After a head-scratching election season, SGA has a new executive president.
In a close election that pitted two friends against each other, junior Morgan Bodenarain was elected Tuesday over junior Rachel Hobbs as executive president. Senior Kyle Porro, current SGA executive president, said that the total vote came down to 37. Over 2,200 total students voted.
The task now falls on Bodenarain to appoint her executive council, an unorthodox move spawned by no one campaigning for Executive Vice President, Executive Secretary or Executive Treasurer. Bodenarain said that while she was excited that she won — which was clearly evident when she was laced with hugs from close friends — she is ready to get to work.
"It's going to be a good year," Bodenarain said.
Porro said that Bodenarain face some trials in terms of populating SGA, but believes she will be successful because of her drive and work ethic.
"I think she's going to do a great job," Porro said. "She's going to have it tough when making decisions about choosing her senate, but I know she's going to be great."
Bodenarain said she'll look within SGA for candidates to fill the executive positions. She is also open to looking outside of SGA for other needed positions, such as at large councils to broaden the organization's perspective.
"I've already been taking to leaders outside of SGA to help everyone feel like they have a voice," Bodenarain said.
One thing Porro said probably benefited Bodenarain was her campaign strategy. She posted a series of videos on Facebook to outline her platform, made up of themes such as school spirit and inclusivity. She also created a hashtag on Twitter — #MorganBforEp. Porro said while he believes Hobbs would have been just as successful if she were elected, Bodenarain's plan was enough to push her over the top.
"They both just campaigned differently," Porro said. "But throughout the whole process, they were both super close."
Other winners for elected positions were junior Bob Minton for Class of 2018 President, junior Spencer Wagner for Class of 2018 Senator and junior Victoria Phillips for Class of 2018 secretary.
Class of 2019 winners were sophomores Sophie Zinn and Ryan Rudinger for senator and sophomore Maxwell Pivonka for president.
Class of 2020 winners were freshmen Katie Wakiyama and Julia Field for senator, freshman Samantha O’Connor for secretary, freshman Amanda Yaffa for treasurer, freshman Konnor Porro for Vice President and freshman Olivia Murray for President.
The only Academic Council result was junior Karl-Luis Neubig for senator of the Love School of Business.