Joey Wilson and Nicki Seidman have won the 2016 Clemson undergraduate student body presidential election. President-elect Wilson and Vice President-elect Nicki Seidman received 2,713 votes (50.06 percent), while runners-up Emily Blackshire and Hunter Burgess received 2,454 votes (45.29 percent), making the margin of victory 259 votes.
“To be honest, I’m surprised,” Wilson said after the results were announced. “I’m truly honored.”
Wilson, the current chairperson of the Senate’s Transportation and Facilities Committee, said Blackshire and Burgess were great candidates and people. Wilson, a senior bioengineering and political science major, said he and Seidman won because they had the best platform, which was based on academics, student life, wellness and safety and transparency.
“I think we had the most tangible ideas for Clemson,” Wilson said. “We put in a lot of hard work, and I think students saw that.” Wilson said that their hard work “might have been the winning factor.”
Blackshire, the current chairperson of the Health and Human Services Committee, said that she and Burgess were happy for their opponents.
“I think that Joey and Nicki will do a great job,” Blackshire said. “This is what Clemson wanted, and I know that they’ve got great leadership skills.”
Anna Ferrante, a junior marketing major, supported the Wilson-Seidman campaign.
“I was very surprised,” Ferrante said. “I guess I had no idea who was going to win.”
Ferrante attributed the Wilson-Seidman campaign’s success to their platform.
“They had a lot of issues that people can relate to and that people are concerned about,” Ferrante said. “I’m very excited to see what they have in store for the next year.”
CUSG Director of Elections Amanda Nerone announced the results to a crowd in Carillon Gardens. Nerone said that the election process was a success.
“We did have some hurdles, but the voter turnout was just like any other year, so I was really happy with that.”
One of those hurdles was a technical issue with the server that interrupted voting for more than 12 hours.
“I think [the technical issue] got more people to vote because there was so much hype around it,” Nerone said. “Some people who might not have heard about voting heard about the technical issues.” Nerone said that the extended window of 24 hours for voting also helped.
Shannon Kay and Shaq Thomas, the current president and vice president, will remain in office as Wilson and Seidman transition over the next month before the Wilson administration begins in April.
For now, Wilson is celebrating by spending the weekend in the mountains, and Seidman plans to hang out with friends and dance.
            

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Rowan Lynam, Editor in Chief

President-elect Joey Wilson and Vice President-elect Nicki Seidman will take office in April.