The three top Republican contenders for U.S. Senate met Sunday for the first time on a debate stage, sharpening their strategies in real time as they compete for the nomination to take on Democratic incumbent Jon Ossoff.
U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter showed off a newly aggressive posture against fellow U.S. Rep. Mike Collins, echoing attack ads he launched last week that targeted his rival over a pending ethics complaint accusing Collins’ office of misusing taxpayer dollars.
Collins dismissed the allegations as a “bogus” complaint from an anonymous critic, then used the Atlanta Press Club showdown to highlight his own case that he is the best candidate to defend President Donald Trump’s agenda.
Derek Dooley took a different tack, blending an outsider pitch with a more pragmatic critique of Washington dysfunction. He argued that Republicans need a different kind of leadership to take on Ossoff and break through the gridlock in Congress.
They shared the stage with Jonathan McColumn and John Coyne, two long-shot contenders who have struggled to break through.
The debate featured familiar Republican attacks on Ossoff, flashes of policy disagreement and one blistering confrontation between Carter and Collins. Dooley, meanwhile, in his first-ever political debate avoided head-on attacks.
And while the three jockeyed in different ways for Trump’s support, the hourlong back-and-forth offered a vivid preview of another central question in the race: which Republican can most effectively harness MAGA voters while also attracting voters they’ll need to defeat Ossoff in November.
Here are the takeaways:
A clash between Carter and Collins
Credit: Miguel Martinez/AJC
Credit: Miguel Martinez/AJC
The sharpest moment of the debate came when Carter went directly at Collins over the ethics complaint, turning the accusations into a blunt warning about electability.
Carter’s message to Republican voters was simple. If you nominate Collins, he said, Democrats will mercilessly weaponize the complaint to help Ossoff.
“If taxpayers can’t trust you to properly steward their money, how can they trust you to be a U.S. senator?” Carter asked.
Collins was ready.
“You know Buddy, I can tell through your voice that you know how the polling is going,” he said, dismissing the complaint as a politically motivated shot, then unloading on Carter as a career politician with an unreliable conservative record.
“I also find it very embarrassing that you’re out there campaigning as a conservative, but you vote as a liberal,” Collins said. “So if you want a conservative, he’s not your Buddy.”
Carter fired right back, accusing Collins of dodging a valid question that could haunt the GOP if he wins the nod.
“Mike: If you’re our candidate, we lose. You’re under federal investigation,” Carter said of the complaint, which is under review by the House Ethics Committee.
“I’m telling you that the Democrats will eat that up and we will lose again.”
Carter and Collins clung to Trump. Dooley tried another lane.
Credit: Miguel Martinez/AJC
Credit: Miguel Martinez/AJC
The contrasting strategies were on display in the opening moments, as Carter and Collins wrapped themselves tightly around Trump’s conservative brand while Dooley tried to chart a different lane.
Carter cast himself as the experienced hand who could best help Trump fulfill his agenda, boasting of his appearances on cable TV backing the president.
“When President Donald Trump was reelected in 2024, he promised two major things. First of all, that he would make this country more prosperous and that he would make us safer,” Carter said. “I would submit to you that he’s done both of those things.”
Collins argued Republicans should stay the course, portraying himself as a reliable ally of the president and his economic platform.
“The young people out there today just do not have the opportunities that we had when I was their age,” he said, saying the “America First” proposals would “get the government off the backs of these hardworking men and women.”
Dooley, too, has unequivocally backed Trump. But he also used the debate stage to sharpen the rationale for his candidacy: Washington is broken, politicians caused it, and an outsider mindset is the cure.
“We’ve seen a rise in careerism, we’ve seen a rise in corruption,” Dooley said. “But mostly it’s the inaction. We’re yelling and screaming and we’re not working together to deliver results for the people of Georgia. That’s why I’m running.”
Carter defended his Greenland bill
Credit: Miguel Martinez/AJC
Credit: Miguel Martinez/AJC
Carter used one exchange to embrace one of Trump’s most unconventional foreign policy ideas and remind voters he didn’t just support it. He sponsored legislation around it.
It was a nod to Carter’s measure that would authorize Trump to negotiate for a takeover of Greenland and rename it “Red, White, and Blueland” after acquisition.
Onstage, Carter tried to move the idea from punchline to policy, arguing Greenland offers strategic military value and access to critical minerals. It also served as another example of how Carter is running on an unabashedly pro-Trump platform.
“It doesn’t matter what the name of it is, but it would be a win-win situation,” Carter said. “It’d be a win for them. They would become a part of America. It would be a win for us, because we would get a strategic location, and that would help us militarily.”
Dooley hones stance on abortion
Credit: Miguel Martinez/AJC
Credit: Miguel Martinez/AJC
Dooley, whose wife is an obstetrician, was pressed on Georgia’s 2019 anti-abortion law, which restricts access to the procedure as early as six weeks after conception of a pregnancy.
“The issue of abortion has divided our country my entire lifetime, and I stand right where Donald Trump is, right where the Supreme Court is,” Dooley said, adding that it should be left to the states. “So I won’t support any federal intervention at all into this issue.”
Pressed on whether he personally supports the law, signed by his top ally Gov. Brian Kemp, Dooley distanced himself from the details without calling for federal action.
“It’s not the way I would have written it,” he said. “But listen, that’s the law of the land. It’s been that way for six years, and I just don’t think the U.S. Senate and federal government should weigh in.”
The candidate-to-candidate round mostly fizzled
During the candidate-to-candidate portion, often the sharpest segment of any debate, the candidates mostly played nice.
Collins lobbed a friendly question to McColumn about veterans’ issues, and Dooley used his turn to ask another lower-tier candidate, Coyne, about healthcare.
Instead of using a rare chance to confront their chief rivals directly, two of the leading candidates sidestepped conflict.
Republicans split on tactics but united on Ossoff
Credit: Miguel Martinez/AJC
Credit: Miguel Martinez/AJC
For all the friction among the leading contenders, the candidates repeatedly returned to the same message: Republicans need to unite to defeat Ossoff.
Carter blamed Republicans for ever allowing Ossoff to win in the first place. Dooley framed the race as a chance to “get this Senate seat back to the people of Georgia.”
Collins accused the Democrat of failing to represent Georgia values.
“Our current senator, Jon Ossoff, doesn’t represent us,” Collins said. “He votes like his California donors want.”
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