{"version":"1.9","identifier":"2f1de47e-49d6-4ffc-a771-887d2ae5587b","language":"en-US","title":"Ossoff projected to hold Georgia Senate seat over Collins in first big call of election night","layout":{"columns":7,"width":1024,"margin":32,"gutter":20},"componentLayouts":{"text":{"columnStart":0,"columnSpan":7,"maximumContentWidth":720,"margin":{"top":12,"bottom":12}},"photo":{"columnStart":0,"columnSpan":7,"margin":{"top":20,"bottom":20}}},"componentTextStyles":{"default":{"fontName":"HelveticaNeue","fontSize":18,"lineHeight":29,"textColor":"#171717"},"headline":{"fontName":"HelveticaNeue-Bold","fontSize":36,"lineHeight":42,"conditional":[{"conditions":{"maxViewportWidth":480},"fontSize":28,"lineHeight":34}]},"intro":{"fontName":"HelveticaNeue","fontSize":20,"lineHeight":28,"textColor":"#555555"},"caption":{"fontName":"HelveticaNeue","fontSize":13,"lineHeight":19,"textColor":"#666666"},"byline":{"fontName":"HelveticaNeue","fontSize":13,"lineHeight":20,"textColor":"#666666"},"body":{"fontName":"HelveticaNeue","fontSize":18,"lineHeight":29,"paragraphSpacingAfter":14,"linkStyle":{"textColor":"#00704a"}}},"metadata":{"canonicalURL":"https://567politics.com/news/georgia-senate-ossoff-projected-winner-collins-election-night-november-2026","datePublished":"2026-11-04T01:47:43.385049Z","dateModified":"2026-11-04T01:50:48.569067Z","authors":["Patrick Karsh"],"excerpt":"CBS News projected Jon Ossoff the winner at 7:41 p.m., 41 minutes after Georgia's polls closed, and the AP followed at 7:55 p.m. With 59% of the expected vote counted, he led Mike Collins 63% to 37%. Democrats still need a net gain of four seats for a Senate majority.","thumbnailURL":"https://pub-fac99da959e344fe99d810d309cef7df.r2.dev/photos/article/2f1de47e-49d6-4ffc-a771-887d2ae5587b/c73a1056d2477ce249562e8f9c238f80.jpg","keywords":["elections"],"generatorName":"Frog News","generatorVersion":"1.0"},"components":[{"role":"title","text":"Ossoff projected to hold Georgia Senate seat over Collins in first big call of election night","textStyle":"headline","layout":"text"},{"role":"intro","text":"CBS News projected Jon Ossoff the winner at 7:41 p.m., 41 minutes after Georgia's polls closed, and the AP followed at 7:55 p.m. With 59% of the expected vote counted, he led Mike Collins 63% to 37%. Democrats still need a net gain of four seats for a Senate majority.","textStyle":"intro","layout":"text"},{"role":"byline","text":"By Patrick Karsh · Published November 4, 2026","textStyle":"byline","layout":"text"},{"role":"photo","URL":"https://pub-fac99da959e344fe99d810d309cef7df.r2.dev/photos/article/2f1de47e-49d6-4ffc-a771-887d2ae5587b/c73a1056d2477ce249562e8f9c238f80.jpg","caption":"Sen. Jon Ossoff's official U.S. Senate portrait, published by his Senate office. · Office of U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, official Senate portrait (U.S. government work, public domain)","accessibilityCaption":"Sen. Jon Ossoff's official U.S. Senate portrait, published by his Senate office.","layout":"photo"},{"role":"caption","text":"Sen. Jon Ossoff's official U.S. Senate portrait, published by his Senate office. · Office of U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, official Senate portrait (U.S. government work, public domain)","textStyle":"caption","layout":"text"},{"role":"body","format":"markdown","text":"Georgia's polls closed at 7 p.m. Eastern on Tuesday. Forty-one minutes later, CBS News [projected that Sen. Jon Ossoff had won a second term](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/georgia-2026-senate-ossoff-collins/), the first major Senate call of the night. The Associated Press [called the race at 7:55 p.m.](https://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/george-us-senate-jon-ossoff-mike-collins), and ABC News listed Ossoff as its projected winner on its [Georgia results page](https://abcnews.com/Politics/georgia-2026-live-midterm-election-results/story?id=136761373).\n\nThe margin in the early count was wide. At 8:32 p.m., ABC's tally showed [Ossoff](https://567politics.com/politicians/jon-ossoff) with 1,661,077 votes, or 63%, to 974,893, or 37%, for Republican Rep. [Mike Collins](https://567politics.com/politicians/mike-collins), with 59% of the expected vote reported, according to the [ABC results page](https://abcnews.com/Politics/georgia-2026-live-midterm-election-results/story?id=136761373). Those figures are heavy on early and mail ballots, which Georgia counties upload first. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger had said earlier in the day that the early vote should be uploaded by 8 p.m. and promised \"quick results tonight,\" according to [ABC's live blog](https://abcnews.com/Politics/live-updates/midterm-elections-live-updates/?id=137782085). Election Day ballots had barely begun to report. Whether they narrow the gap, and by how much, is not yet known.\n\nOssoff was the only Democratic senator seeking reelection this year in a state President Trump carried in 2024, as [CBS News noted](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/georgia-2026-senate-ossoff-collins/). Republicans had put Georgia near the top of their target list when the cycle began. By the end, the [Washington Examiner reported](https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/campaigns/congressional/4780192/georgia-senate-election-results-jon-ossoff-mike-collins/), party strategists \"had largely concluded they did not have a good chance of flipping the seat,\" and Fox News [reported](https://www.foxnews.com/politics/ossoff-wins-democrats-hold-firm-georgia-republicans-fail-flip-prized-senate-seat) that Republican-aligned outside groups cut their Georgia spending in the final weeks.\n\n## What the count showed, and what it did not\n\nThe table below compares the partial count with the last three public polls that released full methodology, which we reviewed in our [final Georgia polls story](https://567politics.com/news/georgia-senate-ossoff-collins-governor-final-polls-november-2026). The partial count is not a final result. It also includes a Libertarian candidate, Buckley, whose share was not broken out on the ABC page.","textStyle":"body","layout":"text"},{"role":"htmltable","html":"<table><tr><th>Source (dates)</th><th>Sample</th><th>Ossoff</th><th>Collins</th></tr><tr><td>ABC count, 8:32 p.m. (59% of expected vote)</td><td>Partial</td><td>63%</td><td>37%</td></tr><tr><td>Echelon Insights for NetChoice (Oct. 16–23)</td><td>508 LV</td><td>55%</td><td>40%</td></tr><tr><td>AJC / University of Georgia (Oct. 7–15)</td><td>1,000 LV</td><td>48%</td><td>40%</td></tr><tr><td>Trafalgar Group (Sep. 10–12)</td><td>1,091 LV</td><td>49%</td><td>43%</td></tr></table>","layout":"text"},{"role":"body","format":"markdown","text":"**Partial Georgia Senate count compared with the final public polls**","textStyle":"body","layout":"text"},{"role":"htmltable","html":"<table><tr><th>Source</th><th>Ossoff (D)</th><th>Collins (R)</th></tr><tr><td>ABC count at 8:32 p.m. (59% in)</td><td>63%</td><td>37%</td></tr><tr><td>Echelon Insights (Oct. 16-23)</td><td>55%</td><td>40%</td></tr><tr><td>AJC/UGA (Oct. 7-15)</td><td>48%</td><td>40%</td></tr><tr><td>Trafalgar (Sep. 10-12)</td><td>49%</td><td>43%</td></tr></table>","layout":"text"},{"role":"body","format":"markdown","text":"Source: [ABC News results page](https://abcnews.com/Politics/georgia-2026-live-midterm-election-results/story?id=136761373), [Echelon Insights memo](https://netchoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Echelon-Insights-Release-Memo.pdf), [AJC](https://www.ajc.com/politics/2026/10/ajc-poll-ossoff-leads-collins-in-georgias-us-senate-race/), [Wikipedia polling table](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_United_States_Senate_election_in_Georgia)\n\nEvery public poll listed on [Wikipedia's compilation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_United_States_Senate_election_in_Georgia) since February showed Ossoff ahead, by 4 to 13 points. A RealClearPolitics average of September and October surveys put his lead at 8.2 points, the [Washington Examiner reported](https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/campaigns/congressional/4780192/georgia-senate-election-results-jon-ossoff-mike-collins/). The early count is wider than any of those polls, which is consistent with early votes being reported first. Georgia does not register voters by party, so the early-vote totals we tracked in our [Election Day turnout report](https://567politics.com/news/georgia-election-day-turnout-fulton-rescans-qr-codes-november-2026) cannot be split by candidate until the count is complete.\n\nGeorgia requires a runoff if no candidate wins a majority. The projections mean the networks and the AP concluded Collins could not catch up or force a runoff, though the final margin may differ from the one shown tonight.\n\n## The Senate math after Georgia\n\nRepublicans entered the night with a 53–47 majority, and Democrats need a net gain of four seats to take control, as the [CBS News Senate tracker](https://www.cbsnews.com/live-updates/senate-election-results-2026/) laid out. Georgia was a Democratic hold, so it changes nothing in that arithmetic. Its importance is that it removes the most likely Republican pickup from the board.\n\nBy 8:31 p.m., ABC had also projected Democrat Roy Cooper to win the open North Carolina seat of retiring Republican Thom Tillis, which it described as a flip, along with Democrat Chris Pappas holding New Hampshire and Republican Ashley Moody holding Florida, according to the [ABC live blog](https://abcnews.com/Politics/live-updates/midterm-elections-live-updates/?id=137782085). Fox News [reported](https://www.foxnews.com/politics/ossoff-wins-democrats-hold-firm-georgia-republicans-fail-flip-prized-senate-seat) that Democrat Mark Warner had been projected in Virginia before Ossoff. ABC's tally showed Democrats with a net gain of one.\n\nThat leaves Democrats needing three more net pickups, with the Republican-held toss-ups still open. ABC's live counts at 8:31 p.m. showed Democrat Sherrod Brown ahead of Sen. Jon Husted in [Ohio](https://567politics.com/news/ohio-senate-brown-husted-final-siena-poll-november-2026) with 35% reporting, and Democrat James Talarico ahead of Ken Paxton in [Texas](https://567politics.com/news/texas-senate-paxton-talarico-closing-arguments-november-2026) with 24% reporting, with neither race called, per the [ABC live blog](https://abcnews.com/Politics/live-updates/midterm-elections-live-updates/?id=137782085). Maine had almost no votes reported. Michigan, Alaska, Iowa and Kansas close later or count more slowly. Republicans can lose up to three of those contests and keep the chamber.\n\n**How the Georgia Senate race reached election night**\n\n* **2026-05-19**: Primaries. Ossoff unopposed; Collins leads a three-way Republican field with 40.5% and heads to a runoff\n* **2026-06-16**: Collins wins the Republican runoff over Derek Dooley, 55.5% to 44.5%, after a late Trump endorsement\n* **2026-10-08**: First debate, hosted by Atlanta News First at Assembly Atlanta\n* **2026-10-13**: Second debate, Atlanta Press Club; early voting begins\n* **2026-11-02**: Final rallies. Ossoff in DeKalb County; Collins tours Republican offices statewide\n* **2026-11-03**: Polls close 7 p.m. CBS projects Ossoff at 7:41 p.m.; AP at 7:55 p.m.\n\n## What the candidates said\n\nThe campaign was personal and often harsh. At the Oct. 8 debate, Ossoff said, \"These tariffs are crushing our state, and we'll repeal those tariffs,\" and told viewers, \"It costs more today than at any time in American history to stock your fridge, to fill up your truck, to power your home,\" according to the [Georgia Recorder's report](https://roughdraftatlanta.com/2026/10/09/ossoff-collins-senate-debate/). He accused Collins and Trump of passing \"the biggest Medicaid cut in history,\" and said Collins \"has brought dishonor to our state through his personal bigotry.\"\n\nCollins answered that the inflation Georgians feel began under Democrats: \"That Bidenomics, that Green New Deal that my opponent voted for, that's where all this inflation came from.\" On the border, he said Ossoff \"wanted to keep the borders wide open so that we had fentanyl coming across this border,\" and he called Ossoff \"a trust fund kid who's never had a job in his life,\" per the [same report](https://roughdraftatlanta.com/2026/10/09/ossoff-collins-senate-debate/). In his closing statement, Collins said, \"We still haven't heard why Jon Ossoff votes the way he does. Those aren't your Georgia values. Those aren't even American values,\" according to the [AJC's live coverage](https://www.ajc.com/politics/2026/10/georgia-us-senate-race-jon-ossoff-and-mike-collins-debate/). On Iran, Collins said the president \"had every right to go in there and make sure that Iran does not get a nuclear weapon.\" Ossoff replied that \"Iran still has its uranium; Iran still has its drones and missiles.\"\n\nThe second debate, on Oct. 13, turned on the Epstein files and donors. Ossoff said Collins \"wouldn't vote to release those files until Donald Trump gave him permission,\" and Collins said of Ossoff's donor Reid Hoffman that \"the call's coming from inside the house,\" [CBS Atlanta reported](https://www.cbsnews.com/atlanta/news/ossoff-collins-georgia-senate-debate-election-epstein-files-tariffs/). Ossoff also said he had \"zero interest in running for president\" and pledged to serve a full term.\n\nOn the final day, Ossoff told a DeKalb County rally, \"Let's win these races decisively,\" and \"Let's turn the page on this dark chapter in our nation's history,\" [FOX 5 Atlanta reported](https://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/jon-ossoff-mike-collins-make-final-pitch-georgia-voters). Collins, touring Republican offices in Buckhead, Columbia County, Savannah and Macon, said, \"This race is close. All the races are close. I need your help,\" and, \"We're going to show the world that this is not a blue state, not a purple state. We are a red state.\"\n\nAfter the call, the Ossoff campaign said in a statement that \"Georgians sent him back to the Senate because they know he will always show up for them,\" and that \"together we will continue the important work of rooting out corruption and abuses of power,\" according to [FOX 5 Atlanta's AP report](https://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/george-us-senate-jon-ossoff-mike-collins). Senate Democrats' campaign arm called Ossoff \"a workhorse for the people of Georgia,\" [Fox News reported](https://www.foxnews.com/politics/ossoff-wins-democrats-hold-firm-georgia-republicans-fail-flip-prized-senate-seat). We found no statement from Collins, the National Republican Senatorial Committee or the Georgia Republican Party in any source we could open by 8:35 p.m. Trump, speaking on Fox News Channel earlier in the evening, said, \"I think the results are going to be better than you think,\" and that \"inflation is solved,\" per [FOX 9's AP report](https://www.fox9.com/news/george-us-senate-jon-ossoff-mike-collins).\n\n## Money: a 13-to-1 gap in receipts\n\nFederal Election Commission filings show a wide fundraising gap. Ossoff's campaign reported total receipts of $136,610,982 for coverage dates Jan. 1, 2021, through Oct. 14, 2026, with $125,808,380 in disbursements and $15,134,336 cash on hand, according to the [FEC candidate page](https://www.fec.gov/data/candidate/S8GA00180/?cycle=2026), retrieved Nov. 3, 2026. For the two-year period beginning Jan. 1, 2025, receipts were $115,904,486.\n\nCollins's two authorized Senate committees together reported $10,679,277 in receipts, $10,178,766 in disbursements and $1,103,682 cash on hand for Jan. 1, 2025, through Oct. 14, 2026, according to the [FEC candidate page for his Senate run](https://www.fec.gov/data/candidate/S6GA00390/?cycle=2026), also retrieved Nov. 3. Receipts are not the same as money spent in Georgia; both figures exclude outside groups, which report separately.","textStyle":"body","layout":"text"},{"role":"htmltable","html":"<table><tr><th>Candidate</th><th>Receipts</th><th>Cash on hand</th><th>Coverage end</th></tr><tr><td>Ossoff (D)</td><td>$136.6 million (since 2021)</td><td>$15.1 million</td><td>Oct. 14, 2026</td></tr><tr><td>Collins (R)</td><td>$10.7 million (since 2025)</td><td>$1.1 million</td><td>Oct. 14, 2026</td></tr></table>","layout":"text"},{"role":"body","format":"markdown","text":"The Washington Examiner reported that Senate Majority PAC, the main Democratic super PAC, pulled its Georgia advertising in the final weeks, which the paper read as confidence in the result. The FEC's processed independent-expenditure data for the cycle, as compiled in 567 Politics' funding records retrieved Nov. 1, showed the Republican-aligned SLF PAC as the largest reported outside spender against Ossoff, at $313,600, with other groups reporting smaller amounts for and against him; the records do not capture spending filed after that date.\n\n## Who voted and why: what we know\n\nNo Georgia-specific exit poll from the CBS News/National Election Pool survey, the Fox News Voter Poll conducted by SSRS, or AP VoteCast could be opened in time for this story. Nationally, CBS News' early exit poll put Trump's approval at 38% and found that more voters held negative views of the economy than two years ago, according to its [exit poll page](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cbs-news-exit-polls-midterm-elections-2026/). Our [summary of the early national exit polls](https://567politics.com/news/exit-polls-2026-midterms-trump-approval-economy-democracy-party-favorability-november-2026) has the details and methodology.\n\nTwo pre-election surveys offer Georgia-specific context. State Navigate, a nonpartisan group that studies state legislatures, surveyed 679 likely voters by text-to-web from Oct. 23 to 27 with a margin of error of 3.8 points. It found Trump's approval among Georgia likely voters at 42%, with 57% disapproving, according to [its release](https://projects.statenavigate.com/interactives/ga/statewide-poll-october-2026/georgia-statewide-poll-october-23-27-2026.pdf). Its founder, Chaz Nuttycombe, wrote that \"Democrats' irregular voters are showing up; Republicans' aren't, at least not yet,\" while cautioning that Republican irregular voters might still turn out on Election Day.\n\nEchelon Insights, a Republican firm, surveyed 508 Georgia likely voters Oct. 16 to 23 as part of a six-state project for the trade group NetChoice. Its [memo](https://netchoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Echelon-Insights-Release-Memo.pdf) said \"inflation and cost of living is a top priority for 55%\" of likely voters and gave Ossoff a 15-point lead. Those are opinion surveys taken before voting ended, not measures of who actually voted.\n\nTurnout was large. More than 2.8 million Georgians voted early or by mail before Tuesday, and the state passed 3.1 million ballots by midmorning on Election Day, as we reported in our [turnout coverage](https://567politics.com/news/georgia-election-day-turnout-fulton-rescans-qr-codes-november-2026). Raffensperger said more than 775,000 ballots had been cast on Election Day itself, according to a headline on [FOX 5 Atlanta's 5 p.m. results page](https://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/ossoff-collins-election-results-us-senate-georgia-2026-nt). National early-vote totals and poll-closing times are in our [Election Day guide](https://567politics.com/news/election-day-early-vote-final-totals-poll-closing-times-mail-ballot-deadlines-november-2026).\n\n## The governor's race is still open\n\nThe other statewide contest at the top of the ballot, between Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms and Republican Rick Jackson, had not been called in any source we could open by 8:35 p.m. ABC's Georgia page listed the matchup without a count. The final public polls had the race inside the margin of error, with Echelon showing Bottoms 49% to 48% and the AJC/UGA poll showing Jackson 46% to 45%. Results will appear on our [Georgia governor race page](https://567politics.com/races/georgia-governor-2026) and the [Senate race page](https://567politics.com/races/georgia-senate-2026) as they come in.\n\nThe gap between the two races was the main feature of Georgia's final polling. A sizable group of voters appeared ready to back Ossoff while remaining open to a Republican for governor. Whether that pattern holds in the final count is one of the night's open questions.\n\n## How the two candidates got here\n\nOssoff, 39, first won the seat in a January 2021 runoff against Republican David Perdue, one of two Georgia runoffs that gave Democrats Senate control that year. He is the state's first Jewish senator, [WCTV noted](https://www.wctv.tv/2026/11/04/ap-projects-jon-ossoff-winner-us-senate-seat-georgia/). He faced no primary opponent this year.\n\nCollins, 59, co-founded a trucking company and has represented Georgia's 10th District since 2023, according to [CBS News](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/georgia-2026-senate-ossoff-collins/). He wrote the Laken Riley Act, which Ossoff voted for while criticizing the administration's enforcement tactics, [Fox News reported](https://www.foxnews.com/politics/ossoff-wins-democrats-hold-firm-georgia-republicans-fail-flip-prized-senate-seat). National Republicans first tried to recruit Gov. Brian Kemp, who declined and endorsed Derek Dooley. Collins won the May 19 primary with 40.5% and the June 16 runoff with 55.5% after Trump endorsed him, according to results compiled on [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_United_States_Senate_election_in_Georgia). During the general election he faced questions about a House ethics inquiry, which he has described as a complaint without merit, and about social media posts by a relative, per Fox News. Ossoff faced questions about donations from Reid Hoffman, the venture capitalist named in the Epstein files.\n\n## What is still unknown\n\nThe final margin. The 63–37 split reflects 59% of the expected vote and is weighted toward early ballots. The Election Day share, which Raffensperger put at more than 775,000 ballots as of late afternoon, had barely begun to report.\n\nAny statement from Collins. None had been published in the sources we could reach.\n\nHow Georgians voted by group. Without a state exit poll, claims about which voters moved are not yet supported.\n\nThe governor's race, and the other statewide offices, which will show whether the Senate margin carried down the ballot.\n\n## How we reported this\n\nWe opened the CBS, ABC, FOX 5 Atlanta, FOX 9, Fox News, Washington Examiner, WCTV and Breitbart election-night reports, the Georgia Recorder and AJC debate coverage, the FEC candidate pages for both campaigns and the State Navigate and Echelon Insights poll releases. NBC, CNN, the Washington Post, NPR, Axios, the AJC results pages, the Georgia Secretary of State's results application and Decision Desk HQ's race pages could not be opened or showed no returns. We could not retrieve or verify any social media post, so none is quoted.","textStyle":"body","layout":"text"}]}