COLUMBIA, S.C. — State Superintendent Ellen Weaver will spend four more years steering South Carolina’s 72 public school districts after the Republican defeated Democrat Sylvia Wright on Tuesday in the tightest race of her career.
Weaver drew 1,031,719 votes, or 50.98%, in unofficial returns. About 56,000 votes separated her from Wright, and United Citizens Party candidate Baba Amin Ojuok picked up roughly 1%. Four years ago, in her first run, she carried 55.52%.
At the Republican election night gathering at the State Fairgrounds, Weaver thanked supporters and pointed to gains in student reading and math scores as proof the state is moving in the right direction.
Her second term keeps school choice at the center of state education policy. Weaver, who once led the Palmetto Promise Institute, has overseen the Education Scholarship Trust Fund, which gives families public money for private school tuition and other K-12 costs. The state Supreme Court partly blocked the program in September 2024, and a follow-up law passed about eight months later restored private tuition as an allowed use and widened eligibility.
Wright, a former teacher who most recently worked as a district coordinator in Dorchester 4, ran on expanding early childhood education and halting the scholarship program.
The superintendent does not directly run most districts. The state Department of Education is working to fix problems in Allendale, Marlboro and Jasper county schools and keeps some control over Williamsburg County schools.
South Carolina has not elected a Democrat as superintendent since 2006, when Jim Rex won by fewer than 500 votes.
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