GOP freaks out as Trump backs 'worst' possible candidate in key swing state

Republicans are in panic mode following President Donald Trump's endorsement in the Georgia Senate race, according to MS NOW, with one anonymous source calling his pick the "worst general election candidate" possible.

Ahead of the Tuesday GOP primary runoff for Georgia's Senate race, Trump issued an endorsement for Rep. Mike Collins, giving him a major edge over the rest of the competition contending for the party's nomination. The winner of the runoff will go on to challenge incumbent Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff in the general election, in a race that will have major implications for which party takes the all-important Senate majority.

In a report published Tuesday morning, MS NOW revealed that Trump's endorsement of Collins "has landed with a clear sense of dread" among Republicans, who have already been anxious about a midterms wipeout in the face of Trump's staggering unpopularity.

"If you went to a laboratory and tried to create the worst general election candidate for this state and environment possible, you couldn’t do better than Mike Collins,” an anonymous Georgia GOP strategist told MS NOW. “He has a ton of personal baggage and won’t be able to raise money. He possesses the unique ability to offend female voters with that personal baggage, but also with the hardest right abortion stance you can have. He will lose the Atlanta metro in unprecedented fashion, and we have to hope he doesn’t take everyone else down with him.”

Collins, the report explained, is exactly the sort of lawmaker that Trump tends to support, much to the party's dismay: "a base-friendly ally likely to back the president’s agenda in Washington time and again." He has also falsely claimed that Trump actually won Georgia in the 2020 election. His notably hardline stances have some in the party worried about his chances at winning a statewide race in a state that has shifted closer to swing state status over the last several years.

"During an earlier congressional run, he expressed support in a questionnaire for banning abortion without any exceptions," MS NOW detailed. "His campaign now points to more recent comments in which the congressman embraces the state’s so-called heartbeat law, which includes exceptions under which the procedure can still be performed. But the turning point on that stance speaks to just how much of a challenge moderating someone with Collins’ conservative streak may be statewide."

Ossoff is also positioning himself as a much stronger candidate for reelection than the GOP once anticipated, racking up a fundraising haul that has dwarfed Collins and other Republicans in the race. His rise has led some to speculate that he could emerge as a 2028 presidential favorite for Democrats.

“Jon Ossoff is able to shore up his base, he’s able to stockpile a bunch of cash, and coming out of this runoff, Ossoff is going to be in a position to start talking to persuasion and swing voters,” a national Senate GOP strategist told MS NOW. “Whoever the Republican candidate ends up being is going to have to sort of re-repair his base coalitions just to shore up Republican voters before he’s going to be able to even go after swing voters.”