Former football coach Derek Dooley jumped into the race for U.S. Senate in Georgia on Monday, setting up a high-stakes test of whether a political outsider with deep ties to Gov. Brian Kemp can become the GOP standard-bearer against Democratic incumbent Jon Ossoff.
Dooley launched his campaign with an ad that highlights a coaching career creating “hope and opportunity” while enthusiastically embracing President Donald Trump’s agenda.
“I haven’t known a president in my lifetime who’s been able to achieve these kinds of results. That’s what the people want,” he said. “They want someone who is going to mean what they say, say what they mean and then go deliver results.”
He faces a steep climb. He has no political record, no public stances on hot-button issues and hasn’t held a public campaign event since first floating a bid to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in June.
Yet Dooley enters the race with a famous pedigree — he’s the son of the late University of Georgia football legend Vince Dooley — and is expected to have the full-fledged support of Kemp, who is steering his donors and his political machine toward his longtime friend.
His opening ad, titled “Georgia First” in an echo of Trump’s campaign mantra, signals that Dooley has no plans to cede the MAGA lane to his GOP rivals: U.S. Reps. Mike Collins and Buddy Carter. Although he doesn’t mention them, he contrasts his background with others who spent time “climbing the D.C. political ladder.”
Dooley’s long-expected entrance came after Kemp intervened in the race last month, privately telling Collins and Carter — along with Insurance Commissioner John King — he would endorse Dooley.
King exited the race within hours, but Collins and Carter doubled down, turning what had been a wait-and-see contest into an unpredictable three-way primary.
And winning the primary would be only the start of one of the nation’s marquee Senate battles. Ossoff has already banked more than $15.4 million and is holding rallies across the state casting his GOP challengers as reckless Trump loyalists.
Credit: Sarah Peacock
Credit: Sarah Peacock
Dooley is building a political operation anchored by two of Kemp’s top strategists: Cody Hall, the governor’s longtime political adviser, and Chelsey Ruppersburg, a key Kemp fundraiser. Behind the scenes, Dooley has met with major GOP donors, state officials and Trump advisers to make his case.
But his candidacy throws the GOP’s lingering fault lines into sharper relief. Collins and Carter are chasing Trump’s MAGA base with fiery rhetoric and pledges of unshakable loyalty to the president. Dooley is also pitching himself as a Trump backer, but he may also follow Kemp’s playbook by pitching a broader brand of conservatism staked on his appeal as a political outsider.
That blank slate is a gamble.
Political flexibility and name recognition have propelled outsider campaigns before — including David Perdue’s Senate win in 2014. But Dooley must persuade Kemp loyalists, Trump diehards and swing voters that he’s their best shot to flip the seat in a state the president carried narrowly in 2024 after losing it four years earlier.
It’s a balancing act that has bedeviled Georgia Republicans throughout the Trump era. Internal GOP clashes helped Democrats capture both of the state’s Senate seats in 2020 and 2022. Kemp had hoped months of behind-the-scenes maneuvering aimed at uniting him and Trump behind a consensus pick would avoid another drawn-out intraparty fight.
Credit: AJC, courtesy photo
Credit: AJC, courtesy photo
Yet Dooley’s entry hasn’t cleared the field or calmed party unrest. Carter has pledged to spend more than $10 million on his bid. Collins has already unveiled a slate of endorsements that includes key Kemp allies.
The Collins camp wasted no time attacking their new rival early Monday. A video posted on a pro-Collins social media account said Dooley “just stayed in the locker room” when Trump needed support, including in the aftermath of the 2024 assassination attempt.
“He’s no fighter,” it concluded.
Some activists question why Kemp didn’t rally behind a more seasoned candidate. Others wonder whether a political novice can withstand a bruising primary shaped by hard-line Trump loyalty.
Dooley has tried to quell those concerns for months by quietly introducing himself to activists, donors and elected officials. Now he’s shifting to a broader audience, aiming to energize voters with a message about stepping off the sidelines and into the political fray.
An attorney, Dooley worked for an elite Atlanta law firm before following his father into coaching. He rose through the ranks to become head coach at the University of Tennessee in 2010, compiling a 15-21 record over three seasons.
Dooley also held coaching roles in the NFL. Most recently, he worked as an offensive analyst for the Crimson Tide during the 2024 season.
Now, he said, he was compelled to take the plunge over frustration with Democrats, casting Ossoff as an enabler of former President Joe Biden’s “woke” policies.
Though Dooley has largely avoided politics until this year, including failing to vote in several recent elections, his family has long been part of the political conversation.
His father flirted with bids for governor and Senate in the 1980s and 1990s and was an early Trump supporter in 2016. His mother, Barbara Dooley, waged an unsuccessful GOP run for Congress in 2002 highlighting her family’s football roots.
Derek Dooley said his bid will be based partly on his coaching background, too, which he said was a natural fit for politics.
“You work hard, you play by the rules, you keep fighting when adversity hits, you have a fair shot at achieving your dreams,” Dooley said. “As a coach, I wanted that for all my players. As your next U.S. senator, I want that for all Georgians. And all Americans.”
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