The GOP Senate primary in Georgia is heating up one month before voters head to the polls, with Rep. Buddy Carter launching the first attack ad of the race, former football coach Derek Dooley hitting the airwaves and Rep. Mike Collins touting his fundraising.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The three Republicans are vying to take on Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff, a top GOP target as the party looks to expand its 53-47 majority in the Senate. With three major candidates dividing the May 19 primary vote, and President Donald Trump so far declining to pick a favorite, the race is expected to head to a June 16 runoff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So far, Carter\u2019s campaign has dominated the airwaves, spending $5.5 million in ads through the primary, according to the ad-tracking firm AdImpact. Dooley has spent $519,000, while Collins has spent $170,000, largely on digital ads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Carter\u2019s latest ad, which launched Monday, knocks Collins as he faces an Ethics Committee investigation over allegations of misusing congressional funds by paying his former chief of staff for campaign work and by employing that aide’s girlfriend, who did not do work for the office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Office of Congressional Conduct issued a report late last year saying \u201cthere is substantial reason to believe Rep. Collins used congressional resources for unofficial or otherwise unauthorized purposes.\u201d Collins spokesman Corbin Keown told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the ethics complaint is \u201cbogus,\u201d calling it \u201ca sad attempt to derail one of Georgia\u2019s most effective conservative legislators in Congress.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Carter is looking to leverage the issue in the race, launching a new attack against Collins that will air across the state and is backed by $2 million worth of airtime, according to the Carter campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhile Trump and Buddy Carter were protecting our wallets, Mike Collins was abusing them. Collins is under federal investigation for misusing taxpayer funds to benefit himself and his cronies. We just can\u2019t trust or afford Mike Collins,\u201d a narrator says in the ad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Keown, the Collins spokesman, said in a statement to NBC News that Carter’s ad is “a sad attempt to salvage one of the worst return on investment campaigns Georgia\u2019s ever seen.” Keown also suggested the “MAGA base” is rejecting Carter’s campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe only people winning from his ad are his Yankee consultants and Jon Ossoff,\u201d Keown said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, Dooley is airing his first ads, casting himself as a \u201cconservative outsider.\u201d Dooley is a former University of Tennessee football coach. His father was a legendary coach at the University of Georgia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAs a football coach for 30 years, I can spot these \u2018me first\u2019 guys a mile away, and we gotta get rid of them,\u201d Dooley says in his first TV ad of the race. \u201cAnd as your senator, I\u2019ll never forget that you\u2019re the boss. And they need accountability: term limits, ban stock trading, end these government shutdowns. And up there, I\u2019m gonna work with President Trump, but for you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dooley doesn\u2019t mention in the ad that he\u2019s been endorsed by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, but Kemp and his political operation have been boosting Dooley on the campaign trail and on the airwaves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kemp\u2019s super PAC, Hardworking Americans Inc., has spent $813,000 on ads through the primary so far. And Kemp joined Dooley on a recent swing through the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Both Dooley and Kemp said at a campaign stop last week at a barbecue restaurant in Marietta that Dooley\u2019s biggest hurdle in the race is not one of the congressmen lined up against him in the Republican primary. Instead, the challenge they see is reaching the group of voters who have not yet tuned in to the race.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe biggest competition right now is undecided, because I think over half the voters have not engaged or made a decision on this election,\u201d Dooley said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kemp echoed that, saying, \u201cWhen you really look at polling, I mean there\u2019s 40, 50% of the people that hadn\u2019t even weighed in.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Collins\u2019 campaign has argued that he is the front-runner in the race, touting his recent fundraising haul of $1 million, surpassing Dooley\u2019s and Carter\u2019s fundraising totals for the first three months of the year. Dooley raised $663,000 and Carter raised $470,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere\u2019s only one campaign that\u2019s succeeded in building a machine ready to deliver victory in November, and as all Republicans in Georgia see and know, the sooner we can unite around Mike Collins, the better off the entire Republican ticket will be,\u201d Collins campaign manager Josh Siegel said in statement last week, later adding, \u201cSlick advertisements are expensive, but authenticity is priceless.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Carter ended March with the most money in his campaign account \u2014 $3.7 million on hand, thanks to a $3 million loan from the candidate himself. Ossoff, though, has continued to stockpile cash ahead of a hotly contested race in November, ending March with $31.7 million in his campaign account.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ossoff is the only Democratic senator running for re-election in a state Trump won in 2024. Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., is not running for re-election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump, who carried Georgia by 2 points in the last election, has stayed out of the GOP primary so far, though all of the candidates are jockeying for the president’s endorsement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dooley said on the campaign trail last week that he \u201cwould love and be honored to have the endorsement of the president, but my focus is on the voters, because ultimately that\u2019s who\u2019s punching the button on the ballot box.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kemp noted that he has had conversations with Trump and the White House political staff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt doesn\u2019t seem like they\u2019re going to weigh in, but you just never know what they may do,\u201d he said. \u201cBut they also know that [Dooley\u2019s] the one that\u2019s got the momentum in the race right now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n