ALPHARETTA, Ga. — With Tuesday’s Republican primary runoff in Georgia just hours away, cracks within the party have become impossible to ignore, producing unexpected alliances and raising questions about whether Republicans can unite quickly enough to compete with Democrats who have a head start on the general election.
The political scramble — featuring last-minute endorsements from President Donald Trump and outgoing Gov. Brian Kemp — was in full swing Monday. Rep. Mike Collins and former football coach Derek Dooley are squaring off for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate, while Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and billionaire businessman Rick Jackson are competing for the gubernatorial nomination.
Trump and Kemp are both supporting Jones for governor, but they’ve gone in opposite directions on the Senate race. Grassroots organizers are similarly split. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, once a Trump rival, jumped into the fray by endorsing Jackson — putting him directly at odds with both the president and the governor.
“There’s a lot of division in the MAGA world and across the Republican Party,” said Debbie Dooley, an original national tea party organizer who is supporting Jones for governor but backing Derek Dooley for Senate. She is not related to the Senate candidate. “We better get it together after Tuesday.”
Kemp pushed back on the notion of disarray, arguing his actions share a common goal.
“Everything I’m doing is to win in November,” he said Monday, after appearing at separate campaign events for Jones and Derek Dooley in the Atlanta metro area.
Kemp has supported Derek Dooley in the Senate race for months, making the case that defeating Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff in November will require a political outsider. Yet it wasn’t until Monday that Kemp campaigned alongside Jones — just one day after endorsing the lieutenant governor, despite Jackson’s own outsider pitch. In the governor’s race, Kemp argued Jones is best positioned to defeat Democratic nominee and former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms.
Trump, on the other hand, has been in Jones’ corner since last August, rewarding him for his role as part of Trump’s alternate Electoral College slate in the 2020 effort to reverse Democrat Joe Biden’s presidential win. The president held off until the final weekend to throw his support behind Collins over Dooley, citing in a social media post that Dooley has echoed Trump’s false claims about losing to Biden.
The diverging paths taken by Kemp and Trump reflect their complicated history — Kemp certified Biden’s electors in 2020 despite Trump’s opposition — and Tuesday’s results will serve as a gauge of each man’s standing within the party as both approach the end of their final terms.
“I’m not worried about any political equations or keeping score,” Kemp said Monday after appearing alongside both Jones and Dooley at separate morning events. “It’s making sure we have the right people at the top of the ticket.”
Kemp also dismissed suggestions that he was being inconsistent by championing a Washington outsider in one race while backing a Georgia statehouse insider in another. His reasoning: Republicans have governed Georgia for more than two decades and the state is performing well, meaning Jones would be “really building off the great legacy” of past administrations. Congress, by contrast, he described as plagued by “inaction” and suffering from rock-bottom approval ratings.
Derek Dooley leaned into Kemp’s backing while minimizing Trump’s late endorsement of his opponent.
“It’s very simple,” Dooley said. “A vote for Mike Collins is a vote for Jon Ossoff. A vote for me is a vote for the people of Georgia.”
Jackson was similarly dismissive of Kemp’s eleventh-hour endorsement of Jones.
“I respect Gov. Kemp very much, and I think people are ready for an outsider,” Jackson said.
Cruz was more colorful in his pitch for Jackson, drawing an implicit comparison to Trump himself.
“He’s rich,” Cruz told Jackson supporters with a grin. And he’s a first-time candidate, Cruz continued. “I don’t know anybody like that in politics,” he deadpanned.
Debbie Dooley also noted that former tea party allies in the state are no longer marching in step. While she has been out on the trail with Derek Dooley, Tea Party Patriots founder Jenny Beth Martin has been appearing alongside Collins.
“It’s just not as simple as blindly following Trump anymore,” Debbie Dooley said. “I don’t want the most conservative candidate. I want the most conservative candidate who can win.”
