Morning Digest: Trumpworld wanted him to run for Senate. Now they're furious at him

Georgia's governor has a backup candidate, but the White House is not on board

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (credit: Brian Kemp Facebook)

Leading Off

GA-Sen

Georgia Rep. Mike Collins entered the GOP primary to take on Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff on Monday, but the congressman's multi-day rollout—which including his campaign posting a teaser video spelling his state's name as "Georiga"— was overshadowed by a feud between Gov. Brian Kemp and Donald Trump's network over one of Collins' would-be rivals.

Kemp is hyping former University of Tennessee football coach Derek Dooley, a childhood friend and the son of late University of Georgia coach Vince Dooley, as he prepares to compete against Collins and Rep. Buddy Carter.

NOTUS' Reese Gorman, though, reports that Trump's inner circle is furious that Kemp, who turned down the White House's calls to run himself, is inserting himself into the race on behalf of Dooley.

"Nobody is on board with this shit," an unnamed GOP operative told Gorman about Kemp's maneuvering. "It's stupid. They can't articulate the pathway forward."

"It's Kemp thinking he's going to exert his will over the White House to support a candidate that should've been him," the source continued. "If he wanted to have a say in this, he should've just run."

A second person predicted to Gorman that Kemp, who's had a turbulent relationship with Trump, has "all but guarantee[d] Trump goes against Dooley." The source added that Kemp is "putting Dooley in a really bad position, because no one in Trump's operation had anything against him, but Kemp pushing him like this could really sour him with them."

Trump, though, may indeed have reasons to dislike Dooley personally. The conservative Washington Examiner reported last week that Dooley didn't vote during Trump's first two campaigns in 2016, when he was living in Texas, and 2020, when he was registered in New York. The article also noted that campaign finance records show that, while Dooley has donated to Kemp, he's also never provided any financial support to Trump.

Dooley, who did vote in Georgia last year, downplayed the criticism. A spokesperson sought to dismiss the attacks as "fear and desperation coming from career politicians about an outsider who hasn't even announced yet."

Not everyone is convinced. A state GOP operative reminded the Examiner about the circumstances that led Dooley to involuntarily stop coaching for the University of Tennessee in 2012.

"If you don't think that Jon Ossoff is going to exploit the fact that this guy has no record of voting, hasn't lived here, just moved back to the state, and his claim to fame is that he got fired from being head coach of Georgia's No. 1 rival, you're crazy."

Collins, for his part, has a far better relationship with the White House. Punchbowl last week described him as "closest to Trump's movement among the potential contenders." The new candidate was happy to lean into that description with an announcement video featuring old audio of Trump praising him as a "fantastic" person who "loves his state."

The video also reminded viewers of Collins' past career running a trucking company and, more recently, his work as the chief sponsor of the Laken Riley Act, which empowers the Trump administration to deport undocumented immigrants who haven't been convicted of criminal charges.

The GOP field may not, however, be done taking shape. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who resisted pressure from Trump to "find 11,780 votes" to overturn Joe Biden's win in the state, has expressed interest in running for either Senate or governor. Far-right state Sen. Colton Moore has also talked about challenging Ossoff.

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Thanks to Georgia's love of runoffs, whoever runs could appear on the ballot as many as four times next year. Party primaries will take place in May, but candidates need to win a majority to avoid a runoff the next month.

In the November general election, meanwhile, contenders must again exceed 50% to avert a second round in December. This unusual rule cost the GOP this very Senate seat in 2020 when Ossoff turned a small deficit against Republican incumbent David Perdue into an overtime victory.

Collins, who is the son of the late Rep. Mac Collins, would also experience his first competitive general election if he wins the GOP nod. The younger Collins first sought office in 2014 just before Trump took over the GOP, but his campaign that year for the 10th Congressional District ended with a runoff loss to conservative radio host Jody Hice.

Trump's machinations after his 2020 defeat, though, would give Collins the chance to restart his political career nearly a decade later. Hice, with Trump's support, gave up his House seat in 2022 to wage a primary campaign against Raffensperger, and Collins entered the busy primary to replace him. Collins, though, was not Trump's candidate.

Former state Rep. Vernon Jones, a Democrat-turned-Republican who had been challenging Kemp for renomination as governor, ended up dropping his statewide campaign and running in the 10th, based in northeastern Georgia.

Trump, who was backing Perdue as a way to punish Kemp for recognizing Biden's win, reportedly incentivized Jones to switch races by offering up his endorsement, and he provided it.

Jones and Collins advanced to the runoff on the same night that Kemp and Raffensperger decisively turned back their respective opponents, and the second round was an ugly affair.

Collins, among other things, distributed mailers labeling Jones, who would have been the first Black Republican to represent Georgia in Congress since Reconstruction, as a "RADICALLY ANTI-WHITE RACIST." He also made sure to portray Jones, whose past political base was in the Atlanta area, as an outsider.

Things intensified in the final days when Collins sent out a tweet that featured a picture of a rape whistle emblazoned with the web address for an anti-Jones site, an item that referenced an accusation of rape leveled against Jones in 2004​ (he was never charged), alongside an image of a gun.

Collins, who received an endorsement from Kemp late in the campaign, ended up winning in a 74-26 blowout, and his general election victory in this conservative seat was a foregone conclusion.

The new congressman attracted national attention in the fall of 2023 when he fired off meme after meme as his party spent weeks trying to elect a speaker to replace the deposed Kevin McCarthy, as well as a post in which he jokingly nominated himself. The self-described "memer of Congress," though, spent more time using his social media profile to spread xenophobia.

Collins, among other things, repeatedly called for undocumented immigrants accused of crimes to leave the United States on "Pinochet Air." Reporter Christopher Mathias responded, "The congressman here is parroting a meme that's been popular among white supremacists & neofascists like the Proud Boys for the last 7 or so years, referring to the Chilean dictator killing his leftist enemies by tossing them out of helicopters into the ocean."

An unapologetic Collins responded to his critics by telling the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, "That's people that probably weren't ever going to be happy with me anyway. But that's OK."

Dems are about to land their biggest Senate recruit

Senate

NC-Sen

Former Gov. Roy Cooper kicked off his campaign for North Carolina's open U.S. Senate seat on Monday, an announcement that gives Senate Democrats a peerless candidate they've spent more than a decade trying to recruit.

Cooper will likely face off against Republican National Committee chair Michael Whatley, who will reportedly enter the race soon, and both parties are preparing for what will be a closely watched battle. North Carolina Democrats haven't won a Senate race since 2008, but Cooper's prominence, plus a potential backlash against Donald Trump, gives them a strong chance to break the GOP's streak.

Neither Cooper nor Whatley, who already has Donald Trump's endorsement, should face any serious intra-party opposition as they compete to replace Republican Sen. Thom Tillis, who unexpectedly ended his reelection campaign last month after voting against his party's budget bill.

Former Rep. Wiley Nickel reportedly will end his campaign for the Democratic nomination and instead run for Wake County district attorney.

Rep. Don Davis, who expressed interest in running statewide earlier this month, is also unlikely to do so now that Cooper is running. An unnamed source told Politico on Monday, "Congressman Davis is very glad to see someone from eastern North Carolina getting in the Senate race." (Cooper hails from Nash County, which is in Davis' district.)

Whatley is also likely to claim the Republican nomination with ease. Rep. Pat Harrigan, who initially didn't rule out running for Senate after Tillis announced his departure, said over the weekend he would stay in the House instead. No other would-be GOP candidates have shown any interest in opposing the candidate who has Trump's "Complete and Total Endorsement."

Whatley, though, has never run for office during his decades in state and national GOP politics, while Cooper has won six previous statewide races. Senate Democrats have long wanted Cooper, who was first elected attorney general in 2000, to join their ranks, but he's preferred to make his mark in state-level office.

In 2009, Democrats tried hard to recruit Cooper, who had just easily won his third term as attorney general, to oppose Republican incumbent Richard Burr in that cycle's race for North Carolina's other Senate seat, but he turned them down.

Cooper may well have been relieved not to appear on the ballot during the 2010 red wave and went on to claim a fourth term in 2012 without opposition. But he wasn't content to remain in that post forever.

The attorney general soon began laying the groundwork to challenge Republican Gov. Pat McCrory in 2016, a matchup that quickly became one of the most fiercely contested elections in the nation.

The race took on new urgency in the spring when McCrory signed House Bill 2, which required anyone using bathrooms at schools or public facilities to use the restroom associated with the sex on their birth certificate, regardless of their gender identity.

That legislation sparked a national backlash that led several major corporations to cancel planned expansions in the state, and it likely cost the GOP the governor's office: Cooper prevailed 49.0 to 48.8 as Trump was carrying the state 50-46.

The new governor quickly became a popular figure across the state, and Republicans struggled to wage a viable campaign against him four years later. Cooper ended up defeating Republican Lt. Gov. Daniel Forest 52-47 as Trump prevailed 50-49 statewide while Tillis won a comparably close bid for reelection.

But far-right Republican Mark Robinson's victory in the separate race for lieutenant governor, though, helped keep Cooper out of the race for Senate in 2022. While there was some early talk that Cooper could campaign to replace Burr, who had decided to retire, the governor noted his early departure would put the disastrous Robinson in charge of the state.

While Cooper was prohibited from seeking a third term last year, he was discussed as a potential running mate for Kamala Harris, though he reportedly took his name out of contention. That decision only intensified talk that Cooper, who left office in early January, could run for the Senate—a decision he finally took on Monday, much to the delight of Democrats across the country.

SC-Sen

Donald Trump's late March endorsement of Sen. Lindsey Graham doesn't seem to be having its intended effect, as another high-profile Republican is joining the race to unseat the 70-year-old incumbent: attorney Paul Dans, the mastermind of Project 2025.

Dans was the first director of the project, an audacious policy blueprint put forth by the Heritage Foundation aimed at dismantling much of the federal government and reshaping it to consolidate conservative power.

Dans stepped aside last year after growing scrutiny of the plan and disavowals of its goals by MAGAworld, but Trump fully embraced the effort once in office, leading Dans to tell Politico earlier this year that the project had succeeded "way beyond my wildest dreams."

Two other Republicans were already hoping to deny renomination to Graham: former Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer, who kicked off a campaign earlier this month, and businessman Mark Lynch, who's self-funded more than $5 million. South Carolina requires runoffs if no candidate earns a majority in their party's primary.

Governors

AK-Gov

Republican Adam Crum just announced that he'd resign his post as head of Alaska's Department of Revenue and, reports the Alaska Beacon, will join the crowded race for the state's open governorship.

Crum did not confirm the report but told the outlet, "I'll have a formal statement on my last day, August 8th. Stay tuned."

Another member of term-limited Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy's cabinet may also try to succeed him. According to Alaska Landmine, state Attorney General Treg Taylor "has been hosting events all over the state for months under the guise of his job." One former state lawmaker even promoted a recent Taylor appearance by posting (complete with winking emoji), "This is not a campaign event. "

The Landmine says it expects the attorney general to step down from his job in September to launch a bid. Taylor, like Crum, holds an office that is appointed rather than elected.

MI-Gov

Outgoing Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan has been trailing badly in the polls, but new fundraising reports show him out front in next year's race for Michigan's open governorship when it comes to fundraising.

According to new disclosures covering the period from Jan. 1 through July 20, Duggan, who is running as an independent, reported raising $3.2 million and had $2.3 million in cash on hand. However, according to the Detroit Metro Times, even though Duggan was a Democrat as recently as December, a "sizable share" of his haul came from high-profile Republicans and Donald Trump supporters.

Thanks in part to that largesse, Duggan's take exceeded that of the leading candidates in both the Democratic and Republican primaries. Bridge Michigan has a complete roundup of all the new reports, which offer the first glimpse at the fundraising picture in this hotly competitive race.

NV-Gov

Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford announced Monday that he would oppose Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo, a long-anticipated decision that sets off what will be a fiercely contested race to lead this perennial swing state.

Ford, who would be Nevada's first Black governor, all but confirmed he was running back in December, but he may have a tougher Democratic primary than he anticipated late last year.

Washoe County Commission Chair Alexis Hill, who heads the local government in the Reno area, said last week that she's decided to run.

And former Gov. Steve Sisolak, who narrowly lost reelection to Lombardo in 2022, also responded to Ford's launch by telling the New York Times, "I am still waiting and watching how things play out." Sisolak unexpectedly told the paper in April he was considering a comeback campaign, but he hasn't taken any obvious steps to prepare since then.

But Ford, who has been a prominent figure in local politics for some time, is working to preserve his frontrunner status.

Morning Digest: Democratic heavyweight steps up to challenge Nevada's GOP governor

The attorney general received an endorsement from Sen. Jacky Rosen one day before he announced his campaign, a move that came not long after he earned the support of the state's other senator, Catherine Cortez Masto.

On Monday, Ford also picked up endorsements from all three members of Nevada's Democratic House delegation: Reps. Steven Horsford, Susie Lee, and Dina Titus.

OK-Gov

Sometimes, the headlines really say it all:

• "Board members: TV in Ryan Walters' office displayed nude women during executive session" - NonDoc

• "Ryan Walters says he's not responsible for images of naked women shown during a meeting" - The Oklahoman

• "Sheriff's office launches probe after reports of naked women seen on official's TV at Oklahoma Board of Education meeting" - NBC

Walters, a far-right Republican who is considering a bid for governor, has repeatedly railed against what he claims is "pornography" in school libraries.

PA-Gov

State Sen. Doug Mastriano, who keeps teasing another bid for governor, is gonna keep teasing at least a little bit longer.

"I will announce on my timeline, not according to pressure from party insiders looking to rush an endorsement," Mastriano said in a statement published over the weekend. "The future of our movement won't be dictated by insiders. It will be led by the people."

Politico reports that Donald Trump's political advisors are afraid that a second Mastriano candidacy would hurt Republicans in Pennsylvania, but Mastriano disputed the claim.

"I can tell you that I have President Trump's direct line," he told the outlet. "And he ain't saying this."

The state's candidate filing deadline is in March.

WI-Gov

Secretary of State Sarah Godlewski is looking at a bid for lieutenant governor rather than joining the Democratic primary for Wisconsin's newly open top job, a spokesperson tells the Associated Press.

Wisconsin is one of just seven states where candidates run for governor and lieutenant governor in separate primaries but run together on a single ticket in the general election—a sometimes-awkward arrangement often likened to a "shotgun wedding."

The state's current lieutenant governor, Sarah Rodriguez, announced she'd run for governor immediately after Democrat Tony Evers said last week that he'd retire rather than seek a third term.

Morning Digest: Tony Evers announces he won't run for a third term

The AP also adds that Republican Mary Felzkowski, the president of the state Senate, is considering the race. Felzkowski recently said she had "no idea" whether she might run, and there's no newer quote from her.

House

MI-10

Former Republican Rep. Mike Bishop has confirmed reports from last month that he's considering a comeback bid.

"I'm now weighing another call to serve. MI-10 matters," he posted on social media on Monday. "If I step in, it's to win. Stay tuned."

Bishop lost his campaign for a third term in 2018 to Democrat Elissa Slotkin, who defeated him by a 51-47 margin. That, however, was for a different district—then numbered the 8th and now the 7th—based in the Lansing area.

The open 10th District, by contrast, is based in suburban Detroit's Macomb County, and only about 10% of its residents previously lived in Bishop's old district, according to an analysis from The Downballot.

Republicans have yet to land a candidate to replace Rep. John James, who's running for governor, while four notable Democrats are seeking their party's nod.

TN-07

The busy special election for Tennessee's conservative 7th District just got a little busier, with new entries from candidates in both parties.

On the Republican side, the latest to join the race is far-right state Rep. Gino Bulso, who last year led a fight against a bill that would ban marriage between first cousins. It passed in the state House with 72 votes in favor. Only Bulso, who said his grandparents were first cousins, and one other Republican voted against it. The measure was quickly signed by Gov. Bill Lee.

For Democrats, meanwhile, political consultant Darden Copeland also recently jumped into the contest, telling attendees at a rally outside of Nashville that "this district, and Williamson County in particular, is ground zero, literally, for democracy."

The special election is set for Dec. 2, with primaries on Oct. 7.