By Micaela Freeman | Staff Writer
Last week’s student body president elections resulted in a runoff election between Carrollton junior Hannah Causey and Huxley, Iowa junior Austin Allaire.
Causey and Allaire initially ran against two other candidates for student body president. Because the victory margin was less than 12 percent, a runoff election must occur to determine Baylor’s 2018-2019 student body president.
Students will get another opportunity to vote on the Baylor’s student government page Tuesday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. as part of the runoff election.
Chelsea Teague, Baylor’s electoral commissioner for student government, said results will be announced as soon as the electoral commission with tally the final results.
“As soon as the result is final, I’ll be making the announcement in front of the Judge Baylor statue across the street from Waco Hall,” Teague said.
Allaire is the current director of communication for student government and a community leader mentor for Martin Residence Hall. He said the student body president position has been on his radar since last year.
“I couldn’t not run,” Allaire said. “What student government does is something I’m really passionate about.”
Allaire has been involved with student government since his freshman year, when he was freshman class vice president. Sophomore year, he became a community leader for Kokernot Residence Hall.
Allaire said he is excited to run based off his platform in the runoff election, which is “Accessibility. Accountability. Affordability.”
“I’m not running against Causey; I’m running for my platform,” Allaire said. “I really want to be a candidate who is known for what he is running for.”
Causey, who is external vice president and was a senator her freshman year, said making it to the runoff was a meaningful and surprising experience.
“It means a lot. I’ve always kind of struggled with confidence and if you asked me my freshman year, I would have never known how involved I was going to be at Baylor,” Causey said. “It takes a lot of hard work and up until they announced the names, I didn’t think I’d get it.”
Since Friday, both Allaire and Causey have campaigned and reached out to multiple people and organizations before Tuesday’s runoff to encourage them to vote. Causey, who is excited about the opportunity, said she’s thankful to make it this far and to be able to campaign for three more days.
“I’m just taking it one day at a time,” Causey said. “Especially this far, making the runoff, when they announced it, I never knew. I didn’t think I was going to get it. It’s truly up to the student body. Every candidate has worked so hard.”
Voting will take place at Baylor’s student government page.
