One of four remaining candidates for Chicago School Board president is suspending his campaign, saying he’s come to the conclusion that he cannot compete with the special interest groups pouring money into the election.
Sendhil Revuluri’s name will still be on the Nov. 3 ballot, but he said Tuesday that he’s “not willing to spend either an irresponsible amount of my own money or spend more of others’ time, money and energy trying to keep up when these other groups have leaned into messaging that’s completely unrelated to student success, but is backed by a lot of resources.”
“More Chicagoans gave more to this campaign than to any other candidate. It still was not enough to keep pace with the flood of outside money,” said Revuluri, who was trying to return to the board after serving as vice president under former Mayor Lori Lightfoot.
This is the first time Chicago voters will elect the school board president in a citywide contest, along with 20 members who will represent 20 geographic districts. The president is an especially important position because that person is responsible for deciding what items make it onto monthly school board meeting agendas.
Revuluri is the second presidential candidate to drop out. The remaining candidates are current school board member Jessica Biggs, former Chicago Teachers Union deputy political director Hilario Dominguez and prominent defense attorney Victor Henderson.
Revuluri, a former math teacher who now works on start-ups and as a leadership consultant, was the first to announce his campaign almost a year ago. He was motivated by the current partly elected, partly appointed board that he said spends a “very small fraction” of time on district goals or academics.
Revuluri got an early start on fundraising and still has the most money, but the $750,000 in his coffers includes $400,000 that he loaned to his campaign. The second biggest contributor to his campaign is Chicago Democrats for Education, a political action committee launched by heavyweight political consultant Hugo Jacobo during the first school board election in 2024 to support “independent” candidates for the school board.
But Revuluri said on Tuesday that his support was dwarfed by backing that other candidates have received from labor unions. About $2.2 million have been pumped into the campaign coffers of school board presidential candidates, including the loans from candidates to themselves.
So far, the Chicago Teachers Union and its related political groups have spent $276,000 on Dominguez, according to Illinois State Board of Elections records. The Service Employees International Union gave Jessica Biggs $160,000 and a related PAC, Brighter Futures, has spent another $237,000 on ads supporting Biggs.
Once allies, the CTU and SEIU became estranged after CTU organizer Brandon Johnson was elected mayor SEIU Local 73, which represents CPS support staff, accused the CTU of using its newfound power to try to raid its members.
Revuluri insists this feud has nothing to do with “ensuring student success.” Instead, he said it has become about political vendettas, ideology and drama.
If he had been elected school board president, Revuluri said he would have created an evaluation process for the superintendent and tried to hold her accountable for student achievement. He also said he would be open to closing schools, but instead of doing it to save money his focus would be to move students out of very small schools that often lack a variety of classes and programs.
Revuluri also said he would have tried to confront the school district’s budget reality — a dig at the current board that approved a budget based on uncommitted city and state funding that may not materialize.
Revuluri said he is not endorsing any of the remaining candidates.
“I haven’t yet seen evidence that Biggs, Henderson or Dominguez have the integrity and courage that’s needed to do this job effectively,” he said. Revuluri said he won’t back anyone until he sees “some evidence that they are going to be willing and able to govern effectively for our students’ success.”