WSJ Report Eviscerates Georgia Republican’s Campaign as ‘Gone Disastrously Wrong’ — Some GOP Leaders Think He’s Already Lost

Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via AP Images.

Rep. Mike Collins’ (R-GA) campaign is going “disastrously wrong,” as The Wall Street Journal laid out in excruciating detail on Monday, from a humiliating typo at launch to scandals he can’t shake, and Republicans are not just worried he’ll lose, but that he’ll drag down the rest of the GOP ticket.

Collins, who represents a congressional district that includes Athens, is the Republican nominee challenging incumbent Sen. Jon Ossoff’s (D-GA) re-election bid.

The Republican congressman has consistently trailed the senator in the polls and multiple election prognosticators have issued increasingly rosy predictions for Ossoff. Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics shifted Georgia’s Senate race from “Leans Democratic” to “Likely Democratic” in July; Nate Silver also rates the Peach State as “Likely D.”

Collins is also getting clobbered in fundraising, left bloodied and depleted after a contested primary and runoff — and now facing off against Ossoff, who has proven to be one of the most prolific fundraisers for this election cycle.

And then there’s the white nationalist social media posts by not one, but two people in Collins’ inner circle: his son-in-law and a former staffer.

It may end up being true that Collins’ campaign launch video, with its embarrassing “Georiga, Let’s Ride” typo, was the high point of this snakebit campaign. (The tweet sharing that video is inexplicably still up.)

The Journal’s headline Monday declaring Collins was running “The GOP Senate Campaign Gone Disastrously Wrong in Georgia” was likely not a surprise to the vast majority of Peach State politicos.

The article assesses Collins as having “suffered a series of setbacks that have hobbled his campaign,” in contrast to Ossoff, who has used his campaign platform to elevate his political star nationally, making headlines for taking rhetorical whacks at President Donald Trump. Ossoff has even garnered praise from some conservative commentators for his office’s reliable constituent services.

Georgia has become “a big disappointment for the GOP,” reported the Journal, with most viewing what started as a tossup now “firmly blue.” The Real Clear Politics polling average has Ossoff up by 7.5 points; the polls it tracks have had Ossoff consistently ahead with a lead greater than the margin of error.

Longtime Georgia GOP strategist Jordan Fuchs, who previously consulted for Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, told the paper Collins was “really having difficulty breaking through” because of his “lackluster fundraising [and] ongoing scandals with staffers and family.”

Another Republican strategist told the Journal “that some Republican leaders already consider the Collins campaign lost, and the race “has sparked alarm among GOP strategists and pollsters that his run could weigh on other Republican candidates in Georgia,” including the governor’s race and several state legislative seats, because of party-line voting.

Collins lacks the financial resources to catch up. Since last year, Ossoff has raised more than ten times what Collins has. One Nation, a GOP campaign project backed by the Senate Leadership Fund, has said it had just started airing television ads attacking Ossoff, drawing from $44 million it had pledged to spend on the race. Still, Ossoff’s campaign far outpaces Collins’ cash-on-hand and campaigns can buy airtime at a cheaper rate than the outside PACs can, letting the senator further stretch his massive war chest.

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