Kemp backs Dooley as Trump boosts Collins in Georgia runoff

Derek Dooley and Rep. Mike Collins went to a Republican runoff on June 16 to decide who will challenge Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff in November. The race quickly became more than a Senate contest, turning into a direct measure of Brian Kemp’s influence against Donald Trump’s hold on Georgia Republicans. With Kemp backing Dooley and Trump endorsing Collins, the runoff put two power centers of the party on opposite sides of the same ballot.

Dooley entered the Senate race on August 4, 2025, with no prior elected-office experience and leaned heavily on a biography built around football and family name recognition. He is a former University of Tennessee football coach and the son of Vince Dooley, the late University of Georgia coaching legend. Kemp, who is term-limited and leaving office at the end of 2026, urged voters to “send Derek Dooley” to the Senate, signaling that party elites were betting his outsider profile could travel better in a statewide general election than a more purely partisan profile.

Trump’s endorsement of Collins on June 14 sharpened the intraparty split and gave the runoff a national profile. Georgia Republicans have cast the race as a test of whether the former president’s endorsement power still outweighs Kemp’s establishment machinery in a battleground state where statewide victories often hinge on moderation, turnout and crossover appeal. The winner will face Ossoff in November, a contest Republicans view as one of their best opportunities to flip a Senate seat that could affect control of the chamber.

The runoff unfolded alongside the party’s gubernatorial selection, underscoring that Georgia Republicans were not simply choosing between two Senate candidates but sorting out the direction of the party itself. More than 128,000 early votes had already been cast by the week of June 9, a sign of intense engagement for a runoff election. Georgia’s secretary of state’s office said the state had 7,359,388 active voters, a reminder of the scale of the electorate that will ultimately decide whether Kemp’s model or Trump’s endorsement carries more weight in Georgia.