After a voting session with record turnout, the Clayton/Lee ticket won the 2017-18 Student Government Association election with approximately 63 percent of the vote.
“Words can’t express how it feels right now,” vice president-elect Alan Lee said. “We’ve put in so many hours of work. We’ve worked so hard, everyone gave 110 percent; it’s just surreal. Our whole campaign team gave everything that they had and it’s a really good feeling.”
Almost 560 more votes were cast than in last year’s SGA election, with 3,068 students casting a ballot.
“We have so many wonderful people around us to thank. I think we’re just really grateful and we’re really excited about this opportunity,” president-elect Anderson Clayton said. “There were a record number of votes for an SGA election and I think that says it all. The students care, and we’re going to care. We’re going to try to make this the best year for SGA yet.”
After the announcement was made in Three Top Mountain in the student union, Clayton and Lee made their way to the hallway where they were greeted with cheers from the students assembled outside, many of whom worked on their campaign.
Current SGA president Jalyn Howard said he’s very excited about the results and feels Clayton is the most experienced candidate and will not shy away from speaking the truth no matter who she’s talking to.
Naula Ndugga, judicial board chair for the student government elections and chair for student conduct, said she was excited to see such a high student turnout.
“I think it says a lot about the Clayton Lee campaign, that so many people were willing to come out for them and show up for them, so I’m excited to see what they do for the school next year and what they do for the students,” Ndugga said.
Jeff Cathey, director of student engagement and leadership, said that while the campaigns were fiery and opinionated he felt that drove voter turnout.
“I think all the campaigns did the best that they could within the context of the university and politics and everything else to run the campaigns as well as they could, understanding that there are a lot of factors that come in to campaigning on a student campus and being empathetic towards that,” Ndugga said.
Clayton thanked the people who helped support the campaign, and acknowledged that it had been a long road.
“We’re all just collectively excited and can’t wait to get started,” Lee said.