GW's mystery candidate, Steve Holt

Late in the student government campaign season at George Washington University, a last-minute candidate announced he wanted to be student body president and asked students to write-in his name on their ballots.

Candidate Steve Holt's reason for running sounded legit: "For too long, the GW Student Association has been run by those inside the SA; however, as the ultimate outsider, I will bring a much-needed fresh face to the organization."

And his platforms seemed a little weird : Opening a banana stand on J Street. Getting rid of red tape in student government and replacing it with yellow tape. Cracking down on drug use, especially forget-me-nows and oxy-incontinent. Advocating for gender neutral housing.

But something about Holt didn't seem quite right. A 26-year-old undergraduate who has been a senior three times over (at GW's tuition rates)? And that photo looks familiar...

Still, Holt campaigned on. He hung up posters that said "Volt for Steve Holt," recruited dozens of fans on Facebook and connected with potential voters on Twitter. Election day came in late February, and Holt lost the presidency -- that honor went to Jason Lifton.

But Holt was elected as a write-in candidate to the Senior Class Council with 29 votes. However, the GW Joint Elections Committee added this disclaimer to their election results: The JEC does not believe that Steve Holt is an actual student.

Oh wait, Steve Holt is that character on the Fox television show Arrested Development who once ran for student government president. The photo was a dead give-away. So was his Greek Life platform: "My mother, Eve, is part Greek. Also, I really like 300."

Most students picked up on the joke right away and wrote-in Holt's name just for fun.

The whole rouse of creating the "Steve Holt for SA President" was the work of GW juniors Emily Smith, Andrew Buonopane and Jake Wolf -- who say they wanted to bring change to the student government, which often takes itself too seriously, The GW Hatchet reports.

"We were just staying up late, hanging out, and running a fake campaign was one of the many stupid ideas that came into our heads at 1 o'clock [a.m.]," Emily Smith told the Hatchet.

When the election committee demanded that the real Steve Holt show himself, his campaigners created a YouTube video that featured dozens of students, professors, band members, a mascot and others proudly proclaiming: "I am Steve Holt!"

Newly-elected president Lifton told the Hatchet that Steve Holt "got people to talk about the elections and encouraged them to vote." But a freshman had a different take on the joke campaign: "I am so proud to go to a school where the SA literally doesn't affect anything so much that Steve Holt can have a position in power," she told the Hatchet.

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