Sendhil Revuluri has suspended his campaign for Chicago school board president, becoming the second candidate to drop out of a citywide race now dominated by union money, a billionaire-backed committee and a self-funded trial lawyer. Revuluri said he cannot compete with the special interest groups pouring money into the election and is not willing to spend an irresponsible amount of his own money, or more of others' time, money and energy, just to keep pace with outside spending.
Revuluri's exit, first reported by WBEZ Chicago, leaves three candidates standing in the historic race for Chicago's first citywide-elected school board president: current board member Jessica Biggs, former Chicago Teachers Union deputy political director Hilario Dominguez, and defense attorney Victor Henderson. Revuluri said his name will remain on the November 3 ballot, but he is not endorsing any of the three, telling WBEZ he has not seen evidence that Biggs, Henderson or Dominguez have the integrity and courage needed to govern effectively. He said he won't back a candidate until he sees proof one can govern effectively for student success.
A Second Moderate Exits an Uncapped Race
Revuluri is the second presidential candidate to drop out this year, following incumbent board member Jennifer Custer, who exited in August citing the insurmountable burden of competing against millions of dollars in special-interest spending, according to Hoodline's prior reporting. The pattern points to a structural problem: Illinois campaign finance law strips away contribution limits for every candidate in a municipal race once any single candidate loans or contributes $100,000 or more to their own campaign. That threshold was triggered in July when Henderson, a former Holland & Knight executive partner and past president of the 22,000-member Chicago Bar Association, loaned $500,000 to his own committee, effectively opening the race to unlimited outside cash.
Per WBEZ, Revuluri had raised roughly $750,000 for his campaign, including $400,000 he loaned himself, with Chicago Democrats for Education serving as his second-largest contributor. WBEZ reports the group, launched by Hugo Jacobo during the first school board election in 2024, backs independent candidates. Revuluri noted that more Chicagoans gave money to his campaign than to any other candidate, but said outside spending was still enough to outpace what he raised.
Where the Big Money Is Going
The scale of outside spending in the race is considerable. Illinois election records cited by WBEZ show the Chicago Teachers Union and related political groups spent $276,000 backing Dominguez, while the Service Employees International Union gave $160,000 to Biggs and the group Brighter Futures spent another $237,000 on ads supporting her. Separately, the Chicago Teachers Union reported $4.23 million in total political spending in fiscal year 2025, directing 82 percent of its expenditures toward political and non-representational activities, and had spent over $207,000 supporting Dominguez by September, according to Illinois Policy.
Outside spending has also come from Common Ground Collective, a political action committee heavily funded by billionaire Michael Sacks, who added more than $900,000 to the group in September to back candidates opposing the Chicago Teachers Union, as Hoodline previously reported. Altogether, school board presidential candidates have received about $2.2 million in campaign funding, per WBEZ. WBEZ also reports that SEIU Local 73, which represents CPS support staff, has accused the CTU of trying to raid its members, part of a rift between the two unions that WBEZ says grew after CTU organizer Brandon Johnson was elected mayor. Revuluri told the outlet that feud is about political vendettas, ideology and drama rather than student success.
What Revuluri Would Have Pushed For
Revuluri, who served as Chicago Board of Education vice president from 2019 to 2023 under former Mayor Lori Lightfoot, brought a résumé spanning a South Bronx high school math classroom, CPS central administration and managing director at PEAK6 Capital Management, according to CBS News. He launched his campaign almost a year ago, motivated by frustration with a partly elected, partly appointed board that he said spends very little time on district goals or academics, per WBEZ.
Had he been elected, Revuluri said he would have created a superintendent evaluation process and held the superintendent accountable for student achievement. He said he would have been open to closing schools, but would have focused closures on moving students out of very small schools that lack varied classes and programs, rather than closing schools to save money. He also said he would have confronted the district's budget reality head-on, a pointed reference to the Chicago Board of Education's approval of a budget built on uncommitted city and state funding that may not materialize. WTTW News has reported the board's $10.11 billion budget relied on an 11-7 amendment assuming $150 million in uncommitted state funding from Springfield, added during an eight-hour meeting to avoid immediate layoffs.
A Historic Vote With Fewer Choices
This November marks the first time Chicago voters will elect a school board president in a citywide contest, alongside 20 school board members representing 20 geographic districts, completing a shift away from nearly three decades of direct mayoral control. The board president is responsible for deciding which items land on the monthly school board meeting agenda, a modest-sounding power that carries outsized weight in shaping district priorities.
With Revuluri and Custer both out, the race now comes down to Biggs, Dominguez and Henderson, candidates backed respectively by SEIU-aligned spending, CTU-aligned spending and Henderson's own self-funding. Chicago voters will decide among them on November 3.
