“Several Georgia operatives pointed out that the Dooley name hasn’t been a silver bullet in other elections”

New reporting from Cook Political Report outlined how subpar former football coach Derek Dooley’s potential entry into Georgia’s GOP primary for U.S. Senate reveals weaknesses in the current GOP field of candidates and highlights the issues Republicans could run into when trying “to take on the talented, cash-flush Ossoff.”

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Cook Political Report: Dooley May Volunteer For Georgia Senate, But Will He Score With Republicans?

• Republicans are still looking for a leading candidate to take on Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff — and they may be attempting a Hail Mary.
  
• […] the ongoing search for a challenger has puzzled and frustrated many Georgia Republicans, underscoring that the first-term senator won’t be easy to topple.
  
• While Rep. Buddy Carter and state Insurance Commissioner John King are already in the race — with Rep. Mike Collins still mulling a bid — the volatility of the current field was highlighted when some Republicans close to Kemp began floating a surprising new name: former football coach Derek Dooley.
  
• The Dooley trial balloon appears to stem from Kemp’s desire to find a consensus candidate he can anoint in the field he declined to enter […]
  
• It also underscores the governor’s dissatisfaction with the current GOP contenders and their ability to defeat Ossoff next year.
  
• The Dooley name is revered among the University of Georgia faithful […] But the younger Dooley is perhaps most infamously known as the onetime head coach of UGA’s Southeastern Conference rival Tennessee, who had a disastrous three-year tenure in Knoxville, amassing an abysmal 15-21 record, from 2010 until he was fired in 2012.
  
• Kemp’s apparent assessment of Dooley’s viability is hardly universally shared among unaligned Republicans in the state, though.
  
• “Before [Dooley] even gets started he has a lot of things working against him, the least of which is that he’s coached at four teams in the SEC and Georgia isn’t one of them,” said one perplexed veteran Georgia Republican strategist.
  
• And after Republicans lost the Senate race in 2022 with another venerated Georgia football star — Herschel Walker […] trying to bring another gridiron name into the mix is also causing some Republicans to have PTSD.
  
• […] few Georgia GOP operatives we talked to seem willing to gamble on a trick play to take on the talented, cash-flush Ossoff.
  
• Several Georgia operatives pointed out that the Dooley name hasn’t been a silver bullet in other elections, however.
  
• “They’ve never had a lot of success in parlaying the name into elective office,” said one veteran Georgia GOP strategist.
  
• Another longtime Georgia Republican operative said of Derek Dooley, “You can’t just have a famous last name and think that you’re going to get elected a U.S. senator, especially when you have other people in the race that have credentials.”
  
• [Trump and Kemp] could split the field with different candidates claiming the mantle of the two most popular politicians in Georgia among Republicans.
  
• “I’ve never believed that Kemp and Trump can endorse someone and they’re going to be anointed the guy, especially with others in the race,” said one of the Peach State GOP strategists.
  
• Carter, who has represented the Savannah area since 2015, was the first in the race […] However, the Georgia coast is often a difficult place from which to run statewide, and some Republicans believe Carter lacks the crossover appeal to compete with Ossoff.
  
• King was nominated by Kemp to be the state insurance commissioner in 2019 and subsequently won a full term in 2022 [..] which makes it even more surprising that Kemp appears to have passed over his own appointee in favor of Dooley.
  
• In a video last week, the congressman, who represents Athens, said he’s still weighing a bid but certainly sounded like a candidate for higher office.
  
• Collins quickly made headlines for his colorful — but often controversial — social media posts […] While that has made Collins beloved with the MAGA base, it may not play as well in a general election and could alienate the business-friendly donor base Kemp has cultivated.