ATLANTA — Former football coach Derek Dooley took part in his first interview as a U.S. Senate hopeful on Thursday, saying he was “immersed in my job” when he declined to vote in 20 years’ worth of elections.
Derek Dooley was in a Gainesville radio studio, discussing his career transition to politics.
“There’s never been a candidate who’s not a candidate, and never been in politics, get attacked more in a three-week span,” he marveled on WDUN radio in Gainesville. “I may not know politics, as people say it, but I do know people, and that’s what I’ve been doing for 30 years.”
Dooley faces two political veterans – Republican congressmen Mike Collins and Buddy Carter. The winner faces Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff next year.
Governor Brian Kemp’s political team is helping Dooley, who rolled out his first campaign video some 10 days ago. His radio interviewer was Martha Zoller, a onetime congressional candidate herself who later took a job with Kemp.
“In fact, I probably went 20 years, Martha, where I didn’t vote for a president, and I was immersed in my job as a coach,” Dooley said, admitting he declined to vote in numerous presidential elections.
“I was putting all my energy on the players and their families and trying to make them better, but COVID changed me,” Dooley said. The COVID lockdowns and illegal immigration jarred him into voting for Donald Trump in 2024, he said.
In some ways, he said, politics is “no different than football coaching.”
“You’ve got to go out there and earn it, and I plan on doing that,” Dooley told Zoller.
If he wins the Republican primary, he would face Democrat Jon Ossoff, who said this when asked about Dooley’s emergence: “I think I’m going to allow my Republican challengers to work this out amongst themselves for a while.”
