Washington Examiner: “For many in Georgia politics, the primary has become a proxy fight over the GOP’s future.”
New reporting from the Washington Examiner highlights how the already messy GOP Senate primary in Georgia is becoming even more “combustible” after it has “splintered” into “a proxy fight over the GOP’s future.”
This reporting comes as “MAGA warrior” Rep. Buddy Carter, MAGA extremist Rep. Mike Collins, and failed and fired former Tennessee football coach Derek Dooley drag the primary in an even more chaotic direction as they make it a priority to take shots at one another on the campaign trail.
Read for yourself:
Washington Examiner: Georgia Republicans navigate three primaries at once in high-stakes Senate race
By Samantha-Jo Roth 8/26/25
KEY POINTS:
- The battle for Georgia’s Senate seat has quickly emerged as one of the most consequential Republican primaries of 2026, a contest that party insiders say has splintered into three overlapping fights — the donor primary, the White House primary, and the voter primary […]
- At his first real stump speech, delivered in Peachtree City as the opening act before Vice President JD Vance’s visit last week, Dooley leaned heavily on football and Trump analogies.
- Still, Dooley has to demonstrate he can sharpen his political presence, particularly in a field where the other two candidates are sitting members of Congress who already enjoy built-in platforms and exposure on Fox News and conservative media.
- The candidates are generating sharply contrasting reactions.
- When Vance introduced the three Senate contenders by name, the crowd remained silent for Dooley, offered polite applause for Carter, and roared for Collins, with supporters waving signs emblazoned with his name throughout the warehouse-style venue.
- On a visit to rural South Georgia, where farming and agribusiness drive the local economy, [Dooley] was asked about the H-2A visa program, which allows farms to bring in seasonal foreign labor.
- Dooley admitted he wasn’t familiar with it, a moment that quickly circulated among GOP operatives.
- On The Georgia Gang, FOX 5 Atlanta’s weekly public affairs program, Phil Kent, CEO of JAMES Magazine, called it “stunning,” noting that agriculture is Georgia’s top industry and saying the exchange raised questions about whether Dooley was prepared for a statewide campaign.
- Still, strategists say [Carter] faces structural hurdles, especially since he has roots in the historic port city of Savannah rather than in the population center of Atlanta.
- Georgia’s donor fight reflects the deep split inside the state’s GOP.
- “That seems to be the last remaining question from folks in D.C., in the White House, at the NRSC — can he raise the money? […]” said one Georgia Republican on Rep. Mike Collins.
- For many in Georgia politics, the primary has become a proxy fight over the GOP’s future.