Former football coach Derek Dooley announces Georgia Senate bid for 2026

There is a new one Republican candidate In the 2026 midterm elections, one of the most critical matches in the Senate.

Former long-time football coach Derek Dooley highlighted his outsider qualifications, targeted Georgia Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff and expressed his support Donald Trump When he announced his candidacy on Monday.

“I’m attending because our state needs new leadership, and professional politicians like Jon Ossoff are the problem,” Dooley said in a statement and video when launching the campaign.

“Our country has no voice in the U.S. Senate that “the voice of Georgia’s values is not reflected, because Ossoff is more concerned with protecting his political future, opposes everything the Trump administration is working to achieve, and repeatedly votes with extreme leftists.”

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He promised that if elected to the Senate, “I will work with President Trump to implement his agenda, support his administration, and move our country forward.”

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this Senate Games In Georgia, for Republicans, aiming to expand the current 53-47 Senate majority, as they believe Ossoff is running for reelection on the battlefield, Trump nearly held in last year’s presidential race, the most vulnerable Democrat in next year’s small ball vote.

Dooley, the son of the late legend University of Georgia Football coach Vince Dooley is a college football player who later worked as head coach at Louisiana University of Technology and the University of Tennessee and an assistant coach for the National Football League.

Although this is his first time running for public office Governor Brian Kemp, Georgia’s two-term conservative Republican governor.

Dooley became the third major Republican candidate currently in the Georgia Senate race.

On Monday, former longtime college and professional football coach Derek Dooley announced his campaign for Georgia’s Republican Senate nomination. (Derek Dooley Sports)

Two items Rep. Mike Collins, A businessman set up a trucking company that represents a large number of urban, suburban and rural areas between Atlanta and Augusta, and announced his candidacy a week ago. House Trump ally and supporter Collins expressed support to the president during the campaign.

Rep. Buddy Carter, who represented the coastal areas of Georgia for a decade, launched a Senate campaign in the spring. He also turned to the president’s support.

Dooley seemed to poke a nomination on two of his competitors, saying: “I’m not part of a political institution and I haven’t climbed the DC political ladder in my life.”

He promised himself that “competition puts Georgia first and brings common sense to Georgia DC, knowing that biology men should not play in women’s sports, hard-working people should keep more money and opening our boundaries will make us safer.”

Dooley is a long-time friend of Kemp, and two political advisers of the governor are helping Dooley run for the Senate.

The restricted Kemp was recruited by the National Republicans to take over Ossoff, but earlier this year, he launched his own Senate campaign in 2026, and he made it clear in recent days that he would support Dooley.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp gave an interview with Fox News at a meeting of the Republican Governors Association in Washington, D.C. on February 20, 2025. (Fox News – Paul Steinhauser)

Meanwhile, sources from Trump’s political track and Georgia’s Republican sources confirmed to Fox News that the president’s political action was agreed to a consensus between Kemp’s political team and they will work together to find a candidate who can all be unified in the Senate campaign.

The sources also confirmed that Kemp and Trump, the ultimate king-maker of Republican politics, met last month to discuss the Senate race in Georgia.

Trump team and Republican governor “angry” in key battlefield state Senate nomination competition

But when the governor floated the name of former Tennessee University football coach Derek Dooley, a source close to the president’s political team said: “They were told to stand up because Trump’s team wasn’t ready to move towards anyone.”

Donald Trump shook hands with Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp on Friday, October 4, 2024, visiting Hurricane Helen affected area in Evans, Georgia. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Trump’s advisers were upset when Kemp and his team did advance with Dooley, and according to sources, Kemp was “angry” earlier this year as he ran against Ossoff in a Senate game.

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The highest political profile on Trump’s track recently told Fox News. “Kemp went out alone – which frustrated and angry the Trump track.”

But, sources close to the governor told Fox News that in fact, they were told that it was incorrect to stand on Dooley. The source added that Kemp means he said he wanted to work with the president and his team and keep that in place.