With Kemp at his side, Dooley struggles in Georgia’s U.S. Senate race
At the edge of The Battery, inside a packed sports bar better known for dueling pianos than political stump speeches, Gov. Brian Kemp and U.S. Senate hopeful Derek Dooley offered a glimpse of what the next three months of Georgia’s Republican primary could look like.
On a stage draped with the American flag, the two looked almost like running mates. They traded jokes, reinforced each other’s arguments and sent a message that has become central to Dooley’s candidacy: Kemp is all in.
In another cycle in another state, Dooley might be dismissed as a curiosity — a Republican newcomer with middling poll numbers, no personal fortune to bankroll his bid and a voting record so thin that he has frequently acknowledged rarely casting a ballot over the last two decades.
But in a fractured GOP field with no runaway favorite — and no blessing yet from President Donald Trump — Kemp is testing whether his political muscle can transform a novice into a viable nominee against Democratic incumbent Jon Ossoff.
And he’s putting his own brand — and perhaps his legacy — on the line to do it.
“When you look around the country and you look at how Republicans have beaten Democratic incumbent U.S. senators, it has all been political outsiders that have won those races, not career politicians,” Kemp said. “And my No. 1 goal in supporting Derek Dooley is I want to win our seat back.”
So far the experiment is yielding mixed results. Polls show Dooley struggling to break through against two seasoned Republican rivals.
U.S. Rep. Mike Collins of Jackson leads the field in every survey, with roughly a third of likely GOP voters. U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter, who has lent his campaign $3 million, is polling ahead of Dooley for the other spot in an expected runoff. But a sizable bloc of GOP voters has yet to make up their minds, and they remain Dooley’s best hope ahead of the May primary.
“The winner of the polls right now is undecided,” Dooley said in an interview at Trump’s rally in Rome. “We’re like in training camp, and the election season is about to kick off. We’re real confident.”
Kemp’s vaunted fundraising network has helped seed the ground, directing donors and bundlers toward Dooley. But the decisive financial edge many Republicans anticipated hasn’t materialized. And while Kemp’s appeal helps, it has its limits when his name isn’t on the ballot.
“Dooley is definitely getting better on the issues and communicating around the state,” said Martha Zoller, a GOP analyst and ally of the governor. “But he’s definitely not getting traction in the polling.”
The broader political landscape complicates matters. Billionaire Rick Jackson’s gubernatorial campaign is flooding the airwaves, while Lt. Gov. Burt Jones is mounting an aggressive counteroffensive.
“In the media arms race, none of the candidates can dominate in the way that Jackson and Jones will to deploy their resources,” said Jay Morgan, a former Georgia GOP executive director. “That means that a ground game will make a difference.”
Collins, who established his ground operation months ahead of his rivals, argues he’s already there.
“We’ve been seeing the separation. We’ve been seeing how people are coalescing around us,” he told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “The mere fact that we’ve got over 800 county chairs now is a testimony in itself. Just the amount of grassroots support that is out there. We can feel it.”
Kemp’s gamble
This isn’t the first time the governor has taken a high-risk bet in a Senate race. Instead of tapping a more conventional Republican in 2019 to replace retiring Sen. Johnny Isakson, Kemp chose wealthy executive Kelly Loeffler.
What followed was a bruising special election that fractured Republicans, sharpened MAGA-world tensions and ultimately ended in her defeat to Democrat Raphael Warnock — a cautionary tale that still stings inside the GOP.
After Kemp ruled out a run on his own, saying he lacked the “fire in my belly” to compete in 2026, he told allies that “another congressman from a heavily Republican district” would make it easy for Ossoff to define in the “worst possible light.” He saw the former football coach as a battle-tested outsider who couldn’t be easily caricatured as another Washington politico.
Dooley isn’t a self-funder who had flirted with public office before, as Loeffler had. He’s a political novice with a name-brand Georgia pedigree who entered the race by saying he was so detached from politics that he didn’t vote in 2016 or 2020 — and that frustration with the Democratic agenda on President Joe Biden’s watch finally drew him in, leading him to cast ballots in 2022 and 2024.
Football and politics have long overlapped in Georgia. A former Tennessee football coach and son of University of Georgia legend Vince Dooley, Derek Dooley just makes the connection more explicit. On the campaign trail, he grows animated tackling the intricacies of the chaotic college football industry, and he touts what he calls an “outcome-oriented” mindset he believes Congress sorely lacks.
“When I was part of teams that got results, we got rewarded. When I was part of teams that didn’t get results, we got the foot,” he said. “And so I think a lot of outsiders, and certainly a lot of people in the coaching industry, look up at Washington D.C., and they’re scratching their head at why nothing is getting done.”
Dooley’s pitch resonates with some voters who see him as a level-headed leader capable of attracting the swing voters who helped Kemp defeat Democrat Stacey Abrams twice.
“We’ve got to look at the big picture and think about the voters who backed Kemp in the general election,” said Nancy Couch, a longtime grassroots activist backing the former coach. “That’s why Dooley is the most enticing candidate. He can relate to all sorts of voters.”
But his thin political résumé has given rivals an easy opening in a GOP primary where loyalty is currency. It also complicates the electability argument against Ossoff — the only Democratic incumbent up for reelection in a state that Trump carried, yet one Republicans readily acknowledge will be difficult to unseat.
“Carter and Collins have amassed a long voting record as members of the House, and Republican voters know what they would be getting with either of them as senator,” said Nathan Price, a University of North Georgia political scientist.
“A relative political newcomer like Dooley needs to be doing more to give his prospective voters a clearer image of what type of senator he would be if elected.”
Waiting on Trump
The GOP race hasn’t yet devolved into an all-out brawl, but the battle lines have hardened.
The campaigns have skirmished over a pending House Ethics complaint involving Collins and a top adviser, and they’ve sparred over dueling — and some would say contradictory — arguments about who would be Trump’s strongest ally and who would be most electable in November.
Trump notably stayed neutral during his Feb. 19 visit to Georgia despite intense lobbying from all sides. That neutrality was on the minds of many of the Trump loyalists who packed the audience at an event at a Rome steel distribution plant.
Cody Boggs arrived before dawn at the Coosa Steel Corp. carrying hand-carved medallions bearing Trump’s face. He praised Collins but acknowledged he hasn’t been paying close attention to the Senate contest. He’s waiting for a cue from Trump.
“I can tell you it doesn’t matter to me at all who the governor is supporting,” he said.
That sentiment captures the bind for Dooley. Kemp’s endorsement carries weight with segments of the GOP electorate, but it doesn’t automatically transfer loyalty in a race many voters are only starting to watch.
“The public has a hard time focusing on this race. There’s so much in the ether daily,” said University of Georgia political scientist Audrey Haynes. “This race won’t see movement until potential voters start paying attention and the candidates grab their attention.”
Meanwhile, Republicans are increasingly wary of Ossoff’s position. He has more than $25 million in the bank and is drawing energized crowds that have fueled chatter about his national ambitions. On the campaign trail, Kemp has offered a blunt warning: If Republicans don’t unify to defeat Ossoff now, they may not get another opportunity.
U.S. Sen. Tim Scott, chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, issued his own concern in a recent interview with the Washington Examiner.
“It should be a red seat. We have three candidates. We need to get it down to one candidate as soon as possible. And if we are able to do so, we have a chance to be successful there,” he said. “But as long as we have three candidates, it’s gonna be tougher for us.”
About the Author
Greg Bluestein is the Atlanta Journal Constitution's chief political reporter. He is also an author, TV analyst and co-host of the Politically Georgia podcast.
