Republican Ellen Weaver outraised by challengers last quarter in SC schools chief race
South Carolina Superintendent Ellen Weaver holds a cash advantage over her Democratic challengers in the race for state schools chief, despite trailing both in fundraising last quarter, campaign finance reports show.
The Republican reported just under $50,000 cash on hand at the end of the first quarter of 2026, or roughly three times more than either of her challengers had available, but raised just a fraction of what they did, according to campaign finance reports filed with the South Carolina Ethics Commission.
Democrats Lisa Ellis and Sylvia Wright, who are competing for their party’s nomination in the June 9 primary, had $16,500 and $1,300 in their campaign accounts, respectively.
Baba Amin Ojuok, who is running on the United Citizens Party ticket, has not filed a campaign finance report.
Despite holding a sizable cash advantage, Weaver’s fundraising is well below what it was four years ago when she first ran for the office.
The Republican has raised just $140,000 this cycle, including $9,400 that has been returned to donors who gave more than the maximum contribution of $3,500.
That amount is down significantly from 2022, when she smashed fundraising records by bringing in more than $270,000 through the first quarter of that year and a half-million by the end of that primary cycle.
Matt Moore, managing partner at First Tuesdays Strategies, which is running Weaver’s campaign, attributed the dip in contributions to his candidate’s changed circumstances.
Unlike four years ago, Weaver is currently running the South Carolina Department of Education and lacks a primary challenger.
“The superintendent is focused on her more-than-full-time job, which is serving students, teachers and parents,” Moore said. “But when the time is right she can raise whatever’s needed to win.”
Wright, a former teacher and district curriculum coordinator, narrowly trails Weaver in her total campaign haul, and easily outraised the incumbent during the first quarter of the year, campaign finance reports show. The career educator, who has been campaigning for more than two years, has raised $129,000 in that time, about half of which came last quarter.
Wright has been spending her money as it comes in and has run cash deficits for most of the past year, but said Thursday that she had what she needed to sustain her campaign until the June primary.
“Of course, I need more money, because with more money I can reach more people,” she said. “But as a teacher, we have to use whatever resources we have and be strategic with it and make it work. And that’s what I’ve been doing with this campaign. I’ve been making it work.”
Ellis, who faced off against Weaver in the 2022 general election, is currently behind both the Republican and her Democratic primary opponent in the fundraising game.
The founder of the grassroots teacher advocacy group SC for Ed had raised $44,000 by the end of March, according to campaign disclosures.
Ellis, a student activities director in Richland School District 2, said she thought the economy and the current state of politics in the country had depressed political giving.
“A lot of what’s happened at the federal level is sadly trickling down into state and local offices,” she said. “It’s making those of us further down the ballot a little bit harder for us to fundraise, just because of the nature of politics right now.”
While Ellis’ fundraising is behind the other candidates this cycle, she’s actually ahead of where she was in 2022, when she entered the race in late March and had raised only $12,500 by the end of the first quarter of that year.
Who’s donating in SC state superintendent race?
Much like she did in 2022, Weaver has raised her campaign cash from a smaller number of big dollar donors than her opponents.
The Republican’s average donation size this cycle is $799, or nearly 10 times that of either of her Democratic challengers, campaign filings show.
More than 10% of the 175 donations the Republican has received this cycle were max donations, and five donors actually contributed more than the legal limit, campaign filings show.
As of last week, Weaver’s campaign had returned the excess donations to all but one of those donors.
Wright and Ellis have both generated considerably more individual donations than Weaver this election cycle, but the vast majority of those donations were for $100 or less, campaign disclosures show.
Through the end of March, Wright had received 1,461 donations with an average size of $87.98 per donation, and Ellis had gotten 762 donations with an average size of $58.03 per donation.
What are candidates spending their money on?
Over the first three months of the year, Weaver and Ellis spent about the same amount on their campaigns, while Wright spent significantly more than either.
The political newcomer spent $55,000 during the first quarter of 2026, and has dropped $127,000 on her campaign since it launched two years ago.
Wright split her spending this past quarter fairly evenly between campaign management ($16,600), marketing ($13,705) and staff ($11,500), disclosures show.
Weaver, who spent just $22,000 during the first quarter of the year, used most of that money on strategic and compliance consulting, with another $8,560 going to pay her candidate filing fee.
Ellis’ candidate filing fee also ate up a considerable portion of the $19,000 she spent this past quarter, with another $4,000 dedicated to consulting fees and about $2,100 spent on paid calls and texts.