By Taylor Rexrode
Staff Writer
Richmond senior Wesley Hodges was announced as the 2013-2014 student body president at Thursday night before the Five For Fighting Benefit Concert. Arlington sophomore Dominic Edwards also won the office of internal vice president.
“The best part of this campaign is all the support and everyone I’ve met in these past three years believing in me,” Hodges said.
The race for external vice president has resulted in a runoff between Farmers Branch junior Lexington Holt and Fort Worth sophomore Dallena Nguyen. Neither of the candidates received 50 percent of the votes. A runoff election will be held on Tuesday.
Holt said she was not surprised by the close number of votes.
“There were three candidates, and it’s hard to come up with one candidate with over 50 percent of the vote,” Holt said. “I think both candidates left are very qualified. The runoff will tell how the students feel the future of the university should be.”
Nguyen said she is anxious to see the final results. “I’m glad both of us worked so hard in this campaign week,” Nguyen said. As of Thursday’s results, Holt received fewer than 36 percent of the vote and Nguyen gained approximately 34 percent of the votes.
Hodges will assume office June 1 along with Edwards and the external vice president runoff victor. He said that he plans to start where exiting student body president Kelly Rapp left off.
“I want to get a good grasp on what he wants to continue,” Hodges said. “I don’t want a jagged move from person to person; I want it to be as streamlined as possible.”
Hodges said he did not want to identify specific projects until consulting with Rapp. One of the first areas Hodges said he hopes to improve is undergraduate research. He won the election with just under 61 percent of the votes against Schertz senior Raechel Adams.
Soon-to-be Internal Vice President Edwards won his position with approximately 69 percent of the votes. He said he plans to start by staying true to his platforms of putting students first and maintaining transparency.
“I felt really led to run for this position,” Edwards said. “What helped me win was displaying that spirit to the student body. I want to make sure students are first.”
Student Senate will hold its next meet at 5 p.m. Thursday in 203 Cashion Academic Center where Hodges, Edwards and the new external vice president will be sworn into office and the transition to new leadership will begin.
