Jeremy Johnson won the race for Student Association president Tuesday with 1,020 votes out of a total of 1,692. “I don’t know what to say, it’s overwhelming,” said Johnson, a senior chemical engineering major.
“It was a long, long campaigning process. I told myself I was just going to stick to promoting myself and what I wanted to get done for the university and tried to get people out to vote, and they came out. I’m just so happy.”
Johnson said an important part of the election process was campaigning across campus and making himself heard.
“After I turned in the forms of intent, it was a rush of campaigning and speaking and doing everything to get my name out there and get votes,” he said, “… election day was all about getting people to actually go vote.”
Johnson said he wants to be an advocate for the students. “I’ve been saying the whole time my first priority is the students, and that truly is my first priority,” he said. “I’m really going to hit the SA to be the pulse of the students. I want to really find out what students want and then do it. That’s my goal.”
Jeral Self, Johnson’s campaign manager, said she is ecstatic that he was elected SA president.
“We won a campaign that was clean, that was fun and that was productive, we got people out to vote, we got Jeremy’s name out there, and I think that the people of Mississippi State really saw Jeremy as a true representation of what this university is about.”
Caroline Adams, a sophomore international relations major, will serve as the new vice president. Nicole Wyatt, a senior communication major, will serve as secretary, and Braxton Coombs, a sophomore general business major, will serve as attorney general.
Elections commissioner Stewart Tirey said he was pleased with the candidates for putting on a well-run election.
“I was really impressed with the actual number of people that turned out today because we only had one contested race and it was a well-fought and clean election,” he said.
Coombs said he looks forward to serving with Johnson this year. He also said one of his goals is to increase student involvement in the SA.
“Based on the one race, I think it’s a great number of students to come out and vote,” Coombs said. “I definitely want to keep on trying to increase it over the next year and promote even more student involvement in the future.”
Wyatt said she is excited to serve as SA secretary and is looking forward to working with the new executive staff.
“I think we’re going to have a great year and change a lot of things around campus and really work hard to get what students want,” she said. “If any student has any ideas, [they should] come and talk to me or any of the officers, and we’ll do our best to get it done.”
A bill called Initiative One was also passed Tuesday. The bill states that there will be three permanent seats in the Senate for graduate students. It passed with 1,135 votes and will immediately go into effect.
The new officers will be sworn in March 8 at the annual inauguration held in conjunction with the SA banquet.