Crowd members seemed to howl each time a winner was announced during the ASUA elections results ceremony on Thursday.
After the senatorial, administrative vice presidential and executive vice presidential winners were announced, Associated Students of the University of Arizona President James Allen stepped up to the podium to announce next year’s student body president. As he introduced the candidates and reminisced about his term, Katy Murray, the executive chief of staff, and Chad Travis, a senator, sat on the edge of their seats waiting to hear who Allen’s successor would be.
“With 1,741 votes,” Allen said, “your next student body president will be …” He paused. The crowd was silent.
“Katy Murray.”
Murray beat out two-term Sen. Chad Travis for the title of president by 5.3 percentage points. Murray ran on a platform that stressed the importance of listening to and collaborating with students in order to ensure that they are represented on a local, state and national level.
The crowd cheered and clapped as Murray’s jaw dropped. She screamed. Executive Vice President Bryan Ponton, Sen. Josh Ruder and Valerie Hanna — the senate candidate with the most votes — crowded around Murray to congratulate her as she clutched the hand of Chief of Staff Krystina Nguyen, who was elected executive vice president by 8.3 percentage points. After a second, the three Chi Omega sorority sisters stood up and embraced each other.
Tears streamed down Nguyen’s face when she heard Elections Commissioner Mikindra Morin named her as executive vice president. Murray grabbed Nguyen’s hand with both of hers as Hanna wrapped her arm around Nguyen’s shoulders in congratulations.
Still teetering on the edge of his seat, Travis held his chin in his hands as he crouched over, his elbows resting on his knees during the announcement that Murray defeated him by less than 200 votes.
Paige Sager was all smiles after being named administrative vice president. Sager won by 35.9 percentage points and ran on a platform that included ideas such as creating a monthly philanthropy project to unite the different branches of ASUA.
“I owe this entirely to my campaign team, they helped me through this, supported me and really helped pull in the votes,” she said. “I am so excited and so ready to start.”
After the meeting was dismissed, Danielle Dobrusin, former administrative vice presidential candidate, was asked by the Daily Wildcat for a comment. She stared, with her head tilted slightly downward, and replied, “No comment.”
