Fractured Alliances: The Brewing GOP Civil War in Georgia’s 2026 Senate Race

Sub­mit­ted by Scott Howard

As the 2026 midterm elec­tions loom, Geor­gia’s U.S. Sen­ate race is shap­ing up to be a high-stakes bat­tle­ground, pit­ting Demo­c­ra­t­ic incum­bent Jon Ossoff against a frac­tured Repub­li­can field. With Ossoff seek­ing re-elec­tion in a state that has swung dra­mat­i­cal­ly in recent cycles, the GOP’s inter­nal divisions—fueled by lin­ger­ing ten­sions between Gov­er­nor Bri­an Kemp and cur­rent Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump—threaten to hand Democ­rats anoth­er vic­to­ry, echo­ing the par­ty’s painful loss­es in the 2021 runoffs.

The Kemp-Trump Rift: From Rec­on­cil­i­a­tion Attempts to Abrupt Fall­out

The seeds of the cur­rent dis­cord were sown in efforts to mend a long­stand­ing feud between Kemp and Trump, which dates to the 2020 elec­tion when Kemp refused to inves­ti­gate after seri­ous alle­ga­tions were dis­cov­ered by Joe Rossi. Recent attempts at uni­ty includ­ed two notable meet­ings between the two lead­ers. The first occurred five weeks ago in South Geor­gia on a Sun­day night, where the pair report­ed­ly agreed to col­lab­o­rate on select­ing a Sen­ate can­di­date they could both endorse, aim­ing to con­sol­i­date the Repub­li­can base.

How­ev­er, hopes for har­mo­ny evap­o­rat­ed dur­ing their most recent encounter in Wash­ing­ton, D.C., intend­ed as a casu­al golf out­ing to dis­cuss strat­e­gy. Sources indi­cate the meet­ing end­ed abrupt­ly after just four holes on the course, with Gov­er­nor Kemp depart­ing pre­ma­ture­ly amid esca­lat­ing dis­agree­ments over can­di­date pref­er­ences. This fall­out has exac­er­bat­ed ten­sions, with Trump’s team express­ing frus­tra­tion over Kem­p’s inde­pen­dent streak in can­di­date selec­tion. With all the atten­tion between Kemp and Trump, the pres­i­dent extend­ed an Olive Branch to the Kemp camp, con­sid­er­ing all the law­fare attacks from Fani Willis, Brad Raf­fensperg­er and Kemp refusal to step in and help the then for­mer pres­i­dent. The Pres­i­dent was will­ing to put this aside for the good of the coun­try and the State of Geor­gia and was will­ing to work with the Gov­er­nor. It appears that Pres­i­dent Trump was will­ing to work with Kemp.

These inter­ac­tions high­light the pre­car­i­ous bal­ance with­in the Geor­gia GOP. While Trump has praised Kemp in pub­lic forums ear­li­er this year, such as at a Repub­li­can Gov­er­nors Asso­ci­a­tion meet­ing, the under­ly­ing ani­mosi­ties per­sist, par­tic­u­lar­ly as both vie for influ­ence in the par­ty’s future.

Kem­p’s Pick: Derek Doo­ley Emerges as the Estab­lish­ment Favorite

Unde­terred by the impasse with Trump, Gov­er­nor Kemp has thrown his weight behind Derek Doo­ley, a for­mer col­lege foot­ball coach and son of Uni­ver­si­ty of Geor­gia leg­end Vince Doo­ley. Doo­ley, who announced his can­di­da­cy on August 4, 2025, posi­tions him­self as an out­sider with deep Geor­gia roots, lever­ag­ing his fam­i­ly’s sto­ried lega­cy in Athens—home to UGA—to appeal to vot­ers.

Doo­ley’s ties to Bri­an Kemp run deep: He is the younger broth­er of Daniel Doo­ley, Kem­p’s col­lege room­mate at UGA, forg­ing a per­son­al con­nec­tion that has includ­ed Doo­ley com­pa­ny receiv­ing lucra­tive state con­tracts. Kem­p’s for­mer chief of staff, Cody Hall, is slat­ed to man­age Doo­ley’s cam­paign, bring­ing sea­soned polit­i­cal acu­men to the oper­a­tion. Addi­tion­al­ly, Kem­p’s youngest daugh­ter, Amy Porter Kemp, is han­dling fundrais­ing efforts, expect­ing to earn a 10% fee on contributions—a com­mon arrange­ment in high-stakes races but one that under­scores the fam­i­ly affair aspect of this bid. Brain Kemp and com­pa­ny can walk away with a $10 + mil­lion haul even with anoth­er loss. In recent days, Bri­an Kemp lever­aged a back­door meet­ing at a promi­nent lob­by­ist house after the build­ing ded­i­ca­tion for David Ral­ston in Blue Ridge. Only State elect­ed offi­cials attend­ed and slid­ing awk­ward­ly in the side door was Derek Doo­ley. Kemp speak­ing to the state offi­cials in a veiled threat, “I’m still the Gov­er­nor for two more years.” This com­ing after the bare knuck­le fight last ses­sion where the Gov­er­nor threat­ened to “Pri­ma­ry” any­one who changes or alters his Tort Reform Bill.

Fac­tor in the UGA pres­i­dent Jere More­head (68) is retir­ing in 2026, spec­u­lat­ing that Bri­an P Kemp name has sur­faced as a poten­tial­ly the new UGA Pres­i­dent. Net­ting a mil­lion-dol­lar pay­check, UGA assets of pri­vate plane and heli­copter. Mov­ing back to his home­town and still hold­ing polit­i­cal cards with his Hard­work­ing Amer­i­can & Geor­gians First Lead­er­ship Com­mit­tee (PACs) at his dis­pos­al keeps him in the fore­shad­ow of Geor­gia pol­i­tics for the near future. Mon­ey equals pow­er in Geor­gia pol­i­tics, prime exam­ple in the news: First Lib­er­ty and the Frost Fam­i­ly Influ­ence Ped­dling in the GOP. Is this more about mon­ey than a win?

Doo­ley’s entry adds to an already crowd­ed GOP pri­ma­ry, which includes U.S. Rep. Bud­dy Carter, who announced in May 2025, and sets up a three-way con­test by most accounts. Most pun­dits dis­miss out­sider Rea­gan Box. In recent months, her expos­er and fundrais­ing have improved to the point that she may fare much bet­ter than the estab­lish­ment would like. Polls sug­gest Doo­ley starts with name recog­ni­tion from his coach­ing days at Ten­nessee and Louisiana Tech, but his lack of polit­i­cal expe­ri­ence could be a dou­ble-edged sword in a state weary of celebri­ty can­di­dates after Her­schel Walk­er’s 2022 defeat.

Trump’s Counter: Back­ing Con­gress­man Mike Collins

In a clear rebuke to Kem­p’s choice, for­mer Pres­i­dent Trump has aligned him­self with U.S. Rep. Mike Collins, a sec­ond-term con­gress­man from Geor­gia’s 10th Dis­trict who announced his Sen­ate bid on July 28, 2025. Collins, known for his fiery con­ser­v­a­tive rhetoric and loy­al­ty to Trump, entered the race with a pro-Trump agen­da, empha­siz­ing issues like immi­gra­tion and eco­nom­ic nation­al­ism that res­onate with the MAGA base. Geor­gia House and Sen­ate mem­bers have flood­ed Con­gress­man Collins with endorse­ments, break­ing from Kemp. In just days he has received over forty from sol­id Kemp aligned Geor­gia elect­ed offi­cials. This includes a state “Floor” leader in the Kemp camp, has the wedge of pow­er start­ed to shift away from Kemp?

Trump’s endorse­ment ampli­fies Collins’ vis­i­bil­i­ty, but it also draws bat­tle lines with­in the par­ty. Collins’ cam­paign has already faced minor gaffes, such as a launch ad mis­spelling “Geor­gia,” but his con­gres­sion­al record and align­ment with Trump could mobi­lize grass­roots sup­port. The only Achilles heel is the trou­bled Collins chief of staff Bran­don Phillips, with his check­ered past. This back­ing reflects Trump’s strat­e­gy to reward loy­al­ty and pun­ish per­ceived slights, fur­ther deep­en­ing the Kemp-Trump divide. This bat­tle will end bad­ly for Kemp, if Doo­ley or Collins los­es it will be direct­ly tied back to Kemp. A Collins win against Ossoff will be the final nail in Bri­an Kemp’s lega­cy in Geor­gia. I am bet­ting on Pres­i­dent Trump for­ti­fy­ing his resolve and TEAM TRUMP going all out in sup­port of Mike Collins. If not to prove to Brain Kemp that Geor­gia is still MAGA. I am Bet­ting that Mike Collins will work all four cor­ners of the State with his Big Truck stick, give him his cred­it he will work hard.

A Divid­ed GOP: Echoes of Past Defeats and Ossof­f’s Advan­tage

The most like­ly sce­nario in this frac­tured land­scape is a pro­longed and bit­ter pri­ma­ry that splin­ters the Repub­li­can vote, paving the way for Ossof­f’s re-elec­tion. Ossoff, who out­paced GOP chal­lengers in recent fundrais­ing quar­ters, has smart­ly framed the race as a ref­er­en­dum on Trump, cap­i­tal­iz­ing on Geor­gia’s evolv­ing demo­graph­ics and sub­ur­ban shifts.

This dynam­ic mir­rors the 2021 spe­cial elec­tion runoff where Kel­ly Loef­fler, appoint­ed by Kemp, lost to Raphael Warnock amid GOP infight­ing and Trump’s elec­tion denial­ism. Sim­i­lar­ly, Ossof­f’s nar­row vic­to­ry over David Per­due in the same cycle was aid­ed by Repub­li­can turnout sup­pres­sion. With Geor­gia rat­ed as a com­pet­i­tive seat by ana­lysts, a divid­ed base could once again tip the scales toward Democ­rats.

As the pri­ma­ry heats up, all eyes will be on whether Kemp and Trump can rec­on­cile or if their rival­ry dooms the GOP’s Sen­ate ambi­tions. For now, the bat­tle lines are drawn, and Geor­gia’s vot­ers may ulti­mate­ly decide if uni­ty pre­vails or his­to­ry repeats itself.