Former University of Tennessee football coach Derek Dooley is tossing his hat into the political arena, announcing a bid for the U.S. Senate in Georgia for the 2026 elections to challenge incumbent Democrat Jon Ossoff, as reported by FOX 5 Atlanta. Dooley, who played wide receiver at the University of Virginia before climbing up the college coaching ladder and briefly practicing law, is backed by Georgia's Gov. Brian Kemp and will be running as a Republican.
In his campaign launch video, Dooley criticized what he referred to as "lawlessness, open season on the border, inflation everywhere, woke stuff," directly attacking the track record of Ossoff and other Democrats in what appears to be an appeal to conservative voters, according to FOX 5 Atlanta; his entrance into the race follows a sequence of GOP candidates including U.S. Reps. Buddy Carter and Mike Collins as well as activist Reagan Box, who have also thrown their names in the hat with the goal of flipping the Senate seat in the upcoming midterms.
While Dooley has not previously held electoral office, he has positioned himself as an outsider, which is a strategy that proved successful for David Perdue in Georgia's 2014 Senate race, this bid for office will be his first attempt at political leadership and he claims to be offering "good, old-fashioned Georgia common sense," pledging to work with leaders including former President Trump and vowing to always put Georgia first, as per the campaign's narrative Atlanta News First highlighted that Dooley's alignment with Kemp might give him an edge, given that the governor's political machinery has been instrumental in state politics.
Kemp's support is significant especially considering his history of supporting political novices like when he appointed Kelly Loeffler to the U.S. Senate although she was eventually defeated by Democrat Raphael Warnock; however, Dooley will still need to navigate a complicated GOP field where even Kemp-affiliated folks like Rep. Matthew Gambill are endorsing other candidates such U.S. Rep. Mike Collins—highlighting the fractures within the Republican establishment in Georgia, FOX 5 Atlanta reported on these endorsements and the campaign dynamics.
As for Ossoff, he holds the unique distinctions of being the youngest person to serve in the U.S. Senate at the time of his election, the first Jewish senator from Georgia, and only the second Georgia Democrat in the 21st century to win a Senate seat as Atlanta News First notes; his 2017 campaign for the state’s 6th congressional district, although unsuccessful, captured national attention and set fundraising records, demonstrating his capacity to rally the Democratic base, a factor that Dooley will have to reckon with as he steps onto the political field.
