by Ross Williams, Georgia Recorder
August 22, 2025

When Georgia Congressman Mike Collins kicked off his 2026 campaign for U.S. Senate this week, many in the crowd wore shirts emblazoned with stickers featuring his red, white and blue big rig-inspired logo.

More than a few at Tuesday’s rally also wore a rarer adornment: the glossy name tags worn by members of the Georgia Legislature.

Now weeks into the Jackson Republican’s plan to unseat Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, Collins’ campaign is touting endorsements from 40 GOP state senators and representatives.

That might not be surprising except for the presence of two other high-profile candidates in the Republican primary, including one with the backing of Republican Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp. The governor was in contact with President Donald Trump to discuss choosing a candidate they could both agree on, though Trump has yet to make an endorsement.

Former University of Tennessee football coach Derek Dooley, son of legendary University of Georgia football coach Vince Dooley, entered the race at the start of the month with Kemp’s backing, joining Collins and U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter.

Lawmakers at the Collins event expressed personal and political reasons for their support. Many know him personally or knew his father, the late former U.S. Rep. Mac Collins, who served in Congress from 1993 to 2005.

“​​This is probably easiest for me because I live five minutes from Mike,” said state Rep. Clint Crowe, a Republican from Jackson. “This is my hometown. I’ve grown up here. I went to high school with his sister. I go to church with him and his parents. I’ve been friends with the family for most of my life, and so I know Mike and I know who he is and I know where he comes from, so it’s a very easy decision for me to make to support him.”

Others cited the Laken Riley Act, which Collins sponsored and Trump signed into federal law. It expands the government’s power to detain non-citizens, including for nonviolent or property crimes. Riley was a 22-year-old student who was murdered last year at the University of Georgia campus in Collins’ district. A Venezuelan man who had entered the U.S. illegally was convicted of her killing and sentenced to life in prison without a chance for parole.

None of the legislators said they had faced pressure from Kemp’s office to support Dooley or not back Collins.

“I haven’t had anybody reach out from Mr. Dooley’s team or from the governor’s office, so I would hope that they would understand my position. If they don’t, my position is not going to change,” Crowe said.

Still a three-man race

Georgia Republican strategist Brian Robinson downplayed the significance of the legislator endorsements in the contest that is still more than eight months away.

Collins’ popularity under the Gold Dome speaks to his political skill and connections, but it’s still early, said Robinson, who is not working with any of the candidates in the race. Even popular politicians can find it difficult to transfer their political capital to another candidate, he said.

Still, Collins is in a good spot, at least at the moment, he added.

“I think Mike Collins is certainly in the pole position, you would have to assume,” Robinson said. “There was a poll out last week that showed him up slightly over Buddy and both about 20 points ahead of Derek Dooley.”

Carter has connections of his own and enough personal wealth to put up a fight, Robinson said, and he’s not counting Dooley out either, especially with the governor’s support — and his financial backing.

“They’re putting some resources into it and providing air cover while Derek builds out his operation, builds out his why for the campaign — why him — and as he fundraises and as he gets around the state to meet people. You can’t do everything at once, and having Kemp spend money on his behalf while he’s doing all that other stuff is hugely important.”

Emory University political science professor Andra Gillespie said Dooley’s “legendary” last name could offer a leg up, and she drew parallels to another recent Republican candidate with ties to football.

“I look at the Dooley candidacy as trying to do a better version of Herschel Walker, appeal to primary voters who might be drawn by the name and by their affinity for Georgia football – but hopefully somebody who, you know, has accounted for all of his children and doesn’t make weird comments on the campaign trail.”

Walker, a former UGA and NFL football legend, challenged Democratic U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock in 2022 but fell short in a runoff after a campaign plagued with scandals including acknowledging children he had previously not talked about and allegations of pressuring women he had been in relationships with to get abortions.

During that primary, Trump was sore at the governor for not backing his false claims of election rigging in 2020. But with a few exceptions, Trump-backed candidates bombed in Georgia in the 2022 primaries.

The Trump effect

Trump’s endorsement may not have been enough for Walker to become a U.S. senator, but the Republicans vying for Ossoff’s seat are working hard to get the POTUS tap.

Carter went so far as to nominate Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize, but he’s not likely to get a senate nomination in return, Robinson said.

“Obviously we can assume that Trump is not interested in endorsing Buddy Carter by the fact that Buddy was already in the race when Kemp and Trump were in conversations, and Trump could have said then, ‘I’ll be with Buddy,’ but he didn’t.”

Trump has endorsed Lt. Gov. Burt Jones in his bid for the governor’s mansion, but he’s stayed mum on which Republican he thinks should be  Georgia’s junior senator.

Gillespie said she expects Trump to keep quiet for the time being.

“What I suspect is Trump is going to sit this race out until it’s clear who Republicans want in the state, and then he will just ratify sort of like whoever the frontrunner is by endorsing them, because that’s how he tends to do it,” she said.

Robinson predicts Trump will eventually go with Collins, setting up a new “off again” phase in Trump and Kemp’s on-and-off again relationship.

“It would be my assumption that Trump will endorse Mike Collins at some juncture,” Robinson said. “And you’ll have this proxy war between Kemp and Trump to some degree, if that develops, because Kemp is openly supporting Derek Dooley. The Kemp people feel confident that the Kemp endorsement is influential just like the Trump endorsement is.”

Georgia Recorder is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Georgia Recorder maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jill Nolin for questions: info@georgiarecorder.com.

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Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.

Political Bias Rating: Center-Right

The content primarily focuses on Republican candidates and their campaigns in Georgia, highlighting endorsements, political strategies, and intra-party dynamics. It presents the information in a factual and balanced manner without overtly favoring or criticizing any candidate or party. The emphasis on Republican figures, conservative policies like the Laken Riley Act, and references to Donald Trump’s influence suggest a center-right perspective, but the neutral tone and inclusion of multiple viewpoints keep it from veering into partisan advocacy.

SUMMARY: International Paper announced the closure of its Savannah Mill, Savannah Box Plant, and Riceboro Mill by the end of September, resulting in over 1,100 job losses. The company cited strategic changes to improve cost efficiency and will provide severance and outplacement assistance. Having operated in Savannah for nearly 90 years, the closures deeply impact the community. Georgia Governor Brian Kemp pledged state support through job development programs and economic initiatives. Savannah Mayor Van Johnson, the Savannah Area Chamber CEO Bert Brantley, and City Manager Jay Melder expressed concern for affected workers and committed to aiding the transition, emphasizing Savannah’s resilience and community support.

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by Jay Bookman, Georgia Recorder
August 21, 2025

Do you believe in democracy, or do you believe in Donald Trump?

That’s the question you’ll have to ask yourself when you go into the voting booth to elect Georgia’s next governor.

If you’re a true believer in Donald Trump, if you see him as The Man Sent By God Himself to rescue America from the clutches of evil, then the candidate that you want as the next governor of Georgia is Lt. Gov. Burt Jones.

For everyone else, maybe not so much.

Had Jones been our governor during the election crisis of 2020, when Trump lost the election here in Georgia, the General Assembly would have been called into emergency session to overturn those results. If Jones had gotten his way, if he held the power then that he seeks today, the votes of almost 5 million Georgia voters might have been tossed aside as meaningless, and 235 years of self-government would have been ended by those who believe that they know better than the people.

Back then, Jones was a lowly state senator with high ambitions. His demand for a special session was ignored by wiser, more thoughtful Georgia leaders who understood that it would lead to the unraveling of the American system of government, and who figured that was too high a price to pay. 

So, foiled in his demand for a special session, Jones tried other courses of action. He tried to join a lawsuit filed by the state of Texas, which alleged that his home state of Georgia was too incompetent and corrupt to be trusted to run an election, and demanded that the U.S. Supreme Court strip Georgia of its electoral votes. 

The amicus brief submitted to the high court by Jones and others on behalf of Texas, and in betrayal of Georgia, made a variety of claims so ridiculous as to be absurd. Among other things, it alleged that 66,247 kids under 18 had been allowed to vote in Georgia, and that somehow thousands of others had voted without ever having registered. There was never any proof of those allegations, and remains so now.

When the Supreme Court refused to hear the Texas case, Jones and his co-conspirators then led a third effort, claiming themselves to be the true and rightful electors for the state of Georgia and pressuring Vice President Mike Pence and the Republican-controlled Congress to overthrow the millions of votes cast by Jones’ fellow Georgians. That effort contributed directly to the tragedy that was January 6.

In the upcoming campaign, Jones won’t remind voters that he believed that re-installing Trump as president was more important than preserving American democracy. That’s in part because he doesn’t want to remind general election voters of his role in that debacle, and in part because GOP primary voters need no such reminders. Trump’s recent endorsement of his campaign has already checked that box nicely. 

Jones’ only announced opponent in the GOP primary, Chris Carr, also won’t make it an issue. As attorney general, Carr was one of those state leaders who understood what was really at stake in 2020, and who worked to frustrate that attack on our democracy. For example, Carr strongly opposed the effort by Texas to nullify the election here in Georgia, arguing to the Supreme Court that “The novel and far-reaching claims that Texas asserts, and the breathtaking remedies it seeks, are impossible to ground in legal principles and unmanageable.”

Carr’s actions were honorable and correct, but bragging about taking an honorable and correct stance in defense of democracy, but in defiance of Trump, is not exactly a winning strategy in a Republican primary these days. 

The same would be true for a potential third candidate in the GOP gubernatorial primary. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger played a crucial role in ensuring that the decision of Georgia voters was respected in 2020, even if he personally disagreed with that choice. Should Raffensperger announce what would be a doomed run for governor, he and Carr would split whatever Trump-skeptic vote remains in the Georgia GOP, clearing the way for Jones to win the nomination.

That primary is scheduled for May 19, and I expect the months between now and then to be a stern test of the American voters’ tolerance for chaos on a scale that we have not yet experienced.  

Georgia Recorder is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Georgia Recorder maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jill Nolin for questions: info@georgiarecorder.com.

The post Bookman: Here’s how Georgia’s 2020 election crisis will factor into 2026 GOP campaigns for governor appeared first on georgiarecorder.com

Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.

Political Bias Rating: Center-Left

This content reflects a Center-Left bias through its critical tone toward Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and his alignment with Donald Trump, particularly focusing on Jones’ role in efforts to overturn the 2020 election results. The piece emphasizes concerns about the preservation of democracy and portrays Trump loyalism and election challenges in a negative light. While it does not explicitly endorse an alternative candidate, it highlights more moderate Republican figures who resisted those efforts, suggesting a preference for upholding electoral integrity over partisan loyalty. The framing is cautious but clearly skeptical of far-right actions within the GOP, aligning with a Center-Left perspective that values democratic norms and facts-based governance.