by Niles Francis, Georgia Recorder, [This article first appeared in the Georgia Recorder, republished with permission]

July 27, 2025

Georgia Insurance Commissioner John King on Thursday suspended his bid to challenge Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff after a private phone call with Gov. Brian Kemp, who told King and other candidates he would not support their campaigns as he works behind the scenes to anoint a preferred candidate.

“I got into the U.S. Senate race to beat Jon Ossoff, not distract from the mission,” King said in a statement shared on X. “Right now it’s clear there’s little path forward to the nomination, so today I’m suspending my campaign.”

He said he now plans to run for a second full term as insurance commissioner.

King, a Spanish-fluent native of Mexico, was appointed to his post by Kemp in 2019 and became the state’s first elected Hispanic statewide official when he secured a full term in 2022. He was previously a street cop before working his way up to police chief in Doraville, a majority-Hispanic suburb of Atlanta.

He also came into the race with an extensive military background, having spent a combined four decades in the U.S. Army and the National Guard. His missions included deployments to the Middle East, building pop-up hospitals during the coronavirus pandemic and cracking down on illegal immigration at the U.S. border with Mexico, according to his campaign website.

Despite his impressive resume, his campaign left a lot to be desired. He lacked the financial resources of his rivals and wasn’t able to unite the party’s competing factions: MAGA diehards who prioritize loyalty to President Donald Trump and establishment-minded conservatives who would much rather talk about things like tax cuts.

His exit comes as the governor is said to be working the phones in support of Derek Dooley, a former coach at Tennessee and the son of the late Georgia coaching legend Vince Dooley. It’s not clear when or if the younger Dooley will join the contest, but he is lining up a political team full of staunch Kemp allies and has been sounding a lot more political in interviews despite having never run for office before.

Kemp might have nudged King out of the race, but his involvement doesn’t seem to be deterring other candidates — at least not yet. U.S. Rep. Earl “Buddy” Carter, a wealthy pharmacist, was the first to enter the contest in an effort to try and lock up the MAGA lane, even switching a lot of his social media photos to pictures of himself sharing a thumbs-up with the president.

The St. Simons Island Republican’s campaign did not hold back when asked about Kemp’s involvement: “Politicians don’t elect our Senators,” his campaign said. “The people of Georgia do.”

After announcing that he wouldn’t run himself, Kemp had committed to working with the White House toward a consensus candidate. But his moves behind the scenes to elevate the former Volunteers coach have “frustrated and p—d off” those close to the president, as one advisor said to Fox News.

And U.S. Rep. Mike Collins, who has been hinting at a Senate run for months, seems likely to enter the race within days. A trucking company owner from Butts County, Collins’ father Mac spent most of the 1990s representing the same northeast Georgia district his son now holds.

Collins’ support for immigration crackdowns and his bombastic presence on social media have made him something of a celebrity in MAGA world, which means the party could be headed for the proxy war it wanted to avoid. The conservative congressman was also an early supporter of Trump’s 2016 bid for the White House, while Dooley doesn’t appear to have much of a voting history.

“When Mike Collins enters the race, he will likely become the frontrunner,” says Martha Zoller, a radio host who is close with the governor. “His work on the Laken Riley Act cannot be underestimated regarding how that resonates with Republican primary voters.”

Zoller added that the candidates are only speaking to primary voters right now and suggested that whoever wins the primary will need to recalibrate before going toe-to-toe with the well-funded Ossoff.

“The general election is a whole different ball game.”

Georgia Recorder is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Georgia Recorder maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jill Nolin for questions: info@georgiarecorder.com.