The danger of Trump missing endorsement in Georgia’s US Senate race

Until he picks a favorite, they are going to have to run so far and fast to the right that they may need a road map and a shovel to get back to the middle when it’s time to try to win over Georgia’s crucial moderate voters in November.

So what does it look like to be vying for the Trump endorsement in a battleground state? For Carter, it means not just endorsing the president’s idea of the U.S. acquiring Greenland; it means he introduced the bill in Congress last year to authorize Trump to purchase “or otherwise acquire” the country and change its name to “Red, White and Blueland.”

Carter was also the first member of Congress to write to the Norwegian Nobel Committee last summer to nominate Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize. That was long before the eventual winner — the resistance leader of Venezuela — gave Trump her prize at the White House earlier this month.

When Carter became the first Republican to get into the Senate race, he put $2 million of his own money behind an ad campaign calling himself a “MAGA warrior.” More recently, he called for the arrest of Minnesota’s Democratic Gov. Tim Walz and amplified Trump’s call to indict Minnesota leaders under the Insurrection Act. Earlier this week, Carter deemed Trump’s first year in office an “A+.”

What else does a guy have to do to get a Trump endorsement around here?

Mike Collins may have the answer to that on his X feed, where he routinely and publicly praises and emulates the president.

“I would like to wish everyone, including all haters and losers, a truly happy and enjoyable Trump Inauguration One Year Anniversary!” Collins wrote earlier this week before listing Trump’s achievements in office, like signing into law the Laken Riley Act, which Collins authored, and “ending that trans troop crap.”

On the day after Trump used a military operation to capture and depose President Nicolás Maduro, Collins was on X with a video praising Trump’s “4-D chess move.”

“We are so back!” Collins said.

While Carter has been a MAGA warrior on paper, Collins has gone full MAGA influencer online. When ICE agents shot a woman in Minneapolis earlier this month, he posted to his followers the next day, “Good morning. Don’t try and run over any ICE agents today.”

Collins has been leading in polls of Georgia GOP primary voters, including one released this week showing him with 32% support. That number is certainly also helped by a robust organizing effort by Collins’ campaign and the fact that his father was a well-liked congressman named “Mac Collins.”

Speaking of famous last names, that brings us to Derek Dooley, the son of legendary University of Georgia football coach Vince Dooley. He entered this year’s Senate race with a nudge and an early endorsement from Gov. Brian Kemp, a longtime Dooley family friend.

Dooley told a Troup County GOP gathering this week that he’s as supportive as ever of Trump and his agenda, but he has a more easygoing style, closer to Kemp than the hard-charging Carter and Collins. While the congressmen were posting about ICE officers this week, Dooley was in LaGrange reviewing the hot dogs at Charlie Joseph’s. “Traditional red dog, boiled, you’ve got the steamed bun … this is tough to beat.”

The fact that Trump is holding back his endorsement, even with two MAGA warriors in the race, seems to help Dooley as he refines his policy pitches and hot dog reviews.

One area where Dooley may be more in line with Trump than the others is on abortion. While Collins and Carter have both said they oppose abortion without exceptions, the president has never gone that far. Dooley has been less definitive, saying the decision of how to legislate abortion access belongs to states.

Helpfully for his cause, Dooley also happens to look like someone you might cast as a senator in a movie about a senator. If anyone else were president, that might not seem important, but for this looks-obsessed White House, it probably goes a long way.

Eventually, with the Trump endorsement still dangling out there, Carter, Collins and Dooley may have to jump on board other issues that Trump cares about, like his claim that the 2020 election in Georgia was rigged against him (it wasn’t) or his opinion that his tariffs are making Americans rich, when really it’s Georgia business owners and farmers literally paying the price.

While all of this is going on, the Ossoff campaign is sitting back, raising boatloads of cash and taking copious notes on which factually dicey, occasionally offensive, downright scary ideas of Trump that the eventual GOP candidate has to get behind to win the president’s nod.

Expect Red, White and Blueland to be at the top of the list.