NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
Republicans in Georgia are locked in a bitter civil war revolving around the government shutdown and a critical primary race for a shot at unseating Democrat Sen. Jon Ossoff.
Though currently held by Ossoff, the Georgia Senate seat is considered highly competitive, with Republicans having a real chance of flipping the seat red in 2026. Ossoff won the seat in 2021 in a razor-thin runoff election, beating out former Republican Sen. David Perdue by a margin of just 1.2 percent.
The race is considered highly critical for Republicans to protect their Senate majority. This, however, has not kept Republicans from jumping headlong into a bitter feud over the freshly ended government shutdown last week.
The controversy exploded when a political group aligned with Republican Gov. Brian Kemp released an attack ad criticizing Republican Reps. Mike Collins and Buddy Carter over the government shutdown and suggested “political outsider” former Tennessee football coach Derek Dooley is needed to set things straight.
GEORGIA’S MIKE COLLINS NEEDLES OSSOFF IN NEW AD OVER SHUTDOWN’S TOLL ON AIRPORTS, WORKERS
Left to right: Derek Dooley, Rep. Mike Collins, R-Ga., Rep. Buddy Carter, R-Ga., and Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga. (@DerekDooleyGA via X; Bill Clark via Getty Images; Rep. Buddy Carter official U.S. House of Representatives portrait; Amanda Andrade-Rhoades/AP Photo)
The ad asked, “What do Mike Collins, Buddy Carter and Jon Ossof have in common? They all failed and shut down the government.”
“It’s what happens when you send career politicians to D.C.,” the narrator states.
The ad garnered quick criticism from sections of the Georgia Republican Party as a betrayal of President Donald Trump’s and the GOP’s national messaging on the shutdown being Democrats’ fault.
Kemp, who is in the midst of his second term as governor, has endorsed Dooley in the primary race.
Collins took to X, writing, “I’m not sure why the governor’s nonprofit…
