{"id":2888,"date":"2026-06-16T22:04:37","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T22:04:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=2888"},"modified":"2026-06-16T22:04:37","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T22:04:37","slug":"republican-divides-and-strange-alliances-emerge-ahead-of-georgia-runoff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=2888","title":{"rendered":"Republican divides and strange alliances emerge ahead of Georgia runoff"},"content":{"rendered":"<article>\n<div>\n<p><span>ALPHARETTA, Ga. (AP) \u2014 The final days of Georgia\u2019s Republican primary campaigns have exposed internal party fault lines, produced unusual alliances and will test the party\u2019s ability to consolidate quickly to match Democrats\u2019 head start on the general election campaign.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=2886\">Here\u2019s your World Cup forecast for tonight\u2019s match in Foxborough<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span>The melee, including last-minute endorsements from President Trump and outgoing Gov. Brian Kemp, was on full display Monday ahead of Tuesday\u2019s runoff. Rep. Mike Collins and former football coach Derek Dooley are competing for the party\u2019s nomination for U.S. Senate, while Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and billionaire businessman Rick Jackson are running for governor.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Trump and Kemp are aligned behind Jones but split in the Senate race. Top grassroots organizers are divided too. Even Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, a former rival to Trump, stepped into the mix on Jackson\u2019s behalf, putting him at odds with the president and governor.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><span>\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of division in the MAGA world and across the Republican Party,\u201d said Debbie Dooley, an original national tea party organizer who is backing Jones for governor but Dooley for Senate. (She\u2019s not related to the candidate.) \u201cWe better get it together after Tuesday.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Kemp insisted there is a common denominator.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cEverything I\u2019m doing is to win in November,\u201d he said Monday after campaigning for Jones and Derek Dooley at separate events in metro Atlanta.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Kemp has backed Derek Dooley for months in the Senate race, arguing it will take an outsider to defeat Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff in November. Yet Kemp campaigned for the first time Monday with Jones, a day after he endorsed the lieutenant governor despite Jackson\u2019s outsider campaign. In the governor\u2019s race, Kemp reasoned that Jones is the right man to defeat Democratic nominee and former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Trump, meanwhile, has backed Jones since last August, rewarding him for his loyalty as part of Trump\u2019s alternate Electoral College slate in the 2020 scheme to overturn Democrat Joe Biden\u2019s presidential victory. But the president waited until the final weekend to choose Collins over Dooley, with a social media post that noted Dooley has backed Trump\u2019s falsehoods about his loss to Biden.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Kemp\u2019s and Trump\u2019s differing courses highlight their complicated relationship \u2014 Kemp certified Biden\u2019s electors in 2020 over Trump\u2019s objections \u2014 and the results Tuesday will tests both men\u2019s internal party influence as their final terms play out.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=2884\">John Tortorella will not return as coach of Golden Knights after leading them to Stanley Cup Final on interim basis<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cI\u2019m not worried about any political equations or keeping score,\u201d Kemp said Monday after campaigning alongside Jones and Dooley at separate morning events. \u201cIt\u2019s making sure we have the right people at the top of the ticket.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>He also rejected any notion that he was being inconsistent by pushing the Washington outsider in one race and the Georgia statehouse insider in another. The reason, he said, was that Georgia has been controlled by Republicans for more than two decades and, in Kemp\u2019s estimation, is doing well enough that Jones would be \u201creally building off the great legacy\u201d of multiple state administrations. Congress, meanwhile, is a mess of \u201cinaction\u201d with abysmal approval ratings, he said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Dooley, for his part, embraced Kemp\u2019s influence and downplayed Trump\u2019s.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cIt\u2019s very simple,\u201d he said. \u201cA vote for Mike Collins is a vote for Jon Ossoff. A vote for me is a vote for the people of Georgia.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Jackson likewise downplayed Kemp\u2019s last-minute nod for Jones.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cI respect Gov. Kemp very much, and I think people are ready for an outsider,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Cruz was more animated, with an implicit comparison of Jackson to Trump.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cHe\u2019s rich,\u201d Cruz told Jackson supporters with a smile. And he\u2019s a first-time candidate, the senator continued. \u201cI don\u2019t know anybody like that in politics,\u201d Cruz deadpanned.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Debbie Dooley, the conservative activist, noted that erstwhile tea party leaders in the state aren\u2019t on the same page anymore either. While she\u2019s campaigning with Derek Dooley, the founder of Tea Party Patriots, Jenny Beth Martin, has appeared with Collins.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cIt\u2019s just not as simple as blindly following Trump anymore,\u201d Debbie Dooley said. \u201cI don\u2019t want the most conservative candidate. I want the most conservative candidate who can win.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=2882\">No matter the score, one World Cup fan is already a winner<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The melee, including last-minute endorsements from President Trump and outgoing Governor Brian Kemp, was on full display ahead of Tuesday\u2019s runoff.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2887,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Republican divides and strange alliances emerge ahead of Georgia runoff - Boston Relocation Insider<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=2888\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Republican divides and strange alliances emerge ahead of Georgia runoff - 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