U.S. Rep. Doug Collins picked up another endorsement from a prominent state Republican legislator on Thursday when House Majority Leader Jon Burns backed his Senate campaign.

The Newington lawmaker, who served with Collins in the Georgia House, is one of the top ranking Republicans in the chamber. He joins House Speaker David Ralston and about four dozen other state legislators who support his challenge to U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler.

The two are locked in a bitter battle for the hearts of Republican voters in a November special election that features about 20 candidates on the same ballot. A January runoff is expected, since no candidate is likely to get a majority of the vote.

Loeffler has support from Gov. Brian Kemp, who tapped her to the seat, and other top state and U.S. Senate Republicans. Collins' most influential backers include Ralston and former Gov. Nathan Deal.

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Former Fulton County election worker Ruby Freeman talks to her daughter, Wandrea ArShaye "Shaye" Moss, a former Georgia election worker, after she testified before the U.S. House Select Committee at its fourth hearing on its Jan. 6 investigation on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, June 21, 2022. (Yuri Gripas/Abaca Press/TNS)

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