Jess Errico and Meredith Spence Beaulieu have won the runoff election for student body president and vice president during the 98th session of Student Government, beating out their opposing candidates, Alberto Quiroga and Zach Lewis with over 700 more votes.
The Errico-Spence Beaulieu ticket received 57.77 percent of the student votes. A little over 4,700 students voted in the runoff election.
“We are thrilled for one, super excited,” said Errico, a fourth-year studying mechanical and aerospace engineering. “We feel humbled by all the support from the community, humbled by the people who came out and wanted to support us.”
According to Spence Beaulieu, a fourth-year Ph.D. student studying entomology, her and Errico received a lot of support and help from their campaign team.
“We’re just so proud of our team,” Spence Beaulieu said. “It’s been a real team effort in forming the platform and getting out there, we’re just so thankful for all of that support.”
Errico said that she believes they received student votes because of the team.
“I think they voted for both us as a pair but then us as supported by the people that we were supported by,” Errico said. “As much as they voted for us to be in these roles, they voted for their faith in the people on our campaign team, their faith in the student groups who had a chance to look things over.”
The pair had many supporters and members of their campaign team present at the runoff election reveal. James Withrow, a graduate student majoring in entomology and member of the Errico-Spence Beaulieu campaign team, said the pair’s loyalty to the student body helped them win the election.
“I think the fact that they really were so student centered and they really cared about representing the students and what students wanted rather than what they thought students wanted,” Withrow said. “I think that they’re clearly going to do the best job at really bringing students on board and figuring out how to best represent us.”
Andy Lam, a second-year studying science education and member of the Errico-Spence Beaulieu campaign team, said that the ticket and their team put in a lot of work into the entire election process.
“I am so happy with the outcome,” Lam said. “We worked so hard on this, our team. Jess and Meredith have worked so hard. Jess has literally pulled all nighters… the hard work really paid off.”
Former student body presidential candidate Taylor Pulliam, a third-year studying political science, and his running mate Cat Duble, a third-year studying business administration and communication, both agreed that Jess and Meredith were supportive of them throughout their time campaigning.
“Throughout the whole time, Jess and Meredith were nothing but nice to us,” Pulliam said. “They ran a very clean campaign and I think it showed in their personalities.”
Duble also emphasized that she believed they were the ticket deserving of win.
“The biggest thing I felt from them was that we were all in it together,” Duble said. “Even though we were running against each other they supported us… Very genuine people. They are great people, they deserve to win this.”
Opposing candidate Alberto Quiroga, a fourth-year studying aerospace engineering, said that regardless of the loss, he was proud of his campaign team and supporters throughout the election season.
“All we can say is we lost fairly, and we ran a clean campaign and that’s what matters at the end of the day, keeping it clean from our side,” Quiroga said. “I’m proud of our supporters, I’m proud of the people who were here, much congratulations to Jess and Meredith.”
During the runoff election results, the Board of Elections also corrected a previous mistake made during the election results on Tuesday. The Student Government referendum proposed to include gender neutral pronouns in student body documents did not pass, as it requires a two-thirds vote, which it did not receive.
Runoff results for a Senate seat in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences were also announced. Sydney Singleton, a first-year studying history, won the seat with 62.57 percent of the votes.
With the elections cycle over and her position secured as student body president-elect, Errico said that she is looking forward to implicating the promises in her and Meredith’s platform.
“I’m looking forward to having and being in a role where we can do these things and where we will do these things,” Errico said. “I’m excited to advocate for students. I’m excited to listen to what students want and need and have a path for helping those things come about.”
Presidental Candidates Jess Errico and Alberto Quiroga shake hands after the announcement that Errico, a fourth-year studying mechanical and aerospace engineering won Student Body President on March 1 in Talley Student Union. Errico ran for Student Body President alongside her Vice Presidental candidate Meredith Spence-Beaulieu, a fourth-year Ph.D. student studying entomology.
