Buddy Carter has thrown his hat into the ring for U.S. Senate.

The longtime 1st District representative in the U.S. House of Representatives made his candidacy official Thursday in a YouTube video.

Carter will run for the seat currently held by Democrat Jon Ossoff. His announcement comes on the heels of the leading Republican contender for the seat, Gov. Brian Kemp, opting not to run for the Senate in 2026.

In his 30-second video, Carter has a clip of President Trump extolling him and describes himself as a “MAGA warrior.”

Carter was first elected to the U.S. House in 2014 and is in his sixth term in office. Aside from no opposition in his first re-election bid, he enjoyed his most substantial support in the most recent vote, getting 61.2% of the ballots cast. His winning margins in the district have come by no fewer than 15 percentage points.

A former mayor of Pooler, Carter served three terms in the state House of Representatives and three terms in the state Senate before running the U.S. House 1st District. That seat became open when Jack Kingston ran for U.S. Senate.

Ossoff won the seat in 2020, defeating incumbent Republican David Perdue in a runoff after neither candidate failed to gain a majority of the votes needed. Perdue garnered more votes in the general election but did not reach the 50% plus one mark needed under state law.

Ossoff got 50.6% of the votes in a January 2021 runoff to claim the seat. Along with Rev. Raphael Warnock, who also won his seat in a runoff, both of Georgia’s U.S. Senate seats are held by Democrats for the first time since Sam Nunn and Wyche Fowler in 1992.