Conservative Georgia radio host endorses Jon Ossoff for US Senate

A conservative Georgia radio host is sticking to his promise and is supporting Democrat Jon Ossoff for the U.S. Senate, a significant idealogical shift.

Shelley Wynter, the host of The Shelley Wynter show on 95.5 WSB in Atlanta, endorsed Ossoff during an interview with the senator on June 17, a day after a Republican runoff election saw U.S. House Rep. Mike Collins defeat former college football coach Derek Dooley, and after the host had publicly supported Dooley throughout the primary season.

"I'm here to tell you live on the radio that I am Team Ossoff for the rest of the summer and I will do everything I can possible on this show to get you re-elected," Wynter said following his conversation with Ossoff. "I see re-elections as a job interview, and in my humber opinion, I've seen nothing from Senator Jon Ossoff that requires me to say you're fired from the job."

The Senate race will be closely watched across the country as President Trump has loudly backed Collins, and Republican control in Congress could come down to the currently Democratic-held seat.

What made the "never scared Black and Conservative" personality turn his back on Republican candidates? The moral compass of Mike Collins, Wynter says.

'If (Derek Dooley) is not the candidate, I'm voting for Jon Ossoff'

Following a tight and contested Republican Senate primary race in Georgia, Collins and Dooley were the top two candidates after election night in May. Collins had been leading in the polls for weeks, but Kemp-backed Dooley was making significant gains in the race's fourth quarter, as the former coach would say.

As the two prepared for the June runoff race, Collins faced rising criticism from his own party over comments made by one of his staffers (who was later fired) about a woman who had taken her own life, and his repeated assurance that he was proud of his staff and the campaign they were running. The same staffer had previously joined Collins at the center of a House Ethics investigation after Collins was accused of paying the staffer's girlfriend despite no evidence that she worked for his office.

At the end of May, Wynter spoke out against Collins, saying he had "lost the moral center" and was "a bottom feeder in society."

He said Collins' campaign tactics were something he couldn't support, and if Dooley lost the race in June, Wynter would change his backing from the Republican candidate to the Democrats.

"If (Derek Dooley) is not the candidate, I'm voting for Jon Ossoff ... That kind of behavior, that kind of campaign ... will never, ever get my vote," Wynter said on the air.

Dooley would go on to lose the Republican runoff, mired in his own scandal as he and Gov. Kemp were accused of pay-to-play politics dating back to Kemp's first days in the governor's mansion.

Collins was also endorsed by President Donald Trump just days before the runoff, directing Georgia's MAGA base to support the election-denying representative from central Georgia.

Wynter interviews Ossoff, endorses candidate on air

The day after the runoff, Ossoff joined Wynter on the phone for an interview to talk about the results and his game plan moving forward to the general election in November.

"I think character matters. I think integrity matters. And in an era when these words are thrown around casually, it is no exaggeration to say that Congressman Mike Collins is a notorious bigot, he is a notorious anti-Semite, he is a notorious extremist, and he's also on the wrong side of a whole lot of issues," Ossoff said. "He is pro-war, he is pro-tariff, he is pro-cutting health care, and let's be honest, he's only a congressman because his daddy was a congressman."

Ossoff made his pitch to voters, promising to work toward preventing rural Georgia hospitals from closing, increasing peanut farmers' access to global markets, reforming Georgia's foster care system, preventing AI data center development, and fighting rising costs across the state.

Wynter said he hadn't heard about any of these issues on the campaign trail from any candidate, and pushed Ossoff to explain why the race was focused on issues that may not impact Georgia voters.

"The blunt answer is that during this Republican primary runoff, the whole thing was an audition for the president's favor," Ossoff responded. He called the race "Washington-focused" and unsubstantive.

By the end of the conversation, Wynter stood by his promise to support Ossoff against Collins, and said "everything I'm hearing, everything you're doing, everything you've done, I agree with. I have some minor disagreements on some smaller issues, but on the big things, I'm on your team."

"The Shelley Wynter Show endorses Senator Jon Ossoff for re-election," he concluded.

The full 22-minute interview can be watched here.

In response to the endorsement, the Ossoff campaigned called it "a huge blow to Mike Collins' effort to unite his coalition," something Ossoff did immediately after the May primary by appearing at a campaign event hand-in-hand with Democratic gubernatorial nominee Keisha Lance Bottoms. Collins and Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Jackson have not yet appeared together, and Trump endorsed Jackson's opponent, Burt Jones.

Irene Wright covers midterm races in Georgia as the Atlanta Connect reporter with USA Today’s Deep South Connect team. Find her on X @IreneEWright or email her at [email protected].