Bloomberg: “Greene (R-Ga.) […] said in an interview that the Republican contenders hoping to challenge Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) are ‘lackluster’ and do nothing to move the party forward.”

In an interview with Bloomberg Government, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene didn’t pull any punches when describing the “lackluster” group of GOP U.S. Senate candidates in Georgia — “MAGA warrior” Rep. Buddy Carter, MAGA extremist Rep. Mike Collins, and failed and fired former football coach Derek Dooley — and predicting that the “subpar” group of “good old boy Republicans” will keep the Senate seat out of grasp for the GOP next November.

Greene’s rejection of the current crop of GOP U.S. Senate candidates come as recent fundraising reports preview a long, messy primary that will leave the eventual nominee badly bruised and battered for a general election campaign. 

Read for yourself:

Bloomberg: Greene Says ‘Lackluster’ Georgia GOP Field Handing Democrats Win
By Mica Soellner 10/10/25

KEY POINTS:

• Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is escalating the attacks on her own party, this time predicting a subpar GOP primary field will gift one of 2026’s most important seats to Democrats.
  
• Greene (R-Ga.), who opted out of a Senate run after being pressured to back down from the White House, said in an interview that the Republican contenders hoping to challenge Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) are “lackluster” and do nothing to move the party forward. 
  
• The leading hopefuls are Reps. Buddy Carter and Mike Collins, and Derek Dooley, a former University of Tennessee football coach who is backed by Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R).
  
• “It’s basically a bunch of the same good old boy Republicans, and they’re not bringing anything new and forward thinking,” Greene said. 
  
• “I work with two of them, and the other one is just a football coach, and I’m like, ‘hey everybody, remember the last several times you guys tried to win on that? I don’t think our elections are won ‘Between the Hedges’ in Athens, Ga.,” a reference to where failed Senate candidate Herschel Walker played football for the University of Georgia.

• [Greene added] “every poll I’ve seen, literally every single one except the fake polls Mike Collins’ consultant puts out, has Ossoff winning.” 
  
• All three campaigns declined to comment about the race.
  
• The primary fight is also playing out against the backdrop of a long-simmering Republican feud — President Donald Trump and Kemp.
  
• Trump has yet to endorse in the race, despite quickly backing Lt. Gov. Burt Jones for the gubernatorial race next year. 
  
• The White House and the National Republican Senatorial Committee were monitoring candidates’ fundraising numbers, which came out close to a dead heat. Collins and Dooley both raised nearly $2 million in the third quarter, while Carter, who can also self-fund, raised about $1 million.
  
• Kemp’s political operation has been aggressively pushing Dooley as the best option […]
  
• However, some Georgia Republicans were skeptical about Dooley being able to fully secure Trump’s backing after Kemp went ahead of the president to push in his candidate.
  
• “The way it was done makes it less likely that the president would endorse Dooley,” Rep. Austin Scott (R-Ga.), a close friend of Kemp’s, said. Without a Trump meeting, Carter and Collins have also sought to use their legislative perch in the House to win the president’s approval […]
  
• Meanwhile, Ossoff has benefitted from the lack of a clear Republican rival and is well-positioned to hold onto his seat — largely considered one of the best pickup opportunities for the GOP. 
  
• Ossoff raised $12 million in the third quarter and has been able to tailor his message broadly around Trump to help fuel the Democratic base.