<mediadc-video-embed data-state="{"cms.site.owner":{"_ref":"00000161-3486-d333-a9e9-76c6fbf30000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b93390000"},"cms.content.publishDate":1655324068947,"cms.content.publishUser":{"_ref":"00000175-4195-d820-abff-7fdf1f080000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"cms.content.updateDate":1655324068947,"cms.content.updateUser":{"_ref":"00000175-4195-d820-abff-7fdf1f080000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"rawHtml":"
var _bp = _bp||[]; _bp.push({ "div": "Brid_55323167", "obj": {"id":"27789","width":"16","height":"9","video":"1033466"} }); ","_id":"00000181-6900-db25-adf7-791bbd650000","_type":"2f5a8339-a89a-3738-9cd2-3ddf0c8da574"}”>Video EmbedEXCLUSIVE — Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday held firm on his support for Georgia House candidate Vernon Jones, releasing a recorded message in which he condemned GOP runoff opponent Mike Collins for treating Jones “very unfairly” with “vicious political ads that aren’t true.”
The call will go out districtwide starting Wednesday night and will test the strength of the former president’s power in the Peach State after several of his hand-picked candidates faced bruising defeats during the primary election last month.
Jones, who refers to himself as the “black Donald Trump,” and Collins, a trucking executive and the son of a former congressman, will go toe-to-toe Tuesday to see who will be the Republican nominee for Georgia’s 10th Congressional District. Neither candidate met the threshold needed to declare an outright victory during the May 24 race.
GEORGIA GOP CONVERT VERNON JONES TESTS TRUMP ENDORSEMENT AS HOUSE PRIMARY NEARS
The winner will square off in the general election in November against the Democratic nominee, which will also be decided in a runoff Tuesday.
The red tilt of the 10th District means the winner of the GOP race will likely occupy the seat in January.
In his recorded message, Trump called the attack ads against Jones “a vicious thing” that “shouldn’t be allowed to happen.”
In one mailer that’s circulating, a picture of Jones appears next to rapper and felon Rick Ross with “a random white woman crying.”
“President Trump has condemned these attacks because they are the same false attacks the Left and Washington Establishment tried to use to destroy him,” his campaign told the Washington Examiner. “If Mike Collins wants to use Democrat tactics to win a Republican primary, maybe he should just run as a Democrat.”
In his recorded message, the former president said Jones, who was once a Democrat, had “proven time and time again he’s with the MAGA movement.”
“Right from the beginning, he was with us,” Trump said. “I realized it early, and I’m very proud of it. Vernon, he’s going to fight so hard. He’s a man that will never let you down. He just doesn’t stop, and he’s the kind of guy that Georgia needs and Georgia, I think, will get.”
The president also claimed Jones was leading in the polls “by a very substantial amount,” though he did not provide details.
Both Jones and Collins ran as unabashed pro-Trump conservatives, though only Jones had his seal of approval.
Collins narrowly lost the primary to Rep. Jody Hice in 2014. Hice left his east Georgia House seat to run for secretary of state with Trump’s blessing. Hice lost his race against Trump nemesis Brad Raffensperger.
Despite not being endorsed by Trump, Collins campaigned on Trump’s policies and vowed payback for the 2020 presidential elections.
He pledged to stand up to “liberal left-wing wackos, RINOS, elites — and even the Republican establishment,” promising to vote against House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) for speaker of the House should the GOP take control of the lower chamber in 2023.
House Republicans need to net five seats in the 435-member chamber to win back the majority they lost in 2018.
During campaign stops across the district, Collins has made clear he isn’t interested in reaching across the aisle if he was elected to Congress.
“The time for compromise, time for bipartisanship — that’s over with,” he said. “This is the best time in our lifetime, y’all, to send Republicans to Congress.”
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Despite his devotion to the “MAGA-verse,” Collins failed to secure a coveted Trump endorsement.
That win went to Jones, who had been slated to run for governor but dropped out of the race after Trump promised to endorse him in a congressional primary if he quit his gubernatorial bid so that Trump’s hand-picked candidate, former Sen. David Perdue, could take out Gov. Brian Kemp. Kemp ended up beating Perdue in a landslide.
