Mike Collins argues he can unite Georgia GOP in challenge to Democratic US Sen. Jon Ossoff

JACKSON, Ga. (AP) — Second-term Georgia Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Collins is seeking to solidify support as he seeks the GOP nomination to challenge Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff in 2026.

Collins, who'd declared his intent to run in July, officially launched his candidacy Tuesday in his hometown of Jackson and then spoke Wednesday at a Georgia Chamber of Commerce luncheon in Columbus. He's trying to appeal to both President Donald Trump's base and more traditional business conservatives.

The owner of a trucking company and son of a former congressman, Collins has won endorsements from dozens of Republican state lawmakers, despite GOP Gov. Brian Kemp backing newcomer Derek Dooley. Fellow GOP congressman Buddy Carter also is in the race.

Collins argues he can unite the party.

“They know I'm MAGA — everybody knows that,” Collins said. “But they also know that I can talk to the more moderate Republicans that we have out there.”

Ossoff is the only Democratic incumbent seeking reelection in 2026 from a state that Trump won, making him a top GOP target. Republicans had hoped that Kemp himself would run, but he declined. Kemp and Trump had discussed seeking a mutual candidate to challenge Ossoff, but Trump hasn't chosen yet. Collins and his backers say they believe Trump will ultimately back Collins.

“I think it’s a matter of time," said Bruce LeVell, who headed Trump's national diversity coalition in 2016 and spoke at Collins' Tuesday rally.

Carter and Dooley are also seeking Trump's nod. Carter, who calls himself a “MAGA” warrior, touted his support for Trump's budget law Wednesday and called for looser environmental and regulatory permitting. He said he hopes to win Trump's endorsement “sooner rather than later” and expressed confidence that his fundraising would let him keep pace with other Republicans.

“I am obviously the conservative candidate,” Carter said. “I'm the one who has been a mayor. I've been in the state legislature. I've been in Congress for 10 years. And my voting record is clear, I've been voting with Donald Trump 98% of the time.” Carter was mayor of the city of Pooler outside Savannah.

Dooley, a former University of Tennessee football coach and son of the University of Georgia's legendary football head coach Vince Dooley, attended Wednesday's luncheon but declined interview requests. He's been setting up a run as a political outsider.

Ossoff made his own case to the business community. On Wednesday, in a question-and-answer session before the chamber, he never mentioned Trump by name. He spoke to less partisan issues like supporting veterans' health care and seeking money for Georgia's military bases.

But he did make the case that the Trump administration was hurting the United States’ standing in the world by scaling back on diplomacy and international aid while cutting U.S. research and incentives for new technologies and roiling trade with new tariffs.

“Frankly we are engaged in tremendous self-harm right now in this competition with China,” Ossoff said.

The national party has been attacking Ossoff, including a current round of mailers and ads arguing he backed higher taxes because he opposed Trump's budget bill.

Collins is touting a list of supporters from each of Georgia's 159 counties, including state lawmakers and county leaders, building the idea that the party is choosing him even if Kemp isn't behind him. While it's common for campaigns to release such lists, Collins released his at a very early stage. He also has at least one supporter from each county when the state Republican Party doesn't have an organized committee in each county.

“I do think that Mike checks all the boxes,” said Ben Tarbutton III, a longtime Georgia business leader who is serving as Collins’ finance chairman. Tarbutton was chairman of the Georgia Chamber when it endorsed Kemp’s reelection bid in 2022.

Collins also had some well-wishers present Tuesday who haven't endorsed him, including Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, another Jackson resident whom Trump has endorsed in his Republican bid for governor. Two top GOP contenders for lieutenant governor also attended.

Both Collins and Carter have kind words for Kemp. But many Republicans are mystified by Kemp's support for Dooley.

“I don’t know what the hell Brian Kemp is doing," LeVell said. "I have no idea.”

FILE - Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., speaks during an interview at Dobbins Air Reserve Base in Marietta, Ga., April 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson, File)

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Derek Dooley appears at the Georgia Chamber Congressional Luncheon at the Columbus Convention and Trade Center in Columbus, Ga., Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2025. (Arvin Temkar/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)

Supporters applaud at a U.S. Senate campaign event for Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Collins in Jackson, Ga. (AP Photo/Jeff Amy)

U.S. Rep. Mike Collins speaks at a Senate campaign event on Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2025, in Jackson, Ga. (AP Photo/Jeff Amy)

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia has not spared a single Ukrainian power plant from attack since its all-out invasion, Ukraine’s new energy minister said Friday, as a recent escalation of aerial bombardments left hundreds of thousands of people without heat or light for days during the coldest winter in years.

Denys Shmyhal said Russia conducted 612 attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure objects over last year. That barrage has intensified in recent months as nighttime temperatures plunge to minus 18 degrees C (minus 0.4 F).

“Nobody in the world has ever faced such a challenge,” Shmyhal told lawmakers in a speech at Ukraine’s Parliament, the Verkhovna Rada.

Russia has hammered Ukraine’s power grid, especially in winter, throughout the almost four-year war. It aims to weaken the Ukrainian will to resist in a strategy that Kyiv officials call “weaponizing winter.”

Securing from abroad new missile supplies for air defenses that can counter Russia’s power grid attacks is a difficult and exhausting process, Zelenskyy said, revealing that some of the country’s air defense systems were out of missiles and at Russia’s mercy until a new shipment arrived Friday morning.

Obtaining supplies requires intense diplomatic pressure due to minimum stockpile levels and national laws in allied countries, according to the Ukrainian leader.

“But honestly, what do those rules and laws mean when we are at war and we desperately need these missiles?” Zelenskyy said.

The grim outlook roughly halfway through the winter season coincides with uncertainty about the direction and progress of U.S.-led peace efforts.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Friday that a Ukrainian delegation is on its way to the United States to try and finalize with Washington documents for a proposed peace settlement that relate to postwar security guarantees and economic recovery.

If American officials approve the proposals, the U.S. and Ukraine could sign the documents next week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Zelenskyy said at a Kyiv news conference with Czech President Petr Pavel.

U.S. President Donald Trump plans to be in Davos, organizers say.

Russia would still need to be consulted on the proposals.

In Ukraine, the hardship was acute amid extended blackouts.

“This is a critical moment,” Jaime Wah, the deputy head in the Kyiv delegation of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said Friday.

“This is the hardest winter since the escalation of the conflict: punishing cold temperatures and the lack of heating and electricity are affecting millions who are already pushed to the edge by years of violence and economic strain,” he told a briefing in Geneva.

Ukraine's power shortage is so desperate that Shmyhal urged businesses to switch off their illuminated signage and exterior decorations to save electricity.

“If you have spare energy, better give it to people,” the energy minister said. “This is the most important thing today. People will be grateful.”

Ukraine has introduced emergency measures, including temporarily easing curfew restrictions to allow people to go whenever they need to public heating centers set up by the authorities, Shmyhal said. He said hospitals, schools and other critical infrastructure remain the top priority for electricity and heat supplies.

Officials have instructed state energy companies Ukrzaliznytsia, Naftogaz and Ukroboronprom to urgently purchase imported electricity covering at least 50% of their own consumption, according to Shmyhal.

U.K. Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy was in Kyiv on Friday to mark the first anniversary of the “100-year partnership” between Britain and Ukraine. To coincide with the anniversary, Britain announced a further 20 million pounds ($27 million) for repairs to Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.

A grinding war of attrition is continuing along the roughly 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) front line. For all its military might, Russia has managed to occupy less than 20% of Ukraine since 2014.

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

Emergency tents are set up in a residential neighborhood where people can warm up following Russia's regular air attacks against the country's energy objects that leave residents without power, water and heating in the dead of winter, in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Vladyslav Musiienko)