Austin school board candidate raises $50K in race for the at-large District 8 seat

Fernando Lucas de Urioste, who is running for the at-large District 8 seat on the Austin school board, has far outraised his opponents in that race as well as any other candidate seeking a school board post, according to the latest campaign finance reports.

De Urioste raised $50,278 in campaign contributions from Aug. 9 through Sept. 26, far more than any of the other six Austin school board candidates who submitted campaign finance reports out of the eight running in contested races.

Two candidates are vying to represent District 2 , a single-member district that encompasses Southeast Austin, and six people are jockeying for the District 8 seat , an at-large seat that represents the entire district. Incumbents Kevin Foster and Lynn Boswell are running uncontested in the Districts 3 and 5 races, respectively.

Dylan "Sky" MacAdams and Nick Franke, who are both running in the crowded District 8 race, didn't submit campaign finance reports, according to the Austin district.

Of the $50,278 De Urioste raised, $15,000 came from Education Austin, a local union that represents teachers and other Austin school employees. Education Austin endorsed de Urioste in the at-large race and has a history of giving thousands of dollars in political contributions to its chosen candidates.

An additional $7,000 came from family members with the de Urioste surname.

De Urioste's wife Rachel Stone, who works with the Guadalupe Neighborhood Development Corp., a long-standing Austin nonprofit that provides affordable housing in East Austin, donated $5,000 to the candidate. He also received $10,000, his second-highest donation during this reporting period, from Susan Stone, his mother-in-law.

Campaign contributions

By comparison, de Urioste's opponents, Amy Moore and Lindsey Stringer, each raised $6,078.43 and $2,392.63 respectively, according to campaign finance records.

Moore gave herself $1,026.63 in donations, but most of her other contributions came from people living in Austin and each were $500 or less.

Of the $2,392.63 that Stringer raised, $1,000 came from the Leadership for Educational Equity Texas PAC, a New York-based civic leadership development organization.

Nathaniel Hellman declared having raised no money during this reporting period.

The District 2 race, which has two people running for the seat, also features one candidate vastly outraising the other.

LaRessa Quintana raised $16,658.90, compared with Sarah Ivory having raised $1,712.54 during the latest reporting period, according to campaign finance documents.

Like Stringer, Ivory got a $1,000 donation from Leadership for Educational Equity.

Quintana collected a $5,000 donation from Education Austin, which endorsed her.

Quintana also received small donations from Democratic lawmakers from Austin, such as $237 from state Rep. John Bucy and $250 from U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett. Quintana also got $237.20 from Lauren Hadley, the legislative director for newly elected state Sen. Molly Cook, D-Houston.

It's not unusual for Austin school board candidates to raise tens of thousands of dollars during a campaign. In 2022, current school board President Arati Singh raised and spent more than $47,000 between Sept. 30 and Oct. 29, according to campaign finance reports. Singh holds an at-large seat. In just the month of October 2022, current District 6 school board member Andrew Gonzales — who unseated the board's then-President Geronimo Rodriguez that year — raised almost $32,000.

Early voting begins Monday. Election Day is Nov. 5.