Why Derek Dooley is embracing his football past to run for Senate

Published On: August 17, 2025

Derek Dooley’s political enemies made fun of his football coaching profession even before he ran for the U.S. Senate. They distributed off-kilter gridiron images, rehashed embarrassing pregame interviews, and made fun of his dismal record as Tennessee’s head coach.

But as part of a background focused on empowering young athletes and their families, Dooley’s campaign launch today makes it apparent that he intends to draw on his nearly three-decade coaching career in football-mad Georgia.

He declared, “I haven’t spent my life moving up the D.C. political ladder, and I’m not a part of the political establishment.”I worked with young people from various backgrounds for 30 years, fighting every day to provide them and their families opportunity and hope.

It plays to Dooley’s advantages. His campaign is leveraging his extensive experience to set himself apart from Democratic incumbent Jon Ossoff and his GOP opponents, U.S. Representatives Mike Collins and Buddy Carter, who are already labeling him a failed coach.

However, don’t count on Dooley to base his proposal only on his football experience. In 2022, Herschel Walker used that tactic by dressing in red and black for events and pursuing autograph seekers. His scandal-plagued U.S. Senate campaign was not helped by his fame.

Dooley’s opening remarks for the campaign touch on well-known conservative policy points. He is supporting President Donald Trump’s policies, opposing transgender females participating in women’s sports, supporting tax cuts, and cracking down on illegal immigration.

It is typical GOP rhetoric. The messenger is what’s fresh here. Many issues are raised by Dooley’s candidacy, one of which is whether Gov. Brian Kemp’s backing will be sufficient to propel him to the top.

We already know that Democrats will react in a certain way. Charlie Bailey, the chair of the Democratic Party of Georgia, wasted no time in calling him a failed football coach from Tennessee who, during his career, failed to live up to his family name.

He then shifted his focus to Dooley’s backing of Trump’s tax and spending plan, which cuts Medicaid and other government health care programs.

We’ll see which is more difficult for Dooley: knowing which SEC team to support or responding to a Trump measure that denies health care to 750,000 Georgians.

Things to know

Safa Wahidi/AJC is credited.

Good morning! The deadline for municipal candidates to be eligible for the November election is just eighteen days away.

Three more things to be aware of today are as follows:

First Liberty Building & Loan, accused of running a $140 million Ponzi scheme, operated within the gaps in state law that allow some lenders to operate without scrutiny, the

AJC s Thad Moore reports

.
Janelle King, a member of the State Election Board, has used her platform to criticize the secretary of state s office and, by extension, a likely rival to her husband in the Republican primary, the

AJC s Mark Niesse reports

.
Protesters rallied at the King Center in Atlanta over the weekend to criticize the Trump administration s immigration policies, the

AJC s Safa Wahidi reports

.

School choice

The AJC is credited to Stephen B. Morton.

These days, few words are more politically charged than “school choice,” particularly in light of the Georgia Republicans’ passage of a measure that would have used public funds to pay for private school tuition.

Now, a seasoned Texas political strategist and a former Democratic state senator are attempting to recapture that slogan for the center-left. To promote their brand of school choice, which emphasizes increasing public options like charter schools rather than supporting private ones, Alisha Thomas Searcy and Garry Jones are forming two related groups today.

Searcy, a former Cobb County senator who resigned earlier this year as regional president of Democrats for Education Reform due to what she claimed was the organization’s support for private school vouchers, is making a comeback to activism.

According to Searcy, the Center for Strong Public Schools and its linked action fund will concentrate on reforming school finance methods and enacting laws pertaining to charter schools.

I grew up with the option to attend a public school, and those educational opportunities genuinely altered the course of my life, Searcy said.

They will also concentrate on the politics needed to implement those policies. According to Searcy, the group plans to invest heavily in the 2026 election cycle, which will include the school superintendent and governor primary.

Regarding their funding sources, Searcy stated that in addition to their personal fundraising connections, she and Jones also receive assistance from regional and national foundations.

“We will be utilizing those connections appropriately,” she stated.

Esteves makes intros

Miguel Martinez/AJC is credited.

Over the weekend, Democratic state senator Jason Estevesto launched his gubernatorial campaign in coastal Georgia for the first time, making half-dozen stops in Savannah and Hinesville.

According to Adam Van Brimmer of the AJC, he used the occasion to lay forth a promise that his administration would respect business owners just as much as it does big corporations. He specifically mentioned Hyundai, a South Korean carmaker that is getting almost $2.6 billion in state incentives for opening an electric vehicle facility close to Savannah last year.

According to Esteves, providing start-up job creators with low-interest loans and other support would create 30,000 jobs—much more than Hyundai is anticipated to create. Over the next six years, the automaker and its suppliers are expected to add roughly 17,000 jobs.

On the other hand, he spoke little about what he refers to as the instability in Washington and informed supporters that running for governor with the goal of challenging President Donald Trump is a losing strategy.

According to Esteves, people are curious about what you intend to accomplish for them.

Frost fallout

Arvin Temkar/AJC is credited.

More attention is being paid to the son of the founder of First Liberty Building & Loan.

The federal lawsuit that accused his father, Brant Frost IV, of masterminding a $140 million Ponzi scheme did not name Brant Frost V.

However, he was charged last week by the Georgia Ethics Commission with unlawfully influencing elections through a political action organization he controlled.

And after his family’s business failed, the secretary of state’s office subpoenaed him to provide more information about the financial firm he wanted to start.

Last week, Frost V stepped down from his long-standing position as the leader of the Coweta County GOP and resigned from the Georgia GOP state committee.

Frost V has refrained from commenting while his father issued a public apology. The resignations, according to Georgia GOP Chair Josh McKoon, help the party concentrate on the next elections.

McKoon stated, “We do not in any way view his resignations as a sign of guilt in the ongoing legal issues of First Liberty Building and Loan.” We still support customers who have lost money and wish for a prompt and complete return on their investments.

Listen up

Nathan Posner for the AJC is credited.

Republican Kelvin King joins the Politically Georgia podcast today to discuss his reasons for running for secretary of state. Riley Bunch, a reporter for the Atlanta City Hall for the AJC, then responds to queries from listeners with Greg Bluestein.

The show is available for free listening and subscription on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any other podcasting service.

Do you have a remark or question for the show? You might be included on a future episode if you contact us by phone at 770-810-5297 or by email at [email protected].

Gone til September

Mariam Zuhaib/AP is credited.

Despite working on Saturday, U.S. Senate members left without providing President Donald Trump with all of his demands.

Over the weekend, a number of Trump’s candidates were confirmed by Republicans. However, Trump’s discovery that Democrats were negotiating with Republicans to obtain something in return, such undoing some government spending cutbacks inspired by the Department of Government Efficiency effort, contributed to the collapse of a deal to pass a much larger list.

Trump responded with a caustic social media rant that, among other things, said that the Democratic leader, U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer, should burn in hell.

Additionally, the president stated that he would prefer Republicans to return home rather than negotiate with Democrats.

And so they did. Through Labor Day, the Senate and House are in recess.

Trump today

Vice President JD Vance will join President Donald Trump for lunch.

Appropriations update

In its final working week before the summer recess, the U.S. Senate managed to pass three of the 12 appropriations bills for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1.

Both of Georgia’s senators, Democrats Jon Ossoff and Rachel Warnock, voted in support of the bill, which outlined expenditure on military construction and Veterans Affairs, in a bipartisan 87-9 vote. As a key supporter of this legislation, Ossoff contributed $556 million for almost a dozen projects at Georgia military stations.

According to a news release, “I made sure this bill provides Georgia with the most military construction funding in 15 years from my leadership position on the Military Construction Subcommittee.”

Legislative branch and Department of Agriculture funding bills also approved with a resounding majority. Negotiating with the House to complete as many appropriations measures as possible before funding expires on September 30 is the next stage, according to senators.

In order to prevent a government shutdown on October 1, Congress will need to approve interim funds if spending cannot be resolved through this procedure.

Shoutouts

Natrice Miller/AJC is credited.

Happy birthday, a day late:

State Rep. Al Williams, D-Midway (was Saturday).

Do you want the Politically Georgia newsletter to mention your birthday? For that, there is a form.To submit the shoutouts, use this link. It goes beyond birthdays. Announcements of births, engagements, and new employment also pique our curiosity.

Before you go

Rod Lamkey Jr./AP is credited.

The first Republican congresswoman to openly refer to Israel’s military activities in Gaza as a genocide is U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene. In this video, Greg Bluestein breaks everything down.

That will suffice for our needs today. Your greatest rumors, insider information, and gossip can be sent to [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], and [email protected] as usual.