BIG MONEY: Republican Senate hopeful Derek Dooley has landed a heavyweight backer. Executive Don Leebern III, a GOP megadonor, will serve as his campaign chair.

That gives the former football coach a well-connected financier with a national donor network. It’s another clear sign of Gov. Brian Kemp’s imprint on Dooley’s outsider campaign.

Kemp and Leebern III are longtime allies. The governor has urged donors to go all-in for Dooley’s campaign to win the GOP nod against U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, the Democratic incumbent.

“Derek Dooley is the only political outsider in this race and the only candidate who can defeat Jon Ossoff next November,” Leebern III said.

Leebern III, head of Georgia Crown Distributing, has poured roughly $700,000 into Donald Trump’s presidential campaigns over the past two cycles, plus more than $1 million to the Republican National Committee and various GOP causes.

He’s also dropped more than $20,000 to back U.S. Rep. Mike Collins of Jackson since his first congressional run in 2014. Collins is now one of Dooley’s top rivals.

The fight to lock up donors is quickly escalating. In July, Collins tapped railroad executive Ben Tarbutton III, another Kemp ally, as his finance chair. Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter of St. Simons Island has said he’ll draw deeper into his own fortune to help bankroll his campaign.