The 2026 Senate race was drastically altered by Dooley’s Monday launch, which was fueled by Kemp’s machine and brought into doubt the governor’s political instincts. Although his support for Dooley is already well known, he is anticipated to do so soon.
Kemp has previously used his influence to make a hazardous choice: in 2019, he chose Loeffler despite concerns from President Donald Trump. Following a fierce special election contest that caused division within the GOP, she lost in a 2021 runoff.
Photo credit: Courtesy
Photo credit: Courtesy
Kemp is now throwing caution to the wind once more, demonstrating his extensive network of donors, asking them to cut off his competitors, and indicating that he will use all of his political influence to see Dooley through to the end.
However, the risk is already attracting doubt. The president has yet to support Kemp despite his vigorous efforts to promote a unity GOP candidate, which included at least two face-to-face meetings with Trump.
Additionally, others wonder why Kemp is ignoring two U.S. Representatives who are already in the contest.Mike Collins and Buddy Carter for an unknown political newbie.
Kemp has pushed his remaining political capital to the middle of the table with this wager, if they were poker chips. According to seasoned Republican adviser Brian Robinson, Sen. Ossoff is currently the only candidate with a 50% chance of winning.
You appear to be an early Apple stock investor if you win. He made reference to the failing Newnan-based company with GOP ties when he added, “If it fails, you look like a late investor in First Liberty.”
Challengers are welcome
Everything is predicated on a political unknown with a well-known last name. Although Dooley is the son of legendary UGA coach Vince Dooley, he has no political history, no prior public office experience, and is not well-known to most voters.
Longtime Rabun County GOP leader Ed Henderson stated, “As much as I personally like Brian Kemp, I’m going to take a pass on Derek Dooley until I at least meet him and have a chance to talk to him.”
Steve Schaefer/AJC is credited.
Steve Schaefer/AJC is credited.
In contrast to the previous Senate contest, in which football legend Herschel Walker easily defeated rivals to secure the GOP nomination, this one is looking to be a broad and unpredictable contest that may cause a new schism among Georgia Republicans.
The subsequent collapse of Walker’s scandal-plagued campaign in a matchup against Democratic U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock has left the GOP with a lasting scar from that 2022 contest.
However, Republicans are even more concerned about a rerun of 2019, when the governor’s choice of Loeffler stoked a rivalry with Trump that has dominated Georgia GOP politics for a large portion of this decade and aided Ossoff and Warnock in flipping GOP seats.
Despite the president and governor’s tense ceasefire, top Republicans are bracing for the prospect of another Trump-Kemp proxy battle to break out over this Senate seat.
Sarah Peacock is credited.
Sarah Peacock is credited.
Collins’s popularity in the MAGA areas of the party gives him an early advantage, according to some seasoned political analysts, such as conservative columnist Martha Zoller. However, they do not exclude Dooley.
Many Georgia citizens are baffled and wondering why Governor Kemp chose this course of action because they don’t know Dooley, she said. But now we have a race.
Ossoff, a strong campaigner and a major Republican target, is already preparing for a brutal 2026 contest.
He emphasized that all challenges are welcome.
Put forth our best
The build-up to Dooley’s announcement, if anything, demonstrated how explosive this contest is expected to be.
Kemps was able to persuade Insurance Commissioner John King to withdraw from the contest, but his power over the field is limited.
Carter’s campaign bragged that politicians don’t choose our senators when he announced he was staying in office. Meanwhile, a number of important Kemp allies endorsed Collins when he first started his campaign.
With his launch, Dooley attempted to convey a message of his own: Despite being a fresh political figure, he will not be taken lightly. His football-themed advertisement contrasted himself with other politicians moving up the D.C. political ladder, drawing on his decades of coaching experience as a source of opportunity and hope for neighborhoods.
One of the many indications of the governor’s extremely active approach, which deviates from Georgia political tradition, was the outsider appeal, which was reminiscent of the strategy that helped Kemp win the governor’s office in 2018.
Then-Governor Nathan Deal refrained from supporting a candidate in the final open GOP Senate election in 2014, which David Perdue eventually won. According to Charles Bullock, a political scientist at the University of Georgia, it has long been the case.
Politicians in Georgia have a history of staying out of other people’s races. Bullock stated that they don’t want to take the chance of losing their money. Although Kemp’s popularity in Georgia is skyrocketing, it’s never easy to transfer that to another candidate.
Alyssa Pointer/AJC is credited.
Alyssa Pointer/AJC is credited.
However, Kemp and his supporters are aware that there is a lot more at stake than there was in 2014, when the Republican primary was the main event and Georgia was still a GOP stronghold. Furthermore, a polarizing Republican campaign can cause long-term harm.
According to Nathan Price, a political scientist at the University of North Georgia, a contentious primary might deprive all of these candidates of vital funds that they will require for a costly general election. If the party is unable to successfully unite behind a single candidate, a contentious primary also has the potential to lower turnout.
Ossoff is one of the most formidable Senate incumbents facing a competitive campaign in 2026, and Democrats won’t be taken by surprise. He enters the contest with sky-high name recognition, more than $15 million in the bank anda proven record of winning over the suburban swing voterswho could decide the 2026 contest.
Dooley now has the task of demonstrating why Republicans would be best served by a lawyer-turned-coach who avoided politics for the majority of his career.
Even though Republicans currently hold both chambers of Congress and the White House, Dooley says the answer comes down to his dissatisfaction with Democratic leadership earlier this decade.
In his pitch to voters, he blames Ossoff s support for then-President Joe Biden s policies on high inflation, foreign policy blunders, illegal immigration and the woke stuff of cultural debates.
Even though the messenger is fresh, the message is familiar. Dooley’s background and name recognition may offer him a genuine chance to get traction, according to strategist Courtney Kramer, who has strong connections to the GOP grassroots. However, the jury is still out, she warned.
“This race isn’t a time for us to play name-recognition experimental games; instead, we need to give it our all,” she remarked. Dooley may or may not bring that up at this time. However, that can alter.
