On Thursday night, the results of the Associated Student Body runoff elections for president and secretary were announced. Elam Miller won the presidential race with 53.51 percent of the vote, defeating opponent Wister Hitt, and Cady Cooper won the race for secretary with 52.16 percent of the vote, defeating opponent Reagan Moody.
“We had around 3,300 votes cast today, which is great for a runoff election,” Associated Student Body Attorney General Dillon Pitts said.
Miller said he was grateful to his campaign team members and that they’ve meant the world to him over the past two weeks of campaigning.
Elam Miller (in tie) celebrates with his campaign team after being announced ASB President. Miller won the vote with 53.5 percent of the vote. Photo by Billy Schuerman
Miller, the current ASB vice president, ran on a platform of making sure everyone has a voice in the student government, holding the university administration accountable and making ASB more transparent.
“I’m excited to implement my platform and follow through with everything I’ve been saying from the beginning,” Miller said. “I plan to make sure that everyone who wants to be a part of their student government can be in ASB and that it actually has all members of the student body in it.”
Student Activities Association Executive Director Brady Ruffin served as Miller’s campaign manager and said he respected Hitt and his campaign but said he was glad the student body embraced Miller’s platform.
“As soon as we found out we were in a runoff, we went straight to work,” Ruffin said. “(The strategy) has been to promote Elam and everything that he stands for and everything he’s done as vice president and will continue to do as president. His platform is so viable and possible.”
Regarding her win, Cooper said she was shocked, humbled and honored and is grateful for the people who organized her campaign.
Cooper, who started out as a write-in candidate, campaigned on a platform of making the Senate more transparent, posting meeting minutes online within 24 hours of the meeting and making senators’ voting records public record, instead of students having to request them.
“I plan to definitely get to work with the other ASB (executive) officers, make time to get to know them and start working on my platform,” Cooper said. “First off, I want to make sure (the officers) are all unified. It has been the most amazing experience to start as an unofficial candidate and have so many people come behind me and support me.”
Junior business management major Hailey Strother served as Cooper’s campaign manager, and said everyone on the campaign team was supportive, despite the hectic process as a write-in candidate. Strother said Cooper first approached her and said the election seemed like a great opportunity to get involved.
“It was definitely a very chaotic process at first, but it paid off,” Strother said. “Basically, we just had to sit down one night and write down our entire strategy, and we just kept going.”
All ASB elected officials will be inaugurated April 13 to start serving in their new roles.
