After months of speculation, former University of Tennessee football coach Derek Dooley entered the Republican primary for US Senate in Georgia on Monday. Dooley is seeking to unseat liberal Democrat incumbent Jon Ossoff.
The 57-year-old Dooley is backed by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp and has been teasing a bid since June. He joins a GOP field that includes U.S. Reps. Buddy Carter and Mike Collins, as well as activist Reagan Box. Collins’ campaign stumbled out of the gate and made national news when it misspelled Georgia in his campaign launch ad.
Governor Kemp encouraged Dooley to run after he decided to forgo a run for the seat himself. Georgia Republicans are anxious to topple Ossoff, who is considered the Senate’s most vulnerable Democrat incumbent seeking reelection in 2026.
“Professional politicians like Jon Ossoff are the problem,” Dooley said in a two-minute launch video “Lawlessness, open season on the border, inflation everywhere, woke stuff, that’s what they represent. We need new leadership in Georgia. That’s why I’m running for Senate.”
When Kemp, who was leading Ossoff in most early polling, declined to run, he met with President Trump and said they would try to agree on a preferred candidate. Anyone anointed by both would immediately be considered the Republican front-runner.
Kemp told Collins and others on July 24 that he would support Dooley, which led Georgia Insurance Commissioner John King to drop out of the race. Meanwhile, Trump isn’t ready to endorse yet and Dooley is moving forward without Trump’s endorsement.
Trump and Kemp have had a somewhat contentious relationship in the past but have warmed to each other in the past year. The failure of Trump and Kemp to agree on an endorsement of Dooley may indicate that there is some remaining friction between the two men.
Dooley is the son of legendary Georgia coach Vince Dooley. Dooley has never held elective office before and says he’ll run as a political outsider, pledging to bring “good, old-fashioned Georgia common sense” to the job and “work with President Trump, fight for you, and always put Georgia first.”
Dooley’s late father was frequently discussed as a possible candidate in Georgia and his mother, Barbara Dooley, lost a Republican primary for Congress in 2002.
The former UT head coach was fired in 2012 after a dismal record of 15-21. Derek Dooley was widely regarded as a failure during his three-year tenure as head coach at Tennessee, compiling a 15-21 record. Since then, he has been an assistant coach with the Dallas Cowboys, the University of Missouri, the New York Giants, and most recently as an analyst for the University of Alabama.
Former Auburn head football coach Tommy Tuberville is currently a US senator from Alabama, but is choosing to run for Governor rather than seek reelection in 2026. Legendary Georgia football star Herschel Walker ran for the Senate in Georgia in 2022 losing handily despite Trump’s support. Trump has announced plans to appoint Walker as the U.S. ambassador to the Bahamas.
Steve Gill is the publisher of TriStar Daily and is a frequent political analyst and commentator nationally and internationally.
