Incumbent Richard Woods won the Republican nomination for Georgia state school superintendent despite recent criticisms of his record on literacy, his waning relationships with lawmakers and his opponent’s well-funded campaign.
Woods captured 51.5% of the votes, compared to Bubba Longgrear’s 48.5% as of 10:19 p.m. In the May primary election, Woods received 49.9% of the votes while Longgrear received 29.1%, barely making it to the runoff.
Woods will face the Democratic nominee, Hampton High School Assistant Principal Lydia Powell, in the November general election.
Woods has served as the state’s school superintendent since 2015, but he only received around $30,000 in campaign contributions from individuals compared to Longgrear’s approximately $210,000 from individuals and $105,000 from corporations and committees. That’s not including the $830,000 that political action committee Conservatives for Strong Schools spent in independent expenditures on digital ads and mailers to unseat Woods, funded by a $900,000 contribution from America Works Fund Inc.
Woods has also recently come under fire from state lawmakers who say he was disengaged with the legislative process for a bill to fund one literacy coach in every school offering kindergarten through third grade.
Around 35% of third graders in the 2024-25 school year achieved literacy proficiency, which many of the eight original candidates in the race cited as a reason for challenging Woods.
In fact, several state leaders in education — House Speaker Jon Burns, House Education Committee Chair Chris Erwin and Senate Education Committee Chair Billy Hickman — have made their stances clear by endorsing Longgrear.
Longgrear is the superintendent of the Candler County School District, a rural district with a little over 2,000 students, and serves as the president of the Georgia School Superintendents Association. He said he can strengthen the Georgia Department of Education’s relationships across the state.
“It is more of a compliance organization that strictly holds people accountable but doesn’t provide the support, doesn’t provide the cohesive relationships, and people are working in isolation,” Longgrear said in an interview with WABE.
Woods has responded to the criticisms over his record on literacy at an Atlanta Press Club runoff debate.
“With literacy, I think we have to look at what has been accomplished,” he said during the debate on Monday. “I did get rid of Common Core. I hired a literacy coordinator, Amy Denty, the best in the state, hired a literacy coach who was the best in the state, Nick Philmon. You know, we trained teachers throughout the state of Georgia in preparation of our new standards that we rolled out this year.”
He also said he helped overturn Common Core testing standards and called for literacy coaches well ahead of this year’s legislative session.
Under his administration, the state launched the private school voucher program Georgia Promise Scholarship, giving K-12 students in low-achieving public schools up to $6,500 for private tuition and expenses.
