West, Smith secure bid for StuGov president, vice president

Cody West (left) and Cody Smith (right) are running for president and vice president for the 2017-18 academic school year, respectively.

Alex Connor
March 9, 2017

Cody West and Cody Smith will serve as the next Student Government president and vice president, according to preliminary election results announced Thursday evening.

The two secured 54 percent of the overall vote and received nearly 1,000 more votes than opponents Conner Tillo and Rachael Barnes, who secured 41 percent of the votes.

Write-ins for president and vice president received just 4 percent of the total votes overall with 321 votes. Those running an announced write-in campaign included Anthony Chavez and Emeline Hanscel, who were hoping to bring a conservative voice to Student Government.

West and Smith campaigned on four main issues they hope to tackle during their administration including building community, restoring tradition, reinventing residency and working toward purposeful outreach.

West currently serves as vice president of Student Government with Cole Staudt, and Smith currently serves as the Student Government public relations chair and United Residents off-campus senator.

Noah Collins, election commissioner, said the voter turnout this year was fantastic, with nearly 1 in 4 students voting.

This is almost a 10 percent jump in voter participation from last year, Collins said, and nearly double what the turnout was two years ago.

“I have no words. I’m a busy student, and I can’t thank every other busy student who came out and showed their support. I truly can’t thank everyone enough. I can’t wait to do this for another year,” West said.

Smith backed this sentiment.

“You can’t do this without a team. I want to thank everyone who supported us, all our family and friends. It was awesome running with this other campaign, they did a great job. The turnout was great, and that’s due to us and the other campaigns,” he said.

Outside of the executive slate, students cast their vote for all 37 senate seats available. Other candidates elected include:

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences senators