jan. 4, 2021, the day before Ossoff and
Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock won concurrent Senate runoffs. He
had already lost the presidential campaign to Joe Biden but was
unwilling to accept it.
“There is no way we lost Georgia. There’s no way,” Trump said that
day. “That was a rigged election but we’re still fighting it.”
Election denial lingers in Georgia
Collins was elected to Congress in 2022, and he's echoed Trump's
lies about 2020. He declined to recant those views this week when
Ossoff pressed him during a debate. “There was a lot of doubt in
that election. Yes, Joe Biden was the president,” Collins said,
without saying Biden was duly elected.
Trump endorsed Collins days before his June runoff victory over
former football coach Derek Dooley. When announcing his decision,
Trump complained that Dooley had conceded that Biden was elected
legitimately.
Gov. Brian Kemp did not endorse Collins until September, and he
warned voters during the primary that the congressman could not win
in November.
Trump did not endorse Jackson until after he’d won a Republican
primary runoff over the president's original pick, Lt. Gov. Burt
Jones, who had been part of Trump's effort to overturn Biden’s
victory. The president cited Jones’ loyalty in his endorsement.
Jackson doesn’t regularly mention Trump like he did during the
primary campaign, when the first-time candidate compared his
business background to Trump. He's more likely in recent weeks to
compare himself to Kemp.
But the governor won't be with his fellow Republicans on Friday,
according to his top political adviser.
“He has a family obligation that day,” said Cody Hall.
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