Derek Dooley, ex-coach, enters Georgia Republican primary to take on Jon Ossoff for Senate seat

Republican Derek Dooley, a former college and professional football coach, is launching a Senate campaign in his home state of Georgia on Monday with the support of his friend, Gov. Brian Kemp.

Mr. Dooley enters a Republican primary that already includes two House members, Reps. Buddy Carter and Mike Collins, pitching himself as a political outsider.

“I spent three decades in coaching, probably doing the exact opposite of what a lot of D.C. politicians were doing,” he said in his announcement video. “I sat in kitchens and living rooms with people from all walks of life. The only thing that mattered was trying to create hope and opportunity for them and that family. That’s leadership.”

While Georgia is generally a conservative state, its two U.S. senators are both Democrats. Mr. Dooley and the other candidates in the GOP primary are fighting for a chance to take on Sen. Jon Ossoff.

Mr. Dooley was raised in the Peach State, played football as a receiver for the University of Virginia and then returned to the state for law school at the University of Georgia.

After graduating, he briefly practiced law in Atlanta before pivoting to a career coaching football.

That career began at the University of Georgia, where his father Vince Dooley had been a coaching legend and the school’s athletic director

The younger Mr. Dooley served as a head coach at Louisiana Tech and the University of Tennessee after also serving as an assistant coach under Nick Saban at Louisiana State University when the team won a 2003 national championship game.  

Mr. Dooley also coached in the NFL with stints as an assistant coaches with the Dallas Cowboys, New York Giants and Miami Dolphins.

Republicans view the Georgia race against Mr. Ossoff and an open contest in Michigan, where Democratic Sen. Gary Peters is retiring, as their best opportunities to expand their current 53-seat Senate majority.

But they know having a bruising primary fight in those states won’t help their general election chances.

President Trump has already intervened to clear the field in Michigan and endorsed former Rep. Mike Rogers, who narrowly lost the 2024 Senate race to Democratic Sen. Elissa Slotkin.

Mr. Trump has not yet made his preference in Georgia known, as all the GOP contenders heap praise on the president.

“I haven’t known a president in my lifetime who’s been able to achieve these kind of results, and that’s what the people want,” Mr. Dooley said.

Mr. Dooley slammed Mr. Ossoff as a professional politician standing in the way of Mr. Trump’s agenda and defying “Georgia common sense.”