Someone Spent $565,000 to Pick Your Next State Senator — and It Wasn't You
West Virginia's May 12 primary is three weeks away. You'll walk into a polling booth and choose between candidates on a ballot — most of whom you've probably never met, maybe never heard of.
What you likely don't know is that for some of those races, the most important decisions have already been made. In a conference room somewhere in Connecticut, Pennsylvania, or New York, a handful of very wealthy people decided which West Virginians should represent you. Then they wrote six-figure checks to make it happen.
We can prove it. The numbers are in the state's own campaign finance records, and they don't lie.
Meet Sugar Maple PAC
Registered as an Independent Expenditure PAC with the West Virginia Secretary of State, Sugar Maple PAC raised $565,000 in the first quarter of 2026 — all of it targeted at West Virginia state legislative races.
An Independent Expenditure PAC is a specific legal vehicle. It cannot donate money directly to a candidate's campaign. Instead, it spends that money independently — buying TV and digital ads, mailers, robocalls, door-knocking — to either promote a candidate or tear one down. The candidates it supports don't have to report that spending, and they can legally claim they have nothing to do with it.
That's the point.
Here's who funded it:
| Donor | Amount | Home State | Background |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jeff Yass | $100,000 | Pennsylvania | Billionaire; America's largest funder of school voucher campaigns |
| Thomas Klingenstein | $100,000 | New York | Conservative movement mega-donor; Claremont Institute |
| Yes Every Kid, Inc. | $100,000 | Virginia | National school privatization advocacy group |
| Sean Fieler | $50,000 | Connecticut | Hedge fund manager; school choice donor network |
| Steve Forbes | $25,000 | Mississippi | Editor, Forbes magazine; longtime voucher advocate |
| Trusted Causes LLC | $25,000 | North Carolina | Dark money conduit; school choice and conservative causes |
| Michael T. Escue | $25,000 | New York | |
| Snyder B. Lee | $25,000 | West Virginia | |
| Daniel Webb | $20,000 | California | |
| William C. Polacek | $15,000 | Pennsylvania |
Of the $565,000 raised, $520,000 — 92% — came from outside West Virginia.
The two largest contributors, Jeff Yass and Yes Every Kid, are specifically and nationally associated with one cause: privatizing public education through voucher programs and school choice legislation. West Virginia passed one of the nation's most expansive school voucher laws in 2021. This money is here to protect and expand that agenda.
What They've Spent — and Who They're Targeting
Sugar Maple has already spent $279,837. It has $285,163 still unspent with 21 days until the primary. That's roughly $13,500 a day that could start hitting mailboxes and airwaves at any moment.
Here's exactly where it's gone so far.
Candidates Sugar Maple PAC is SUPPORTING
All Republican. All state legislative races.
| Candidate | Office | Sugar Maple Spending | Own Fundraising | SM % of Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| T. Kevan Bartlett | State Senate | $39,191 | $11,805 | 77% |
| Laura Wakim Chapman | State Senate | $30,633 | $13,750 | 69% |
| Anne B. Charnock | State Senate | $26,083 | $24,897 | 51% |
| Jonathan Comer | State Senate | $16,473 | $23,222 | 42% |
| Chris Pritt | State Senate | $13,404 | $64,577 | 17% |
| Melissa McCrady | House of Delegates | $6,426 | $6,834 | 48% |
| Charles "Dutch" Staggs | House of Delegates | $6,210 | $6,400 | 49% |
| Don Dewitt | House of Delegates | $6,209 | $817 | 88% |
| Megan M. Krajewski | House of Delegates | $6,083 | $1,175 | 84% |
| Charles D. Hartzog | House of Delegates | $5,450 | $5,710 | 49% |
Look at those last two rows. Don Dewitt raised $817 from West Virginians. Megan Krajewski raised $1,175. Without Sugar Maple, those candidacies are barely visible. With it, they're viable — backed by the equivalent of a professionally funded campaign paid for by out-of-state billionaires.
T. Kevan Bartlett's campaign is 77% funded by Sugar Maple PAC. Seventy-seven percent of his campaign resources come from a political action committee bankrolled almost entirely by out-of-state money from people who have never lived here and will never send their children to a West Virginia school.
Candidates Sugar Maple PAC is SPENDING AGAINST
This is the other side of the ledger — sitting legislators the PAC wants gone.
| Candidate | Office | Sugar Maple Spending Against | Own Fundraising |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vince Deeds | State Senate | $36,799 | $14,425 |
| Tom Takubo | State Senate | $27,958 | $39,350 |
| Joseph Eddy | State Senate | $15,854 | $19,000 |
| Michael Jarrouj | State Senate | $15,279 | $111,584 |
| Clay Riley | House of Delegates | $6,593 | $82,463 |
| Scot Heckert | House of Delegates | $6,178 | $16,150 |
| Vernon Criss | House of Delegates | $5,759 | $32,300 |
| Jeffrey Stephens | House of Delegates | $4,856 | $7,600 |
| Gary G. Howell | House of Delegates | $4,400 | $9,275 |
Notice that every single name on both lists — every candidate being promoted, every candidate being attacked — is a Republican. Sugar Maple PAC is not fighting Democrats. It is fighting a battle inside the Republican Party to replace incumbents deemed insufficiently loyal to the school privatization agenda.
Vince Deeds is a sitting Republican state senator. So is Tom Takubo. Sugar Maple PAC is spending $64,757 combined to end their political careers — not because they're liberal, but because someone in Pennsylvania or New York decided they weren't useful enough.
The Comparison That Should Make You Angry
While Sugar Maple PAC sat on half a million dollars of out-of-state money, West Virginia's own teachers and education workers — the people who actually show up every day in our public schools — managed to scrape together $1,750 in total direct donations to candidates across the entire state this quarter.
$285,163 still unspent in Sugar Maple PAC.
$1,750 total from West Virginia teacher PACs.
That's a 163-to-1 spending ratio with the primary still three weeks away.
Why School Privatization Money Comes Here
West Virginia's 2021 Hope Scholarship Act created one of the broadest school voucher programs in the country, allowing public funds to follow students to private and home schools. In the 2023–24 school year alone, the program cost the state approximately $96 million — money that came directly out of the public school funding formula.
For the investors and ideologues funding Sugar Maple PAC, West Virginia is not a charity case. It's a proving ground. If you can pass and sustain aggressive school privatization in a state this poor, this rural, and this dependent on public institutions, you can do it anywhere.
Jeff Yass has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on school choice races across the country. For him, $100,000 in a West Virginia primary is a rounding error. For the students in a rural county school that just lost its art teacher to budget cuts, it's everything.
What You Can Do
1. Look it up yourself. Every number in this post came from the West Virginia Secretary of State's Campaign Finance Reporting System at cfrs.wvsos.gov. Search "Sugar Maple PAC." It's all there.
2. Ask the candidates. If you live in a district where Sugar Maple PAC is running ads or sending mailers, ask the candidate they're supporting what they think about that. Ask whether they support the Hope Scholarship expansion bills in the 2026 session. Ask them directly.
3. Vote in the primary. May 12 is not just a general election warmup. This is where the race gets decided, and it's exactly why out-of-state money concentrates here. Low primary turnout means outside money has more leverage. Show up.
4. Tell people. Share this post. The mechanism only works in the dark.
Sources
All campaign finance data sourced directly from the West Virginia Secretary of State Campaign Finance Reporting System (CFRS), Q1 2026 filing period (January–March 2026) and independent expenditure reports filed through April 2026.
- Sugar Maple PAC contributions: WV CFRS registrant search
- Sugar Maple PAC expenditure data: WV CFRS IE reports
- Candidate fundraising totals: WV CFRS Q1 2026 contributions file (8,832 records)
- Teacher/education PAC totals: WV CFRS Q1 2026 contributions file
- Hope Scholarship program cost: WV Department of Education, 2024 annual report
All data reflects filings available as of April 21, 2026. Campaign finance reporting is ongoing — not all contributions or expenditures for the Q1–Q2 period have been filed yet. Final pre-primary reports are due 10 days before the May 12 election.