Trump Impeachment Ally Collins to Challenge GOP Georgia Senator

(Bloomberg) -- Representative Doug Collins, one of President Donald Trump’s staunchest supporters during the House impeachment probe, will mount a primary challenge to a fellow Republican in a Georgia Senate race.

Collins announced Wednesday that he’d challenge Kelly Loeffler, a financial executive who was sworn into the Senate this month after being picked by Georgia Governor Brian Kemp to fill the seat held by former Senator Johnny Isakson, who retired.

Trump had pressed Kemp to appoint Collins -- the House Judiciary Committee’s top Republican -- to fill the spot.

Collins’ announcement on Fox News drew an immediate backlash from National Republican Senatorial Committee Executive Director Kevin McLaughlin.

“The shortsightedness in this decision is stunning,” McLaughlin said in statement. “Doug Collins’ selfishness will hurt David Perdue, Kelly Loeffler, and President Trump. Not to mention the people of Georgia who stand to bear the burden of it for years to come.”

McLaughlin said the move puts Georgia’s two Senate seats -- Loeffler’s as well as Perdue’s -- in addition to House seats in play for the November election. He said the NRSC, which works to keep Republicans in the majority in the Senate, backs Loeffler.

Loeffler was appointed to a subcommittee with direct jurisdiction over the financial services industry in which her husband Jeffrey Sprecher, chairman and chief executive officer of the Atlanta-based Intercontinental Exchange Inc., is a major player.

--With assistance from Laura Litvan and Kathleen Miller.

To contact the reporter on this story: Billy House in Washington at bhouse5@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Joe Sobczyk at jsobczyk@bloomberg.net, Kathleen Hunter, Elizabeth Wasserman

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