Standing above the small crowd on a wooden staircase, Karen Floyd, the Republican candidate for state superintendent of education, reiterated her campaign message to Aiken supporters at a fundraising event Monday.

"We can be agents for change or be objects of change," Ms. Floyd said while discussing her plans for reforms in South Carolina education if she is elected in November.

The event on Newberry Street, held by Aiken High School parent Joy Albrecht, welcomed local Floyd supporters, including Reps. Skipper Perry and Roland Smith, both R-Aiken.

"I have great confidence that she will be good for education," Mr. Smith said.

More Republican Party and Floyd supporters than local educators attended, but June Cannon, the first Aiken Floyd endorser, said Ms. Floyd mentioned the word "discipline," which attracted her to the campaign.

Part of Ms. Floyd's campaign platform includes instilling more discipline in school. Part of her method includes engaging pupils with nontraditional classrooms. She's also an advocate of cutting back teacher paperwork and reforming the Palmetto Achievement Challenge Tests to reflect more diagnostic information.

Ms. Floyd will face Jim Rex, the former president of Columbia College; Arnold Karr, a correctional system teacher; and Tim Moultrie, a teacher, in the Nov. 7 election.