Former college coach Derek Dooley launches bid to unseat Democrat US Sen. Jon Ossoff

ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - Derek Dooley - a longtime friend of Gov. Brian Kemp who has never before run for political office - wants to become the state’s next U.S. senator.

Dooley launched his bid on Monday to unseat Democrat Jon Ossoff, whose seat national GOP leaders are hoping to flip to Republican control in the 2026 midterm elections.

“Professional politicians like Jon Ossoff are the problem,” Dooley said in his ad that was released at the time of his announcement. “Lawlessness, open season on the border, inflation everywhere, woke stuff, that’s what they represent. We need new leadership in Georgia. That’s why I’m running for Senate.”

Dooley enters a nationally watched political contest that has taken on a completely different look over the last several weeks.

Kemp - who was urged by national GOP leaders to go after Ossoff’s seat but declined - is reportedly throwing the support of his political machine behind Dooley, who said Monday he’s running as a “political outsider.”

U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter, who has represented the state’s coastal 1st congressional district since 2015, was the first candidate to announce a Senate bid after Kemp announced he was not running.

In late July, Georgia Insurance and Fire Commissioner John King withdrew from the race and is running instead for reelection.

Immediately after King’s withdrawal, U.S. Rep. Mike Collins - the 10th congressional district lawmaker who authored the first bill to pass this year’s newly elected Congress and the first bill signed by President Donald Trump only days into his second term - announced his candidacy.

Several other state and federal lawmakers, including Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, are rumored to be considering a Senate bid.

U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene was also rumored to be considering a Senate bid, but issued a late July social media statement saying she is not running.

Ossoff was elected in a runoff election in 2021, unseating David Perdue, who is currently the U.S. Ambassador to China.

Ossoff gained national attention in 2017 as the Democratic candidate in the high-profile special election for Georgia’s 6th congressional district. Though he narrowly lost, the campaign set fundraising records and energized Democratic voters in Georgia’s suburbs.

When he was elected to the Senate, Ossoff, who was 33 at the time, became the youngest sitting U.S. senator at the time, the first Jewish senator from Georgia and only the second Georgia Democrat elected to the Senate in the 21st century.

Dooley, 57, played wide receiver at the University of Virginia from 1987-90. He began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at the University of Georgia. His first head coaching job came at Louisiana Tech from 2007-09.

He then moved onto the University of Tennessee as head coach from 2010-12, becoming the first son of a Southeastern Conference (SEC) head coach to become a head coach in the SEC himself.

From 2013-17, Dooley was a wide receivers coach for the Dallas Cowboys; then offensive coordinator for the University of Missouri from 2018-19; and was a University of Alabama’s offensive analyst in 2020.

Dooley has a law degree from the University of Georgia.

Dooley is the son of legendary Vince Dooley, former UGA head football coach and athletic director.

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