The results are in: Mike Buck still lost the GOP race to be Georgia’s next schools superintendent.

Buck requested a recount Tuesday after the initial vote from the July 22 runoff election showed him trailing his opponent by 713 votes out of more than 398,000 cast.

But final recount results on Thursday showed only a vote gained in favor of Buck, the state’s current chief academic officer for the Georgia Department of Education.

Irwin County educator Richard L. Woods is now the Republican nominee to be state superintendent. He will face off in November with Democrat Valarie Wilson, the former chairwoman of the City Schools of Decatur school board.

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(Photo Illustration: Philip Robibero / AJC | Source: Getty)

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Inventor Lonnie Johnson stands with his Super Soaker water guns at JTEC Energy on Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025, in Atlanta. Johnson, a former NASA engineer, is currently working on a new energy technology through his company’s JTEC device that turns thermal heat into usable energy. (Natrice Miller/AJC)