by Stanley Dunlap, Georgia Recorder, [This article first appeared in the Georgia Recorder, republished with permission]

May 9, 2025

Georgia Republican Congressman Buddy Carter announced Thursday that he’ll run for Senate in 2026, entering into what’s sure to be a crowded field of Republican candidates looking to unseat Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff.

Carter, who’s serving his sixth term as congressman representing a coastal Georgia district, launched his campaign  with an ad declaring himself an ardent backer of the MAGA agenda to “put America first.”

The Pooler Republican is entering the race days after presumptive GOP favorite Gov. Brian Kemp announced he was declining to run for the U.S. Senate in 2026.

“Last November, Georgia spoke, but Jon Ossoff doesn’t care,” the Carter campaign ad says. “He fought against President Trump securing our border, and voted for men in girls sports. Jon Ossoff is on the wrong side. Trump has a warrior in Buddy Carter.”

Ossoff’s U.S. Senate campaign manager Ellen Foster said their campaign was unfazed by Carter’s announcement.

“Sen. Ossoff will defeat any challenger,” she said in a statement. “While the GOP primary field scrambles to outmaneuver each other and audition for Donald Trump’s support, Senator Ossoff’s campaign is already building the most effective and unstoppable turnout effort in Georgia’s history.”

Since 2015, Carter has represented Georgia’s 1st Congressional District, which includes Savannah. Carter serves on the House Budget, Energy and Commerce committees in Congress. He previously served in the Georgia Legislature for a decade.

Carter becomes the first established Republican candidate to publicly declare for the Senate race. Among the other candidates who have indicated interest are Reps. Mike Collins of Jackson and Insurance Commissioner John King.

Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, another stalwart Trump ally, was considered a possible candidate, but she announced on social media Friday that she does not plan to run.

Democratic Party of Georgia Chairman Charlie Bailey said Carter’s alignment with Trump’s policies puts him at a disadvantage.

“Buddy Carter jumping out of the gate as a self-described ‘MAGA warrior’ only means that over the next eighteen months he will have to own Donald Trump’s tariffs that are increasing costs for Georgia businesses and families, Medicaid cuts, anti-abortion extremism, devastating budget cuts hitting seniors, veterans, and kids, and so much more,” Bailey said in a statement.

“Georgia Republicans are clearly heading towards a messy, chaotic, and disastrous primary,” he said.

Emory University political science professor Andra Gillespie said Carter’s announcement is part of a strategic plan to gain name recognition in a contest that is expected to be highly competitive with no clear front runner.

Gillespie said Carter will look to appeal to Trump supporters without polarizing a segment of voters who like another potential candidate.

The Senate election will show where Georgia’s shifting political parties stand after the pandemic-affected 2020 election and the 2022 midterm election in which Republicans regained some control, Gillespie said.

“If we look at 2022 in the other statewide races, it looked like Georgia was coming back to equilibrium with Republicans winning, albeit by single digit margin, even though in many instances it was healthy single digit margins,” Gillespie said. “But when (U.S. Sen.) Raphael Warnock won over Herschel Walker, it reinforced the idea that Georgia has become competitive enough that if the Republican candidate is really problematic Democrats have a shot at winning.”

“The 2024 presidential election also reflected what is probably still the norm of Georgia in that the state probably still leans Republican,” Gillespie added. “Even understanding that those national conditions might be a little bit more favorable for Democrats this year, Georgia still looks like it’s leaning Republican.”

Charles Bullock, a political science professor at the University of Georgia, anticipates that whichever Republican Senate candidate emerges from the primary in 2026 will close some of the gap in polling against Ossoff.

He said the harder part is becoming as popular as Kemp in state politics.

“What Kemp’s term as governor has shown is that people approve of the job he’s done, and therefore he attracts large numbers of independents and even some Democrats,” Bullock said. “So it doesn’t mean that other Republicans couldn’t do that, but they’ve got to work a lot harder to get there.”

So far, the Democratic Party is making the Senate race a referendum on Trump, Bullock said.

“How much of a vulnerability that proves to be in a general election will in part depend upon what the state of the economy is,” he said.

Georgia Recorder reporter Ross Williams contributed to this report. 

This post was updated at 9 a.m. on May 10 after Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene announced she will not run for Senate in 2026.

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