(NEW YORK) — Derek Dooley, a former University of Tennessee football coach, is launching a bid Monday for the Senate in Georgia, entering a shifting political landscape as candidates vie for coveted endorsements and the chance to unseat Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff.
Dooley is leaning on his football background in his campaign launch, highlighting the fact that he is a political outsider and likening his views on sports to the world of politics.
“The foundation of football is the American Spirit. You work hard, you play by the rules, you keep fighting when adversity hits — you have a fair shot at achieving your dreams,” Dooley’s campaign says in his release.
“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.”
His campaign is betting on his newcomer status to appeal to voters, launching a “Georgia First” campaign aiming to make the case to voters that politicians put themselves first rather than their constituents.
Dooley is the son of legendary University of Georgia football coach Vince Dooley and has close personal ties to Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp. Kemp spent time with Dooley’s family growing up and roomed with Derek Dooley’s brother in college.
Vince Dooley, who passed away in 2022, endorsed Trump for president in 2016, appearing with him on stage at a rally in Atlanta.
“You’re the one who’s going to make America great again,” Dooley said, according to the University of Georgia’s student newspaper, the Red & Black.
Republicans are trying to avoid the outcome of their 2022 cycle in the state, when Herschel Walker, another football legend, lost to Sen. Raphael Warnock in a bruising campaign plagued with abortion allegations and questions on his readiness to serve in the Senate.
It led to the Peach State splitting the ticket between the Senate and gubernatorial races, where key candidate disparities appeared between Kemp and Walker. Republicans are now hoping to take back one of the two Democratic-held seats.
However, rather than a clear nominee, the field in the Georgia Republican primary continues to grow after several Republicans launched or mulled bids following Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp’s announcement that he will not run for the seat.
Dooley will, thus far, face off against Republican Reps. Mike Collins and Buddy Carter. Both congressmen have used their strong support of President Donald Trump and his agenda to boost their campaigns, as looming large over the candidates are the sought-after endorsements from Trump and Kemp.
Unlike the other candidates’ launches, Dooley doesn’t center his messages around his support for Trump as heavily as the others did.
Carter proclaimed himself as a “MAGA warrior” and Collins touted his close work with the president on passing the Laken Riley Act. Dooley, on the other hand, offers more of a biographical summary in his announcement, briefly praising Trump for producing results and saying at the end of his video that he’ll work with the president.
The battle for the primary comes as Kemp, who was seen as one of the strongest Republican candidates for the midterm cycle, officially decided not to run for the Senate in May, saying it wasn’t the “right decision” for him.
Since then, he has sought to work with the Trump administration to coalesce the field around a candidate in hopes of avoiding yet another midterm loss.
Trump met with Kemp earlier this summer to discuss the state’s Senate primary. The White House and Kemp have aimed to avoid a messy primary and have engaged with each other on the best approaches.
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