Mechanical engineering junior Stone Cox and English and political science junior Hannah Barrios from the “Reach” ticket have won the 2020 Student Government presidential election after the primary election resulted in a runoff between all three pairs of candidates.
Due to a complaint filed from the “Reach” campaign alleging the “Envision” campaign had violated the election code, the votes for the primary election were not counted. For the runoff election Cox and Barrios exceeded the 50 percent of votes required for them to win by over nine percent with 2,183 total votes. Mi’Kel Granville and Sophia Pollman, who campaigned under the Envision ticket, received 1,347 votes, or 36.94%. Independent candidates Desh Gaskins and Hayden Robert received 116 votes, or 3.18% of the total vote.
“We were really excited,” Barrios said. “It was obviously a lot of work and months put into this, so it was very rewarding to win.”
Barrios is looking forward to implementing their platform’s initiatives. She said that they have a lot of ideas about new outreach initiatives and ways to reach more students on campus.
“I am most excited to work with the administration and represent the students during this unprecedented time,” Cox said. “I think it’s a really great time for students’ voices to be heard.”
SG meetings have moved online, but Cox and Barrios said they are working harder than ever through Zoom and Facetime.
“My friends will call and ask me about my day and I’ll just say ‘I literally do the same thing every day. I wake up, I do student government until the night time and then I watch a movie,’” Cox said.
Cox and Barrios are confident that they can still fulfill the promises that they have made to the student body, even with the disadvantage of starting the process off campus.
“Definitely would rather be back at LSU, but this is allowing me and Hannah a lot of time to really work and commit to Student Government,” Cox said.
Cox and Barrios ran on a platform of sustainability, accessibility, inclusivity and health and safety, and they both have participated in SG since their freshman year.
