by Ty Tagami | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — A former Democrat who switched to Republican in the Georgia House of Representatives is challenging longtime State School Superintendent Richard Woods for next year’s GOP nomination.
Mesha Mainor, who clashed with Democrats over her support for private school vouchers, joins several Republicans who want to prevent Woods from winning a fourth term as the state’s education leader.
In July, Fred “Bubba” Longgrear, superintendent of the Candler County School District, said he would challenge Woods in the primary. Randell E. Trammel, who lives in Cartersville and is CEO of the Center for Civic Engagement, announced his candidacy in June, nearly a year after Nelva M. Lee. She is a Locust Grove entrepreneur Gov. Brian Kemp had appointed to a two-year term on the state Board of Community Health in 2021.
Mainor cast herself as an independent voice, saying she switched from Democrat to Republican because they represented “authoritarianism.”
“I left the Democratic Party because I refused to follow the political agenda of radical Democrats and the American Federation of Teachers that puts government authoritarianism over parents and children,” Mainor said Wednesday.
The former state representative from west Atlanta switched parties in 2023 after Democrats and some Republicans united to stop legislation to create a school voucher program. Mainor voted with the Republican majority to pass the voucher bill when it returned in early 2024.
But her district provided a deep well of votes for Democrat Joe Biden in the 2020 election, and she lost her seat to a Democrat in the November 2024 general election.
The state school superintendent leads the state Department of Education and is responsible for distributing state and federal funds to Georgia’s 180 school districts. The superintendent must ensure those funds are used appropriately and must make sure schools follow the law and state Board of Education rules. The superintendent can also make recommendations to the state board.
