Four USUSA candidates run unopposed in 2017 election
By now, the majority of Utah State University students have probably seen the plethora of social media posts representing candidates running for USU Student Association (USUSA) positions for the 2017-2018 academic school year.
Within the next two weeks, candidates will begin passing out flyers, campaigning from A-frames across campus and competing in debates — all in hopes of convincing students to vote for them.
However, four Executive Council candidates will be taking a “lighter approach” to the campaign process because they are running unopposed.
Brendon Brady, the unopposed Student Alumni Association (SAA) vice presidential candidate, said he was not surprised when he heard no one would be challenging his candidacy.
Brendon Brady “SAA is one of those branches of USUSA where people kind of have to know what it is to get involved, so no one really had shown interest from our group this year,” Brady said.
Rather than campaign for his victory in the election, Brady said he is using the allotted campaign weeks to make students aware of SAA.
Brady said he thinks a lot of students do not know what SAA does, so he “wants to make SAA bigger and more well known on campus, because we do give people cool opportunities and we try to help them get jobs when they graduate.”
While Brady anticipated his candidacy outcome, other candidates were surprised to find out they were running without opponents.
Bridget Baldwin, the unopposed student advocate vice presidential candidate, said she was “super surprised” when she heard the news.
“I feel like it’s such an important position in USUSA, so I’m just as shocked as everyone else,” she said.
Bridget Baldwin Baldwin said her campaign manager told potential opponents the two would be running an “intense campaign,” but still encouraged others to run.
“I guess it scared them off,” Baldwin joked.
Baldwin also said she thinks others decided not to run for the position because Matthew Clewett, the current student advocate vice president, originally planned to run again.
“I kind of got lucky because people didn’t want to run against him,” Baldwin said, adding that she thinks Clewett has done a “great job.”
Similarly, Jakob Ambuehl, the athletics and campus recreation vice presidential candidate, said he was “shocked” when he found out he was running unopposed.
Jakob Ambuehl Ambuehl said he heard three people were running against him in the beginning of the semester, so he was “completely prepared and ready to have that competition.”
However, Ambuehl said he is still focusing on the campaign process as if he faced opponents.
“I am still worried because people can write in and I want people to vote for who’s best for each position,” Ambuehl said.
Todd Brown, the 2017-2018 service vice presidential candidate — who also currently holds the position — said he was surprised to hear the news because “there have been a lot of people that have been involved in the service center that I thought would do a great job,” he said.
Todd Brown All four candidates said they have already begun thinking about goals they hope to achieve during their time on the executive council, and they plan to use the next few weeks to begin working toward those goals and receive feedback from students.
@alison__berg
Photos courtesy of the Student Involvement and Leadership Center