Will Quick and Will Langley are both campaigning hard for the student body presidency, and this isn’t the first time they’ve campaigned against each other.

Quick and Langley both ran for the position last year, with Quick pulling ahead but falling to Whil “Pirate Captain” Piavis in the runoff. They were both senators freshman year, but with five seats open they didn’t run head-to-head.

Not like this year. This year, Langley earned 38.5 percent of the votes over Quick’s 26.5 percent, the first time Langley has been up on Quick.

Now they face a runoff. On Wednesday, one of them becomes the students’ voice, while the other admits defeat.

Will Langley“It feels great to have an advantage going into it,” Langley, a junior in political science, said of the runoff. “I’m lucky to have it.”

Langley said that he and his campaign staff are pushing hard for the next two days, and he said it’s do or die.

“They say in politics in a primary if you have a 15 percent lead then in the runoff you don’t have to lift a finger and you win, that’s what the textbooks say,” he said. “But I only have a 12 percent lead so we’re going all out, we’re letting it all hang out.”

Langley said that his campaign is more innovative than Quick’s, and that a candidate’s campaign is a sign of what his presidency will be like.

“I don’t think Quick’s heart is in it. It just doesn’t seem like he really cares,” Langley said. “You know, if his campaign is a sign of the kind of president he’s going to be, he’s going to be a lame, boring, do-nothing president.”

Langley’s campaign received several warnings, almost resulting in a disqualification hearing, but were withdrawn last week.

“If my campaign is a sign of what I’m going to do, we’re going to have fun and excitement and we’re going to laugh and we’re going to smile and we’re going to do things for students,” he said.

In terms of a rivalry, Langley disagrees with Quick.

“Yeah, we’re bitter rivals,” he said. “We’re different people. I don’t like it when people confuse us. I’m from North Carolina, he’s from South Carolina. I’m a normal student, he’s a Park Scholar. I’m creative, he’s status quo.”

Langley went on to say that Quick had his chance to run the Student Government, and said that it was possibly the worst year Student Government had ever had.

“Believe it or not, the pirate didn’t make it any worse than it was,” he said. “The Pirate Captain and Forrest and Seneca made it better.”

Langley said his campaign has been successful because he said he is not promising to save the world, but is promising to make N.C. State better.

“My opponent, Quick, is promising to make us pay for solar panels on top of buildings,” Langley said. “Those are great and all but I don’t want to pay for that, I don’t think that’s what our Student Government should deal with.”

Langley said the word to describe him best is “creative.”

“Ever since I can remember I’d always try to think more creative so I wouldn’t have to work as hard on the project in middle school, I’d always try to do something a little different than what other people were going to do,” he said.

Langley said his campaign is, “creative, and that’s me. I’m fun, I enjoy being that way. I enjoy thinking innovatively and out of the box.”

Langley also said that his campaign is honest.

“I want to say that it’s only the truth, what I’m saying and what I’m putting on my Web site, and sometimes the truth hurts,” he said. “And it seems like more than not the truth hurts Quick an awful lot.”

Will Quick“I’m fine going into it,” Quick, a senior in biomedical engineering, said. “I’m prepared for the runoff.”

Quick said there are a lot of votes in the air that he feels he can get. He said he has support from Cody Williams and Vance Blanton, two candidates who didn’t make the runoff, and feels he can gain support from their supporters.

“I think it’s intense in that it’s a very important race for students and I think it’s important we have a student body president next year that’s willing to uphold the rules,” Quick said.

Quick said this is Langley’s third campaign and that he understands the rules but doesn’t go as far as others do in calling him a cheater.

“I think he got off a little easy on those violations,” Quick said, referring to the warning and $50 fine Langley received for the alleged coercion of Elections Commission member Danielle Seale, in addition to several other campaign violations.

“But I’m ready for a runoff and I’d rather beat him fair and square than there be any kind of disqualification,” he said. “I think that makes a greater statement.”

Quick’s strategy thus far has been trying to connect on a more personal level with the students by going to the dining halls and student organizations to see students face-to-face.

“I think it’s important to know who candidates are and be able to pick them out in the crowd,” he said.

Quick said the largest difference between him and Langley is the experience.

“I’ve had a chance to work with a lot of different parts of the campus that Will [Langley] hasn’t had a chance to work with,” he said. “From student groups and individual students when I was Student Senate president to working with administration all across campus, I think that’s a real important characteristic to have coming into the presidency.”

He said the past two weeks of campaigning highlighted some significant differences between he and Langley.

“There have been some obvious differences in our personal characters that have been evident by the way we’ve chosen or not chosen to follow the rules,” he said. “The person who’s honest with themselves is overall the better person and I’m proud of myself and my campaign team.”

Despite their history and differences, Quick insists that there are no hard feelings.

“I have no personal bitter rivalry or anything against Will Langley,” he said. “I have been a little disappointed in the past couple weeks by some of the tactics he used to campaign. [They] have been disheartening and kind of I think turn me off to his personal character, but I have nothing against Will Langley.”

Quick said the one word to describe him best is “real.”

“When you talk to me, I’m going to be myself, you’re going to get what you hear,” he said. “I’m not going to joke around and try to tell you something you want to hear. That makes me feel good about myself. I can be myself and I haven’t put on a show for the campaign.”