Now we know why Eddie Speir has never filed his personal financial disclosure

Eddie Speir has made his supposed business success a central argument for sending him to Congress.

His campaign presents him as an entrepreneur, innovator and experienced organizational leader. He points to the companies he founded and Inspiration Academy, the nonprofit school he created and still leads, as proof that he knows how to build and manage successful organizations.

But there is one document Speir has repeatedly failed to provide voters: the personal financial disclosure required of congressional candidates.

Speir has now run for Congress twice. In neither campaign has he filed it.

During his 2024 challenge to U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan, Speir’s committee reported more than $550,000 in receipts, including $500,000 in loans from Speir himself. That is a hundred times the $5,000 threshold that triggers the disclosure requirement. Yet the House Clerk’s database shows no disclosure from that campaign. Not even a request for more time.

This year, Speir clearly knew about the requirement. His campaign requested an extension on May 13, moving the deadline to July 19, the latest date allowed before Florida’s Aug. 18 Primary.

That deadline passed.

As of July 28, the only filing under Speir’s name in the Clerk’s candidate database, from either campaign, is the extension request itself. No personal financial disclosure has ever been filed.

The disclosure would show voters Speir’s assets, income, liabilities, outside positions and financial agreements. Campaign finance reports disclose campaign money. They do not reveal what a candidate personally owns, earns or owes.

Federal law provides for a civil penalty of up to $75,540 for a knowing and willful failure to file. Such a failure can also carry criminal penalties.

After two campaigns, voters are entitled to ask why a man who constantly advertises his business acumen has been so reluctant to open his own books.

His school’s latest tax return may offer a clue.

Inspiration Academy operates under the tax-exempt nonprofit 21st Century Ministries Inc. Speir is listed as its Chair and Director, working an average of 40 hours per week.

Its newest Form 990 tells a very different story from the one Speir presents on the campaign trail.

In the last two reported years, the organization lost a combined $1,111,823. It finished the fiscal year ending May 2025 losing $524,198, after losing $587,625 the year before.

Tuition and other program revenue fell nearly 11%, from roughly $2.7 million to $2.4 million.

Those losses have nearly erased the school’s financial cushion. Net assets plunged from $716,781 to just $192,583 in one year, a decline of more than 73%.

Meanwhile, mortgages and secured debt more than tripled, from $161,933 to $528,828.

A school can have a difficult year. But consecutive losses each exceeding $500,000, falling tuition revenue, a 73% collapse in net assets and secured debt that has more than tripled are not minor setbacks.

They are the financial record of an organization in serious distress.

The questions about how Speir uses that organization never went away, either.

His use of Inspiration Academy for political purposes drew scrutiny during his last campaign, when the Sarasota Herald-Tribune’s Steven Walker reported that Speir was running his campaign from the same address as the tax-exempt school. Experts consulted by the paper warned the arrangement put the school’s nonprofit status at risk.

Those questions have followed him into this campaign. Earlier this cycle, a Republican Executive Committee member confronted Speir at a DeSoto County Republican meeting and asked why he was still running his campaign out of his nonprofit school. When Speir denied avoiding the issue, she pushed back directly: “Oh yes you have.”

The issue is whether Speir’s campaign paid fair-market value and whether school property, employees or other nonprofit resources were used for political purposes. Federal law prohibits a 501(c)(3) nonprofit from directly or indirectly using its resources to support or oppose a political candidate. Yet Speir’s own social media continues to promote political events at Inspiration Academy featuring numerous local candidates.

For what it’s worth, the school’s newest tax return covers the fiscal year in which his 2024 campaign ran its final months. Asked whether the organization engaged in any direct or indirect political campaign activities, it answers “No.”

Despite facing these questions in his last campaign, Speir has never provided a clear accounting of the relationship between his campaign and the school he runs. That omission matters even more now that the school’s tax return shows six-figure losses, falling tuition revenue, rising debt and rapidly shrinking assets.

Speir says Washington needs his business expertise.

The available financial record suggests another possibility.

A rank-and-file member of Congress earns $174,000 a year, more than twice the $72,004 Speir reported earning from Inspiration Academy in its latest filing. His wife, Claire Speir, a fellow board member, drew another $53,572 from the school.

Perhaps Speir has an explanation for the losses, the falling tuition revenue, the rising debt and his continued use of the nonprofit in connection with his campaign.

There is a simple way to begin providing one: File the personal financial disclosure required by law.

Until then, voters are left with a candidate campaigning as a successful entrepreneur while the organization he manages burns through its assets and reports seven-figure losses.

Maybe Eddie Speir is not running for Congress because his business record makes him uniquely qualified for the job.

Maybe he is running because he is in desperate need of a career change.

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Ed. note: This story was drafted with assistance from AI. Editorial judgment, sourcing, and final review were performed by Peter Schorsch and the Florida Politics editorial team.