Johanna Ajayi, finance sophomore won the student body president race and Keller Hammack, accounting senior, won the vice president race.
Ajayi and Hammack’s presidential ticket, Bobcats in Bloom, received 61.17% of the vote (1,572 votes) while the opposing ticket, New Horizon with Seth Huteson, mass communication junior, and Nathan Marquez, political science junior, received 32.88% of the vote (845 votes).
The Texas State Student Government released election results on April 6 at 6 p.m. A total of 2,570 votes were cast in the Presidential Ticket, which is a 547-vote increase from last election cycle.
Ajayi said one of her priorities is to work on making students feel united and make students feel like they belong at Texas State.
“I really hate how divided and separate we are. I really want to unify Texas State as a whole, whether you are in Greek life, or you’re not in Greek life, you’re a part of the Arabic club or you’re a part of this [other] organization,” Ajayi said. “I want it to feel like, regardless of what work or what part of Texas State you’re in, you’re still a member of Texas State.”
Ajayi said the whole point of her running for student body president was to show other people that they can do anything they want and to let people of color and minorities know their voices are being heard.
“As the first Black woman to be in this position at Texas State University, that alone has already impacted our community. I know that especially with everything that’s going on right now, we needed a win and this is one of the wins that we’re having and a lot more wins to come,” Ajayi said.
Ajayi said she is grateful Black Texas State and the community trusted her enough to elect her in this position and is ready to give back.
Building the new presidential cabinet, Ajayi and Hammack are currently working on creating a diverse cabinet to properly represent the Texas State community.
“The biggest thing that we’re wanting to do is to make an impact on campus is to be more present,” Hammack said. “Johanna and I are trying to implement an open door policy in student government and really be out and about on campus, [and to] go out to all these communities that we represent.”
Hammock said he is thankful to be elected by his peers to represent them.
Marquez said he enjoyed listening to the general student body and looks forward to what Ajayi and Keller will do during their term.
“They had a bunch of great ideas that we found [out]. They work great as a team so I’m sure they’re going to do some really great things while in office, I’m just curious to see all the new things they push through,” Marquez said.
Huteson was unavailable to comment at this time.
For more information on Student Government, visit its website.
