by Ireland Owens
A poll released Thursday shows Republican Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger neck-and-neck with Democratic Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff in a hypothetical matchup of Georgia’s 2026 Senate race.
Raffensperger (pictured above, left), who has not yet announced his decision on a possible Senate run, notched 44.3 percent of support, while Ossoff (pictured above, right) secured 44.1 percent, according to a poll conducted in May by Cygnal, a Republican polling firm. Of those surveyed, 44.9 percent said that they had a favorable view of Ossoff.
Other potential and declared Republican Georgia Senate contenders are trailing the incumbent Democrat by single-digit margins, per the same poll.
One of the currently declared GOP candidates in the race, Republican Georgia Rep. Buddy Carter, secured 42.1 percent of support compared to Ossoff’s 46 percent, according to the poll. Carter launched his Senate campaign earlier in May. Moreover, Insurance Commissioner John King, who declared a bid for the Republican Senate nomination earlier in May, received 42.1 percent of polling support to Ossoff’s 44.7 percent.
The survey also found that Republican Georgia Rep. Mike Collins, who is reportedly weighing a Senate run, secured 43.3 percent of support, compared to Ossoff’s 45.7 percent.
Meanwhile, the poll found that Trump administration Small Business Administrator Kelly Loeffler received 42.8 percent of support, compared to Ossoff’s 46.3 percent. Loeffler, who briefly represented Georgia’s other Senate seat from 2020 to 2021, before losing reelection, has not yet publicly declared whether she will run again for the upper chamber.
Raffensperger is reportedly considering whether to run in his state’s 2026 Senate race or instead seek the state’s governor’s mansion. The Georgia Republican attracted controversy for his actions as Georgia’s Secretary State following the 2020 presidential election. As a result, he received a primary challenge from former Republican Georgia Rep. Jody Hice in 2022, but defeated Hice by a double-digit margin.
The Cygnal survey comes after Republican Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp announced on May 5 that he was passing on running in Georgia’s Senate race in 2026, claiming that making a Senate bid was “not the right decision for me and my family” in a post to X.
Trump carried Georgia in the 2024 presidential election, notching 50.7 percent of the vote to former Vice President Kamala Harris’ 48.5 percent.
Ossoff’s campaign and Raffensperger’s office did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
The Cygnal poll surveyed 800 general election voters from May 15 to 17. The poll’s margin of error was plus or minus 3.41 percent.
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Ireland Owens is a reporter at Daily Caller News Foundation.
Photo “Georgia Sec. State Brad Raffensperger” by the Knight Foundation and “Sen. Jon Ossoff” by Sen. Jon Ossoff.
