Ossoff enters Georgia’s final week ahead of Collins, who calls it a race between ‘Georgia and Georgetown’

By Helena Thorncroft

WASHINGTON — Sen. Jon Ossoff, a 2009 graduate of Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service, enters the final week of Georgia’s Senate race ahead in public polling, ahead in money and, according to a new New Hampshire survey, already registering among Democrats as a possible 2028 presidential candidate. His Republican opponent, Rep. Mike Collins, has spent the fall trying to make that Washington pedigree a liability.

“This is a race between Georgia and Georgetown,” Collins said at the candidates’ second debate on Oct. 13, the Georgia Recorder reported. Collins went on to contrast “somebody that’s created jobs and opportunities right here in Georgia on this red clay” with “a globe-trotting trust fund kid who got to the Senate and then at every turn has voted to make our life less safe, more expensive and worse off.”

Ossoff’s degree is a matter of public record: Georgetown lists him as SFS’09 among the alumni and faculty sworn into the 119th Congress. He answered Collins at the debate by calling him a “puppet” of President Donald Trump and pressing him on a House ethics investigation and on online posts by people in his orbit, according to the Recorder. Collins has called the ethics inquiry a politically motivated “nothingburger” and has said he denounces all forms of hate.

The polls

A poll conducted for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution by the University of Georgia’s School of Public and International Affairs found Ossoff leading Collins 48% to 40% among 1,000 likely voters surveyed Oct. 7-15, with nearly 12% undecided and a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points, FOX 5 Atlanta reported. The same survey found 55% approving of Ossoff’s job performance. The AJC’s own write-up noted that Ossoff was seen a year ago as the most vulnerable Democratic incumbent, the only one seeking reelection in a state Trump carried in 2024.

The Collins campaign dismissed the survey. “The only poll that counts is happening right now with early voting at the ballot box,” spokesperson Meyer Siegfried said in a statement, according to FOX 5, which also reported that Siegfried accused Ossoff of relying on out-of-state donors.

AdImpact data cited by the AJC showed the Senate Leadership Fund, the main super PAC aligned with Senate Republican leadership, had canceled $7.6 million in Georgia ad reservations; the group did not answer the paper’s questions about whether it still planned to spend $44 million backing Collins, FOX 5 reported. The Collins campaign has denied that Republicans are pulling back, pointing to seven-figure ad buys, the Recorder reported.

The money

Federal Election Commission data for the 2026 cycle show the gap in resources. Ossoff’s campaign reported $136.6 million in receipts and $15.1 million in cash on hand through Oct. 14, according to its FEC filings. Collins reported $10.7 million raised and $1.1 million in cash on hand over the same period, FEC race data show. The Inquisitor reported earlier this week that Democrats outraised Republicans 5 to 1 in key Senate races in early October.

The last week

The campaign’s closing stretch has drawn national figures on both sides. Trump rallied with Collins and gubernatorial nominee Rick Jackson in Perry on Saturday and told the crowd, “What I’m asking you to do is pretend that I’m on the ballot,” the Georgia Recorder reported. Collins praised the president from the stage for his “bold leadership” and “steady hand at the wheel.” The Inquisitor covered that rally.

The same day, Ossoff canvassed with former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. “Under the failed president Donald J. Trump, it costs more than ever in American history to fill up your truck, to stock your fridge, to power your home or to go to a doctor,” Ossoff said, according to the Recorder. Former President Barack Obama is scheduled to rally with Ossoff and Democratic gubernatorial nominee Keisha Lance Bottoms in Atlanta on Wednesday, and former Vice President Kamala Harris is due Friday. About 1.6 million Georgians had already voted as of Saturday, with a week of early voting left before the Nov. 3 election.

At the Perry rally, Trump touted his economic policies, argued that Georgia’s economy would “boom like never ever before” if Collins and Jackson were elected, and told voters, “Before you go and vote, take a look at your 401(k),” the Recorder reported.

A 2028 footnote

Ossoff has not said he is considering a presidential run, and his campaign has focused on Georgia. But in a Saint Anselm College Survey Center poll of New Hampshire voters taken Oct. 19-20, he placed second in a hypothetical 2028 Democratic primary at 14%, behind Buttigieg at 28%, WMUR reported. The full results are posted by the college’s New Hampshire Institute of Politics.

The Inquisitor is seeking comment from the Ossoff campaign, the Collins campaign and the White House. This story will be updated with any response.

Photo: Sen. Jon Ossoff’s official Senate portrait (cropped). U.S. Senate Photographic Studio, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.