Ty Kelley won the election for Student Government Association executive president in a runoff Monday against Adam Andrade.
Kelley won 553 votes while Andrade won 299 votes. A total of 890 students voted, with 38 abstaining.
Kelley and Andrade ran against Julia Kennedy in the election Friday, but none of the candidates received a majority of the votes. The SGA constitution requires a runoff between the two candidates with the most votes. Kennedy received more votes than Andrade, but she chose not to continue the election process over the weekend. Current president Danny Burke announced Monday morning that Andrade would face Kelley for the position.
Kelley, junior information technology major from San Antonio, said the runoff was unprecedented and at first he wasn’t sure how to move forward with his campaign.
“I reminded myself why I was doing it: I’m doing this to serve students,” Kelley said. “I’m excited to put my campaign into action.”
Kelley ran on a ticket with Rachel Jones, junior communication major from San Antonio, who won the election for vice president. Kelley said before running for office, he and Jones agreed the top two SGA leaders should have the same goals.
“That doesn’t mean we are going to agree on everything,” Kelley said, “but that’s OK knowing at the end of the day, we’re there to serve each other.”
Kelley and Jones will work to hire the executive cabinet, including an executive treasurer, chief financial officer, press secretary, chief of staff and marketing director. They will conduct an interest meeting with the current cabinet at 5:15 p.m. Wednesday in COBA 201.
“Danny really benefited from having strong leaders in his executive cabinet,” Kelley said. “Rachel and I are very adamant in hiring not just a good team, but an exceptional team.”
Andrade, a senior political science and management major from Fort Worth, said he was surprised to find out Sunday evening that he would be back in the race. He said he heard from some students that some irregularities were allowed in the election.
“There were a lot of things that I didn’t agree with, but I felt that I ran a race that was moral and ethical,” Andrade said. “I’m disappointed of course that I lost, but what happened has happened. That doesn’t mean I’m not going to be active in student government in the fall.”
Andrade said as a first-generation, Mexican-American student he felt “institutional racism” was revealed in the election.
“It felt like if you were from a social club, the right type of person, I feel like you’re guaranteed to win,” Andrade said. “I feel like there are things that could be done different to make the election more equitable.”
