Republicans once saw Georgia as the crown jewel of their Senate pickup opportunities. They’re now blaming each other as the GOP primary unravels into an intraparty brawl that could cost them their chance of defeating Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff.

The party is grappling with a crowded field, no dominant front-runner, no endorsement from President Donald Trump — and the reality that the May 19 primary will very likely extend into an expensive, bruising mid-June runoff.

Rep. Mike Collins (R-Ga.), a close Trump ally, leads in public polling, with fellow Rep. Buddy Carter (R-Ga.) and Gov. Brian Kemp-endorsed former football coach Derek Dooley battling for second. But a large share of voters remain undecided, underscoring how fluid the race is. Meanwhile, incumbent Ossoff — who faces no primary challenge of his own — is keeping his powder dry and has amassed a formidable eight-figure campaign war chest ready to deploy in the general election.

“If Ossoff could write a playbook for how he wants this primary to go, this is exactly it,” said a GOP operative, who, like others interviewed for this story, was granted anonymity to speak candidly about the race’s dynamics. They said that Georgia is like a "red-headed stepchild" not getting any attention from Washington.

Republicans point to several unforced errors that got the party to this point. Some say their current challenges were set in motion last year, when they failed to convince the state’s popular outgoing GOP governor, Kemp, to run for Ossoff’s seat. Others point to a lackluster effort by the National Republican Senatorial Committee to recruit a stronger crop of candidates or unify the field. Many also fault Trump and Kemp, who have had a sometimes-testy relationship, for failing to agree on a candidate they both could support to avoid a costly primary.

“It's not ideal that it looks like it's going to runoff,” said Cole Muzio, president of the conservative Frontline Policy Council. “There was so much talk about Kemp and Trump getting together and finding a nominee together, landing the plane on one person. I'm not going to try to sort out what happened with that, but a unity nominee would have been ideal.”

The early finger-pointing that has emerged in conversations with a dozen GOP strategists and officials in Georgia reflects their deep frustration with the state of their primary — and their chances of holding onto the Senate majority. The party is fending off competitive Democratic candidates in several red states as voters sour on Trump's agenda, making flipping Georgia even more of a priority.

"It's a mess that could have been much less messy if they had figured this out six months ago," said a second Georgia-based Republican strategist unaffiliated with any campaign. "Everybody's resigned to this going to May and then a June runoff and then pick up the pieces after that."

Early general election polling shows Ossoff leading all three potential GOP candidates in a head-to-head matchup. After five years in the Senate, he has built a formidable political operation, churned out razor-thin statewide wins and amassed a sizable fundraising cushion.

“Jon Ossoff has $24 million. Jon Ossoff is on TV all of the time, carefully articulating his positions, grilling Tulsi Gabbard — really being methodical,” said Ryan Mahoney, a GOP strategist unaffiliated in the race. “He has tons of resources — great name ID, a lot of exposure — while the Republicans are fighting against each other, trying to see who can break out and ultimately be the nominee.”

“He's just in a great position,” Mahoney noted.

Still, several Republicans say they’re confident about their prospects in a state that Trump won in 2024, and they expect money and outside support to dramatically ramp up once their nominee is decided.

“Republicans created this problem. We created this problem and it's not any one person,” the second GOP strategist said. "I still think a Republican can win, I just think we're making it way harder.”

With around 40 percent of likely GOP primary voters still undecided, according to recent public polling, the Senate candidates have been jockeying for Trump’s blessing — an endorsement that could be pivotal in deciding the future of the race.

All three candidates have engaged with the White House directly. In an interview with conservative host Clay Travis’ Outkick podcast, Dooley said he met with Trump in the Oval Office last year and had a “very engaging conversation.” Carter, for his part, told POLITICO in a brief interview that his campaign continues “to talk to the administration” about the race. Collins and the president have also met and discussed the race, according to a person familiar with the conversation. In February, Collins appeared onstage with the president during an event in Rome, Georgia, focused on Trump’s economic agenda.

Collins’ campaign recently released a lengthy memo outlining his argument for why the field should coalesce him around the primary. “[Democrats] are watching Republicans turn what should be the best pickup opportunity of the midterms into a needless intraparty squabble that wastes time and resources,” the memo reads. “Instead of spending the majority of 2026 focused on defeating Jon Ossoff, Republicans are on track to not be unified until late June, after a runoff, leaving the Republican nominee only four months to raise money and campaign across the largest state east of the Mississippi to unseat the Democrat.”

Most outside groups have been waiting to line up behind a clear front-runner, though Club for Growth PAC, a major conservative super PAC, has already endorsed Collins’ campaign — an unusual step for a group that usually acts in lockstep with the White House’s political strategy.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment regarding Trump’s thinking about the primary or his conversations with the three candidates.

Then there’s the Kemp factor.

After the governor declined to run, Republicans feared the primary could become a proxy war between himand Trump, who’ve previously clashed over Trump’s insistence that the 2020 election in Georgia was fraudulent. That hasn’t quite played out, with the president staying out of the race so far. But Kemp’s decision to back Dooley, the former football coach, means it’s unlikely they’ll find common ground.

Dooley has no prior experience in politics. State voting records show the former coach did not vote in presidential elections in 2016 and 2020 — attack fodder for his opponents as they seek Trump’s endorsement. (He did vote for Trump in 2024.)

“It's no secret that the profile of a candidate that President Trump would prefer is much different than the profile of a candidate that Governor Kemp would prefer,” said a third local GOP strategist, who is unaffiliated in the race. “The nexus between those two just made it very hard, if not impossible, to come out with a consensus candidate.”

Garrison Douglas, a spokesperson for Kemp, doubled down on the governor’s support for Dooley in a statement and said he isn’t “wasting time worrying about the complaints of anonymous consultants.” Dooley spokesperson Connor Whitney said he’s confident Georgia voters will “choose the only political outsider in this race — not another stale D.C. politician.”

Carter spokesperson Chris Crawford rejected the criticism of running a messy primary, saying that “only in Washington do consultants think voters choosing their nominee is a problem.”

Collins, in a statement, expressed confidence in his ability to win the primary, and added that his campaign “would welcome any help to ensure we could wrap this up in May and get on to the main event."

With Georgia in a holding pattern, some local Republicans worry that Washington’s attention is drifting toward Michigan, where former GOP Rep. Mike Rogers has unified the party — and the president — around him in the state’s key battleground Senate race as a trio of Democrats battle it out in their own messy primary.

“There's offense and defense. I think on offense, [Georgia] is still a top race. I think the only difference is that Michigan is a clear field. Rogers is ready to roll. He's raising money. Dems have a mess on their side over there,” said one national Republican familiar with the party’s midterm strategy, who was granted anonymity to discuss behind-the-scenes planning.

Still, the person said they believe Georgia remains competitive, particularly if Republicans unify.

In a statement, Nick Puglia, a spokesperson for the NRSC, said Ossoff “is the most vulnerable incumbent on the map” and Georgia “has been and remains a top state for Republicans to expand President Trump’s Senate Majority.”

But Republicans in the Peach State are skeptical.

“I sense from some Republicans a feeling that maybe Michigan is a better opportunity, and of course, one of the reasons … for that is, ‘well, the field’s been cleared,’” said a fourth GOP strategist in Georgia.

“It feels like D.C. is shifting to Michigan because of a problem that they could solve today,” said the second Georgia-based GOP strategist.

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The six Democrats who urged military servicemembers in a video not to comply with illegal orders notched a significant legal win when federal prosecutors failed to criminally indict them. Now they’re looking to gain political momentum and build their campaign war chests.

“We are not done,” said Pennsylvania Rep. Chrissy Houlahan at a press conference alongside fellow House members.

“We will continue to push back. The tide is turning and accountability is coming,” Colorado Rep. Jason Crow said in a video posted to social media.

Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin said in a fundraising email: “They tried to indict me.”

The group of Democrats, including two senators and four House members with backgrounds in national security, came out swinging against President Donald Trump and the Justice Department Wednesday for what they said was an abuse of power and a threat against all Americans’ right to freedom of speech. In addition to a flurry of social media posts and two afternoon press conferences, several have been making the cable news rounds and scheduled appearances on high-profile late night TV shows — signs that they see political opportunity in Trump’s attacks and are hoping to bottle that clout.

"Democrats have limited power at the federal level right now and need to leverage every opportunity to capitalize on Trump's overreach and lawlessness to raise the necessary funds to ensure we have a balance of power at the end of the midterms,” said Democratic strategist Adrienne Elrod. “It takes resources to get our message out, hold Trump to account, and win back seats, and I'm glad these members are seizing on this moment and fighting back.”

As Democrats sharpen their attacks against Trump heading into the midterms, his Justice Department’s unprecedented attempt to prosecute the Democratic lawmakers — most of whom represent crucial battleground states like Michigan, Arizona, and Pennsylvania — has inadvertently elevated their profiles. And the Trump administration, by failing to secure an indictment after months of public sparring with the Democrats and threats from the president, has bolstered their credibility as bare-knuckle fighters who can take on Trump and win.

In this attention-driven political economy, Trump has given a valuable boost to a group of Democrats that includes some with an eye toward future leadership positions in the party – including for Slotkin and Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona, who are often discussed as potential future presidential candidates.

“Trump has elevated them by his baseless attacks and his attempt to weaponize the judicial system against them that has flopped so hard,” said Democratic strategist Ian Russell. “That certainly has given them a platform – an even larger platform – as leaders who are focused on keeping our country safe, serving those who serve us, and so forth.”

The six members of Congress released a video on social media late last year urging military servicemembers to ignore illegal orders amid questions about the legality of the Trump administration’s strikes on alleged drug boats from Latin America. That quickly drew Trump’s ire and prompted the launch of an investigation into the group that they lambasted as politically motivated.

The Department of Justice’s failure to indict the Democrats gave them a new opportunity to draw attention.

“Today wasn’t just an embarrassing day for the Administration. It was another sad day for our country,” Slotkin posted on X Tuesday night, as the first reports circulated that a grand jury had rejected the attempt to indict her and five Democratic colleagues.

Slotkin has become one of the party’s most prominent voices as it seeks to chart a path out of the political wilderness. Seizing on the new political attention — which can be hard to come by in a Republican-controlled Washington — she sent a fundraising appeal the next morning, held a press conference, went on TV and sent a barrage of posts on X.

“The investigations kept coming when we were quiet. So, if it's going to be bad when you're quiet, you might as well go on offense and have this conversation publicly,” Slotkin said in an interview on MS Now.

The strategy reflects a broader dynamic for the Democratic Party: Trump’s actions often serve as their best fundraising tool. A POLITICO analysis of ActBlue data this week found that many of the party’s largest online fundraising spikes last year came after a Democrat stood up to — or was attacked by — Trump.

“Trump elevating them is the kind of thing that makes Democratic donors, strategists, activists, go, ‘Ah, I like what I see,’” said Russell, the Democratic strategist.

That dynamic has proven especially true for Kelly, who is also in a protracted public battle with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth over the video. Hegseth initiated a review of Kelly’s public comments that could demote the Navy captain’s rank and reduce his retirement pay. Kelly has sued to halt the review.

Kelly has emerged as a top Democratic fundraiser, the POLITICO analysis found, dominating online fundraising for weeks after the Pentagon announced the investigation even though he’s not up for reelection this year.

Shortly before news broke Tuesday night that a grand jury had declined to charge the Democrats, the Arizona senator blasted out another fundraising appeal that nodded to his legal proceedings. “What we need from this team, right now, is the peace of mind that Mark has all the resources he’ll need to stay the course,” said one fundraising email signed by “Team Kelly” on Tuesday.

At least two of the House Democrats investigated by the Justice Department sent similar pleas for cash in recent weeks. Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.) – who serves as one of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s recruitment co-chairs – asked supporters for $10 after detailing the federal inquiry opened into the video, and Rep. Chris Deluzio (D-Pa.) made clear in his own pitch that he would not “be intimidated by any harassment campaign.”

In addition to fundraising appeals and appearances on cable news shows, the House members — which also includes Maggie Goodlander of New Hampshire — presented a unified front at a Wednesday press conference, casting the effort as political retribution.

“This was about Donald Trump trying to send a message, a message that if you dare step out of line, if you dare dissent and speak up and push back against his agenda, that you will be crushed,” Crow, the Colorado Democrat, said at the press conference.

Longtime Democratic strategist Jesse Ferguson said the failed indictments — and broader message of retribution — gives lawmakers in his party a potent political argument: Democrats were right when they warned that Trump was going to use the justice system for his personal retribution.

“He proved they're not the boy who cried wolf,” he said. “They're the meteorologist who predicted the hurricane.”

© AP