Correction Appended: The original copy said one of Isaac Davis’ goals as senate president if elected was to have unregistered guests in dorm rooms during Halloween weekend. The current copy states his goal was to have registered guests without a $50 fee.
The Unity Ticket of candidates for the Student Senate election received the most votes of any candidate for every race.
The ticket included Reagan Farmer, the current Senate treasurer, who ran for president and received 1,006 votes, according to the Student Senate Instagram post. The two other presidential candidates, Black Student Affairs Commissioner Kiandra Martin, who had no running mates, received 719 votes, and Vice President Isaac Davis, running with the Davis-Tandon-Price ticket, referred to as the ”Davis’ll Do it” campaign, received 458 votes.
According to the Instagram post, 2,281 students voted in the Senate election compared to 1,158 votes in the 2023-24 election and 638 votes in the 2022-2023 election. The post indicated that out of the last eight years, the 2023-24 election drew the largest voter turnout.
Farmer said she is incredibly happy with the results.
“I know we’ve had a ton of fantastic supporters throughout this entire campaign and all the members of our ticket have worked tirelessly to make sure students are informed about our campaign and our goals,” Farmer said.
Farmer said the Unity Ticket’s platform centers around transparency, ensuring funding for the Senate Appropriation Commission, or SAC, and allowing students’ voices to be heard, according to a previous Post report.
Other Unity winners included Dan Gordillo, who currently serves as the governmental affairs commissioner; he received 1,163 votes against the Davis’ll Do It candidate Ayshni Tandon, the current minority affairs vice-commissioner, who received 865 votes. Johnny Susany, the Unity candidate for treasurer and current governmental affairs vice-commissioner, received 1,295 votes against Hunter Price, who ran under Davis’ll Do It and received 739 votes.
Gordillo said relief is the only word to describe his feelings toward the results. He said if he lost he would likely not be in student government next year and losing the election meant losing something he felt near and dear to his heart.
He said he looks forward to making the rules and procedures document airtight and being responsible to his commissioners instead of for his commissioners.
“That change of preposition there I believe it's very important,” Gordillo said. “Commissioners are the building blocks of Senate. Without the commissioners, nothing gets done. And I have two years of experience under my belt as a commissioner, I know what it's like to be in those shoes. And I look forward to elevating my commissioners and, therefore, this government to be the absolute best that it possibly can be.”
Susany said he is thrilled with the results. He said as treasurer, he will make engaging with Student Senate and SAC funding easier and more transparent by building relationships with groups on campus.
Megan Handle, Student Senate president, said she extends her congratulations to the winners. She said the level of engagement in the election shows that students have bounced back from the pandemic; she said she’s excited to see what the new executives will do next.
“We’re going to hit the ground running as soon as we’re sworn in (at the last senate meeting of the year), continue that work throughout the summer, and continue to do outreach to students to see what their number one priority is,” Farmer said. “We will attack that head-on.”
Handle said while working alongside the Unity candidates, she thinks their vision and dedication to their positions and students are commendable. She said some key issues in debates that Unity members brought up were safety, lighting on campus, decreasing laundry and printing costs for Pell-eligible students and accessibility.
Martin committed her campaign to providing places for people whose voices are silenced to be heard. Her campaign slogan was, “A student for students.” She said, as president, she would have focused on fostering openness, accountability and inclusivity.
Martin did not immediately respond to requests to comment.
Davis’ campaign focused on B.O.R.G. objectives, which stands for Better dorm amenities, Open governance, Reducing barriers and Great times. These included specific goals such as putting communal cleaning supplies in dorm buildings, incorporating a three-strike rule for parking tickets before someone is fined, prohibiting classes on federal holidays and election days and allowing students to register guests in dorm rooms for free during Halloween weekend.
Davis was removed from the Senate Feb. 20 in a vote of no confidence. Handle said at that meeting that he was removed because he was not fit to remain in office. He was reinstated at the next week’s meeting and Handle said it was due to irregularities in the vote.
Davis said the elections must be voided because the candidates on the Unity ticket tampered with the results and engaged in a character assassination campaign against him with help from campus newspapers. He said Farmer, Gordillo, Susany and other Unity members should be disqualified from holding office in the Senate for their misconduct.
The misconduct Davis alleged includes the Feb. 21 vote that removed him, which Handle said at the meeting was because he was not fit to remain in office. Davis called accusations that led to his removal meritless.
Davis called upon students to hold members accountable, and he said there are “various formal means” that can invalidate the election and that he would be in touch with students with details on the processes very soon.
According to the Senate’s Instagram post, candidates or tickets have up to five days to appeal any decision of the Judicial Panel.
A report from The New Political about Davis’ removal and reinstatement sparked outrage from Davis and others who said it was a smear campaign. The report included anonymous Senate members who said Davis was not doing his job and alluded to rumors of alleged sexual misconduct, all of which Davis has denied.
The article caused a sit-out at the following Senate meeting, which Gordillo helped organize; the sit-out made it so the Senate did not meet the quorum and no business was conducted that day. Recently Davis called on Farmer and Handle to step down from their positions and for Farmer to remove herself from contention in the election.
He wrote in a message sent to The Post that evidence has come to light about the pair misrepresenting Senate votes and using them as proxies, though The Post has not independently verified those claims. Farmer said she could not comment on the accusation of misrepresenting Senate votes.
Other winners from the Unity ticket were Luke Vannus, SAC delegate at large; Landen Hensel, residence life senator; and Aidan Kirk, residence life senator, all of whom retained their positions under Unity. They received 1,369, 726 and 700 votes, respectively. Residence life senators have multiple seats in the Senate but Kirk and Hensel received the most votes out of all candidates.
Paige Fisher contributed to this report.
