Politico: “…the May 19 primary will very likely extend into an expensive, bruising mid-June runoff.”
Just weeks away from Georgia’s May 19th primary election, new reporting from Politico illustrates just how much of a “mess” the state’s GOP U.S. Senate primary has become as “MAGA warrior” Buddy Carter, MAGA extremist Mike Collins, and failed and fired loser Tennessee football coach Derek Dooley compete for the nomination.
Carter, Collins, and Dooley have turned the primary into an all out slugfest, launching personal attacks against each other, invoking belittling nicknames, and lighting millions of dollars on fire while backing Trump’s harmful MAGA agenda while Georgians suffer.
To make things even messier, just last week, NOTUS reported how Republicans are “miffed” that Gov. Brian Kemp endorsed and continues to support Derek Dooley — calling it “a strategic mistake” that came much to their “befuddlement”.
Politico: Georgia’s GOP Senate primary is a mess. Republicans are blaming each other.
By: Alec Hernandez and Erin Doherty | April 2, 2026
KEY EXCERPTS:
- Republicans once saw Georgia as the crown jewel of their Senate pickup opportunities.
- They’re now blaming each other as the GOP primary unravels into an intraparty brawl that could cost them their chance of defeating Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff.
- The party is grappling with a crowded field, no dominant front-runner, no endorsement from President Donald Trump — and the reality that the May 19 primary will very likely extend into an expensive, bruising mid-June runoff.
- Rep. Mike Collins (R-Ga.), a close Trump ally, leads in public polling, with fellow Rep. Buddy Carter (R-Ga.) and Gov. Brian Kemp-endorsed former football coach Derek Dooley battling for second.
- But a large share of voters remain undecided, underscoring how fluid the race is.
- Meanwhile, incumbent Ossoff — who faces no primary challenge of his own — is keeping his powder dry and has amassed a formidable eight-figure campaign war chest ready to deploy in the general election.
- Republicans point to several unforced errors that got the party to this point.
- Some say their current challenges were set in motion last year, when they failed to convince the state’s popular outgoing GOP governor, Kemp, to run for Ossoff’s seat.
- Others point to a lackluster effort by the National Republican Senatorial Committee to recruit a stronger crop of candidates or unify the field.
- “It’s not ideal that it looks like it’s going to runoff,” said Cole Muzio, president of the conservative Frontline Policy Council.
- The early finger-pointing that has emerged in conversations with a dozen GOP strategists and officials in Georgia reflects their deep frustration with the state of their primary — and their chances of holding onto the Senate majority.
- The party is fending off competitive Democratic candidates in several red states as voters sour on Trump’s agenda […]
- “It’s a mess that could have been much less messy if they had figured this out six months ago,” said a second Georgia-based Republican strategist unaffiliated with any campaign.
- “Everybody’s resigned to this going to May and then a June runoff and then pick up the pieces after that.”
- “Republicans created this problem. We created this problem and it’s not any one person,” the second GOP strategist said.