Khari Cyrus and Nate Bridgers will be the next student body president and student body vice president at NC State after emerging ahead of Gavin Harrison and Meredith Mason in Thursday’s runoff election.
With 1,702 votes, the Cyrus-Bridgers Ticket earned 52.04 percent of the vote, while the Harrison Mason collected 47.95 percent, drawing 1,568 votes.
In total, 3,298 students voted in Thursday’s runoff.
Student Body Vice President Devan Riley announced the results to a crowd of supporters from both sides who were gathered in front of the big screen in the Talley Commons.
“I feel it,” Cyrus said from the center of a group hug after the victory.
Cyrus and Bridgers were 249 votes behind Harrison and Mason in the initial election results, but were able to surge ahead in the runoff period, improving on their previous vote count by 458 votes and winning by 134 votes.
“We put in a lot of work after the runoff,” Cyrus said. “We got the endorsement from Becker and Elder, I feel like that definitely played a big part in the victory as well.”
Cyrus said that campaigning during midterms was difficult because they had to balance studying with the campaign preparation.
“One of the best things for me and Nate is that we had such a great team that we were able to just pass some things up to them so in the end it was all taken care of,” Cyrus said.
“The plan now is to get back to business, Khari and I are looking to implement all of the things that we said that we were,” Bridgers said.
Harrison and Mason both declined to comment after the results were announced.
Zack Goodman, co-campaign manager and centennial outreach coordinator for Cyrus and Bridgers, said that Harrison and Mason’s strategy of sending out text alerts and handing out “Harrison-Mason jars” was creative but that the individual platforms were the deciding factor in the election.
“I think what ultimately made the difference was the platform of the Cyrus-Bridgers campaign, their platform was significantly better than that of the Harrison-Mason campaign,” Goodman said. “Harrison and Mason were both great candidates, but ultimately I think the students chose the platform they liked the best.”
After the results were announced, Riley, who endorsed Harrison and Mason, said, “I just hope that the next student body president is someone who is ready to learn from their peers because that’s the biggest thing about this job that it’s a learning experience.”
Many endorsements for the Cyrus-Bridgers campaign lauded Cyrus’s experience in promoting diversity and record of strong leadership. One of those endorsements came from Zach Fitzgerald, founder and president of Y-Pack.
“I’ve known Khari for the past three years and have personally seen how he leads by example through his actions,” said Fitzgerald. “His passion for the student body and diversity will allow him to reach out to the vast community at NC State and keep their needs first. He has held many leadership positions and helped many organizations accomplish their tasks.”
“As student body president, he would only have more power and resources to continue doing the things he has already done over the past three years, love and pursue for improvements at NC State,” Fitzgerald said.
“We want to say good job to the Harrison-Mason campaign and the Becker-Elder campaigns,” said Bridgers. “They had a great campaign period and they did an excellent job and we look forward to working with them next year to reach our goals and maybe some of theirs as well.”
There were also other student senate seats up for run-off. The new student senate seats are as follows, Joe Gilliam for the college of engineering, Logan Myers for Poole College of Management, Mick Sugar for College of Sciences, and Jamie Plummer for College of Textiles.
