BREAKING: Project Red’s Shane Smith wins SGA presidential election

PowerHouse’s John Fields and SGA president-elect Shane Smith speak after election results were announced. | Justin Tijerina/The Cougar Hype Party’s Edwin Mascorro with vice presdiential candidate Omar Coronado. | Justin Tijerina/The Cougar Fields said after results were announced that he was very proud of his team. | Justin Tijerina/The Cougar Associate election commissioner Solida Chem announces who won in the senator races. | Justin Tijerina/The Cougar

Project Red’s Shane Smith has won the 2016 SGA presidential election with 58.6 percent of the votes.

PowerHouse’s John Fields and the Hype Party’s Edwin Mascorro came up short of the required 50 percent of the vote needed to ensure a runoff, with 36.65 and 4.74 percent of the vote respectively.

“I’m very proud of our team,” Smith said. “I’m surprised. John had a large team, and I really thought it was going to end in a runoff.”

Fields said that while he was disappointed, Smith ran a good race.

“We ran on issues that we were passionate about,” Fields said. “I’m really proud of the (PowerHouse senators) that were elected, and I’m encouraging the ones that weren’t to stay involved.”

Mascorro said that he and the Hype Party could’ve done a better job campaigning, but they stayed focused on their own academics during the election.

“I can lose an election, but I’d rather not lose the chance of completing my degree,” Mascorro said. “I didn’t know there were so many people that supported me, so running in this election was a real learning experience.”

This election brought a 70 to 80 percent increase in candidates participating in the election, election commissioner Jackson Crawford said, as well as 1,400 new voters overall.

A total of 4,324 students voted this year compared to last year’s election, which only saw 2,929 students.

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