Fury in Georgia GOP primary to confront the nation’s most vulnerable Senate Dem

nypost.com

Things are far from peachy in the Georgia US Senate race.

State and national party officials are furious at Republican Gov. Brian Kemp’s tactics after a PAC backed by the governor smoked two sitting Republicans and blamed them for the shutdown while talking up Kemp’s preferred candidate in the race – former University of Tennessee football coach Derek Dooley.

“They all failed and shut down the government,” the ad says –– one of the first to weaponize the shutdown in a major race. The move incensed the two candidates who got blamed, GOP House members Mike Collins and Buddy Carter, who had each voted for “clean” bills to keep the government open.

There are already fears in Republican circles that the infighting puts the effort to take on Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff at risk.

A political ad with three men, two older, one younger, with text “Collins,” “Carter,” and “Government Shutdown.” — Georgia Republicans are furious over a PAC ad connected to Gov. Brian Kemp that ties two lawmakers, Reps. Mike Collins and Buddy Carter, to the government shutdown Greg Bluestein/ X

“You have a golden opportunity to unseat the most vulnerable Democrat on the map and it’s like we are on the verge of fumbling that opportunity,” fumed one Republican strategist in the state who called the episode a “massive distraction.”

”Club for Growth” president David McIntosh told The Post it’s “deeply concerning” that Dooley’s backers “were so quick to sell out Republican leadership in a failed attempt to score cheap political points. Georgians deserve better.”

U.S. Representative Mike Collins (R-GA) speaking at a Republican political event in Peachtree City, Georgia. — Rep. Mike Collins (R-Ga.), who leads in the latest Atlanta Journal Constitution poll, blasted the PAC for running the shutdown ad that targeted him REUTERS

Representative Buddy Carter speaking at a Republican event. — The ad also blasts Rep. Buddy Carter (R-Ga.) REUTERS

Ossoff picked up the seat in 2020 with just 50.6% of the vote. Now he’s the best-funded Senate Democrat in the nation.

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Derek Dooley speaks at a podium in front of an American flag. — The ad touts former University of Tennessee football coach Derek Dooley. Some politicos in the state worry the feuding gums up the race to talk on the nation’s most vulnerable Democratic incumbent AP

Collins accused the governor’s nonprofit of “parroting the anti-Trump Democrat lie that ‘Republicans are to blame for the shutdown'” in an ad that lumped him together with Ossoff. The National Republican Senatorial Committee also slammed the ad.

Dooley’s brother, Daniel, a former Kemp college roommate, sits on the board of the Hardworking Georgians Inc. PAC, which ran the ad. Kemp announced in May that he would pass on the race himself, despite the entreaties of the White House and GOP leaders.