In a new op-ed for the AJC, Democratic Party of Georgia Chair Charlie Bailey slammed GOP U.S. Senate candidates “MAGA warrior” Buddy Carter, MAGA extremist Mike Collins, and failed, fired, loser former Tennessee football coach Derek Dooley as they compete for Donald Trump’s endorsement and bend the knee to his harmful agenda.
Carter, Collins, and Dooley have backed Trump’s failing agenda every step of the way even as Georgians suffer from higher costs on things like groceries and see their health insurance premiums skyrocket.
AJC: Republicans want Georgians not to believe their eyes. Voters aren’t fooled.
By: DPG Chair Charlie Bailey | April 22, 2026
KEY EXCERPTS:
- As we near the May 19 statewide primary election, let me put a translator on every stump speech, all-caps tweet and slick ad that voters are hearing from Georgia Republican candidates:
- “Don’t believe your lying eyes.”
- This is the message that Republican elected officials and candidates are betting on in 2026 as they continue to pledge their unwavering loyalty to President Donald Trump.
- In February, Georgia Republicans running for office stood by Trump’s side in Rome as he proclaimed that he’d “solved” the affordability crisis and that he’d taken the economy and “made it great.”
- Republican candidates’ complete loyalty to Donald Trump has forced them to stand by these lies.
- Between February and December 2025, Georgians paid $7.1 billion extra in tariffs – the third highest after California and Texas.
- Nearly a quarter of a million Georgians have lost health insurance after Republicans refused to extend Affordable Care Act tax credits, and many more are being crushed by rising premiums.
- Tariffs are straining small businesses and farmers and Georgia saw record layoff announcements in January, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas’s Challenger Report.
- It’s clear that Georgia Republican candidates will take this baggage to the ballot box.
- A recent Civiqs poll found that a majority of Georgians do not like Trump, and when it comes to two of the biggest culprits in his affordability crisis – skyrocketing health care costs and economy-crushing tariffs – Georgia Republicans on the ballot are with him every step of the way.
- Consider the three-way U.S. Senate Republican primary race.
- “MAGA warrior” U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter and hard-core MAGA supporter U.S. Rep. Mike Collins voted repeatedly at Trump’s direction against extending tax credits that made insurance affordable, and Derek Dooley – the worst football coach in a century of Tennessee history (utsports.com) – sided with them.
- All three have repeatedly praised the destructive tariffs, even as they cost average households about $1,000 last year.
- And this was all before Trump sent the U.S. into a war of choice without a plan and without regard for the brave service members whose lives he is risking.
- So, Georgia Republicans running for office can empty their pockets on expensive TV ads all they want, but they can’t spin away Georgians’ everyday experiences of trying to keep up with bills that keep climbing, cutting prescriptions in half to save money, or agonizing over whether to drop their health insurance as premiums double or triple.
- Georgia Republicans running for office are spinning a tall tale that everything’s peachy. Georgians aren’t buying it, and Republican candidates will learn that the hard way at the ballot box in November.