Exclusive: Mike Collins defies expectations with $2 million fundraising haul

Republican Georgia Rep. Mike Collins’s Senate campaign is touting a significant fundraising haul since entering the crowded primary contest roughly two months earlier.

Over the course of the year’s third fundraising quarter, Collins raised roughly $1.9 million from a broad donor network that includes contributions from all 159 Georgia counties, every state, and multiple territories, according to figures exclusively obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation (DCNF). Collins’s campaign is touting the debut haul as proof that the Georgia Republican can post solid fundraising numbers while consolidating support among the Kemp-aligned business community and America First conservatives.

“There is no denying this is a movement growing stronger every day, and people are voting with their wallets,” Collins said in a statement obtained by the DCNF. “These fundraising numbers make clear what we have said from the beginning: we will not be outworked, we will not be outhustled, and we will win this race and put the people of Georgia back in the driver’s seat in the United States Senate.”

The Georgia Republican primary contest between Collins, Rep. Buddy Carter, and former University of Tennessee football coach Derek Dooley is one of the most-watched races of the 2026 cycle. Republicans view Georgia as one of their best flip opportunities of the midterm elections and are seeking to scuttle Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff’s bid for a second term.

Collins faced considerable pressure to report a strong third-quarter fundraising amount due to expectations that Dooley benefits from access to Republican Georgia Governor Brian Kemp’s rolodex of donors and Carter’s likely self-funding much of his campaign.

Collins’s nearly $2 million haul includes roughly 40,000 contributions whose average donation was $47.31. His congressional campaign also transferred roughly $1 million to his Senate campaign.

Collins ended September with approximately $2.4 million in the bank, according to a source familiar with the campaign.

All three Republican candidates’ fundraising numbers have thus far significantly trailed that of Ossoff, a fundraising powerhouse who ended the first half of the year with nearly $15.5 million on hand. Likewise, each of the trio is vying for the support of President Donald Trump, who has yet to publicly weigh in on the race.

The Collins campaign points to the candidate’s 159-county-wide voter mobilization effort, growing list of endorsements, and strong performance in polling as evidence that he is best positioned to secure the GOP nomination and challenge Ossoff.

Collins has quickly amassed endorsements from more than 50 members of the Georgia legislature, several members of Congress, and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

Collins also leads Carter and Dooley and performs the best against Ossoff in a hypothetical matchup of the 2026 contest, according to two recent surveys of the race.

An August TechnoMetrica Institute of Policy and Politics (TIPP), first reported by the DCNF, found Collins with 27% of the vote, followed by Carter at 20%, and Dooley at 8%.

Collins is also the favorite among Republican voters to challenge Ossoff, according to a September Quantis Insights survey. Whereas the pollster found 25% of respondents favored Collins, followed by Carter at 20%, and Dooley at 7%, nearly half of Republican-identifying respondents were undecided.

Collins is the owner of a trucking company and authored the Laken Riley Act, which Trump signed into law in January to crack down on criminal illegal migrants.

Dooley has the backing of Kemp, who passed on the race in May but sought to tilt the primary contest in favor of his longtime friend. The ex-football coach is a political newcomer and faced scrutiny over not voting in several elections nor registering as a Republican in multiple states.

Carter stands to benefit from being able to partially bankroll his Senate run. The Georgia Republican previously floated investing $10 million of his own money into the race, but has yet to spend the full amount.

At the time of publication, Dooley, Carter, and Ossoff have not yet posted their official fundraising numbers for the third quarter.

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