Derek Dooley, a former NFL and NCAA football coach with Gov. Brian Kemp‘s (R-GA) backing, launched his Georgia Senate campaign Monday.
Dooley joins a crowded field of 2026 Republican competitors, including Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA) and Rep. Buddy Carter (R-GA). Kemp reportedly urged Dooley to run and is expected to back him. Kemp was widely speculated to run for the seat himself before deciding not to.
“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.”
Dooley was a head coach at the NCAA level from 2007 to 2012 for Louisiana Tech and Tennessee before coaching in the NFL for several years. He came back to college coaching briefly in 2018 for the University of Missouri before his most recent coaching stint with Alabama from 2022 to 2023.
He was mostly unsuccessful as a lead coach, winning 32 games and losing 41 in his career.
Dooley, who was born and raised in Georgia, began his career as a graduate assistant for the Georgia Bulldogs.
His decision to run ruffled feathers in GOP circles. The Washington Examiner reported that Kemp and President Donald Trump’s team had been coordinating to identify a candidate, but Kemp’s team went off the reservation by selecting the politically inexperienced Dooley.
“It’s a dumpster fire, and it’s pretty clear there’s next to zero coordination between Kemp and Trump’s teams,” an Atlanta-based Republican operative said. “Kemp has just gone out on his own.”
Allies of the president mocked Dooley’s lack of experience, questioned his Republican credentials, and accused Kemp of putting personal loyalty above party unity in a must-win race.
“It’s one of the worst-calculated political moves in Senate campaign history,” said one Republican strategist with ties to Georgia and Capitol Hill. “The grassroots doesn’t know him, the donors don’t want him, and the Trumpworld is livid.”
A source close to Kemp told the Washington Examiner that the governor was sincere in his early efforts to coordinate with Trump and Senate GOP leaders on finding a strong candidate to take on Ossoff. He spent more than two months engaged in that process.
The Washington Examiner recently reported that Dooley did not vote in several recent elections and declined to register as a Republican. He also has not donated to Trump’s previous campaigns.
The Georgia Democratic Party issued a sharp rebuke of Dooley in a statement to Politico.
INSIDE THE GOP BLOWUP OVER BRIAN KEMP’S GEORGIA SENATE PICK
“This chaotic, crowded Republican primary just got messier with the entrance of failed and fired former Tennessee football coach Derek Dooley, who has failed to live up to his family name throughout his career,” Georgia Democratic Party Chair Charlie Bailey said in a statement.
Georgia’s 2026 Senate race is expected to be one of the most closely contested in the cycle. It will be Sen. Jon Ossoff’s (D-GA) first defense of his seat since he won a runoff election against former Republican Sen. David Perdue in 2021. Republicans have been fighting to regain one of the state’s two Senate seats since.
