Derek Dooley, a son of Georgia football royalty who went on to coach at the highest levels of college football himself, faces Representative Mike Collins in the Republican Senate primary runoff in Georgia on Tuesday.
Here are five things to know about Mr. Dooley, 58, of rural Clayton, Ga., who trailed Mr. Collins by about 10 percentage points in the first round of voting, in May.
1. His father brought a college football championship home to Georgia. Mr. Dooley’s father, Vince, coached the University of Georgia for a quarter-century, winning more than 200 games and the national title in 1980. Mr. Dooley, after a spell as a lawyer, followed his father into coaching, leading Louisiana Tech from 2007 to 2009 and the University of Tennessee from 2010 to 2012. (He was far less successful than his father in the S.E.C.; his overall record coaching the Volunteers was 15-21.)
2. He has received significant support from Gov. Brian Kemp. Mr. Dooley has been joined by Mr. Kemp, a popular figure in the state, at more than 90 campaign stops over the past few months, according to the Dooley campaign. Mr. Kemp’s super PAC has also bought TV ads in support of Mr. Dooley. The two men are close and grew up together in Athens, Ga. Mr. Kemp encouraged Mr. Dooley to run for the seat. The governor has argued that Mr. Dooley’s outsider status makes him uniquely suited to beat Senator Jon Ossoff, a popular Democrat.
3. He sought to appeal to President Trump, but did not land his endorsement. Mr. Dooley’s links to Mr. Kemp — who has had a tumultuous relationship with the president after refusing to join his efforts to reverse the 2020 presidential election — may have posed a challenge as Mr. Dooley angled for Mr. Trump’s endorsement. And on Sunday, Mr. Trump delivered Mr. Collins a late endorsement, writing on Truth Social that the representative was a “Friend, Fighter, and WARRIOR.” The president added that Mr. Dooley “seems like a nice person,” but wrote disapprovingly that Mr. Dooley “said that I lost Georgia in 2020.” Mr. Dooley had sought to limit any distance between himself and the president. His campaign uses the slogan “Georgia First,” an echo of Mr. Trump’s “America First.” He met with Mr. Trump in the Oval Office for about 90 minutes last summer, discussing football and politics, according to the Dooley campaign.
4. He says he was politically activated by Democrats’ response to Covid-19. Mr. Dooley was living in New York City and working as an assistant coach for the New York Giants when the coronavirus pandemic began. He was drawn into politics, he said, by frustration with vaccine and mask mandates that government officials placed on workplaces and schools.
5. He is running as a political outsider and did not vote for many years. Mr. Dooley has said he wants to “change how Washington does its business.” He has called for senators to be limited to two terms, and has vowed to serve only two himself if he is elected. Mr. Dooley has also said that he once went nearly two decades without voting, according to The Associated Press. “I spent three decades in coaching probably doing the exact opposite of what a lot of D.C. politicians are doing,” he said in his campaign launch video. His outsider status has been a target. Mr. Collins once wrote on social media: “You don’t beat Jon Ossoff by having no record.”
