The Republican battle to challenge Senator Jon Ossoff of Georgia grew more crowded and contentious on Monday as Derek Dooley, a former football coach closely tied to Georgia’s popular governor, jumped into the Republican Senate primary.
Mr. Dooley, the son of former University of Georgia coach Vince Dooley who was himself a head coach at the University of Tennessee for a time, is family friends with Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia. Mr. Kemp would have been Mr. Ossoff’s most formidable Republican opponent in a marquee Senate race next year but passed on a run against the incumbent Democrat, in a blow to state and national Republicans. Mr. Dooley has hired a number of top Kemp advisers and is expected to have the governor’s public support.
With Mr. Dooley’s entry into the primary — where Representatives Mike Collins and Buddy Carter are already running — the contours of one of the most consequential races on the 2026 Senate map are coming into clearer focus, even if the answer to who could defeat Mr. Ossoff is far from certain.
Mr. Ossoff, who is seeking re-election in a state President Trump won in 2024 by roughly 2 percentage points, is widely seen as vulnerable. But he has proved to be a strong fund-raiser and could benefit from furious backlash to Mr. Trump.
In his launch video, Mr. Dooley repeatedly highlighted his support for Mr. Trump and his agenda, embracing the language of “Georgia First” in an echo of Mr. Trump’s “America First” slogan. But he also sought to define himself as a political outsider in the race.
“I spent three decades in coaching probably doing the exact opposite of what a lot of D.C. politicians are doing,” he said. “We need an old-fashioned Georgia common sense.”
In tone and emphasis, some of the contrasts with his opponents are already evident.
Mr. Collins, who jumped into the primary race last week, frequently invoked Mr. Trump in word or image in his own announcement video. He used coarser language than Mr. Dooley did, declaring, “we killed woke D.E.I. garbage,” an apparent reference to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives that Mr. Trump has worked to eliminate across the government and in the private sector. Mr. Dooley attacked Mr. Ossoff by saying he stood for “woke stuff.”
Mr. Carter, who has fashioned himself a “MAGA warrior,” was the first prominent Republican to enter the race after Mr. Kemp took himself out of contention in May.
Mr. Kemp, for his part, has quietly tried to clear a path for Mr. Dooley, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported last month.
The governor and the president have a complex relationship. Mr. Trump tried and failed to defeat Mr. Kemp in the governor’s 2022 primary, furious over Mr. Kemp’s refusal to help overturn his 2020 election defeat. Mr. Trump also attacked Mr. Kemp in 2024 while campaigning in Georgia and drew a rebuke from the governor, though they eventually appeared together.
How the governor, the president and the candidates navigate or try to exploit that complicated history as the candidates also scramble to claim the Trump mantle could be one of the most significant tensions of the race.
Katie Glueck is a Times national political reporter.
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