Nicole Skinner and Carlos Vazquez won the ASUI presidential elections by a 1.8 percent margin over the other candidates. The elections results were announced in the University of Idaho Commons Rotunda Wednesday evening.
“It feels amazing, it’s such a great experience, I’m so thankful to everyone who voted for all the amazing support Skinner-Vazquez had. I cannot put it into words, I have so much appreciation for everything that has been put on, the other opponents put such amazing work into their campaign. I really feel that this is a big win, not just for me or Nicole, but for a lot of us,” Vazquez said.
Soon after the names were read, a banner announcing their win dropped from the second floor to overlook the rotunda.
“It’s a really good feeling, we really couldn’t have done it without a lot of students being willing to support the vision that we had,” Skinner said.
Andrew Brand | Argonaut
Nicole Skinner reacts to the announcement of her nomination as ASUI president on Wednesday night. ASUI Senator Teja Sunkuon (left) and ASUI Pro-Tempore Jordan Kizer (right) stand next to Skinner.
Skinner said she learned about an hour before the winner had won by 39 votes, but did not find out her ticket won until the official results were announced.
“We spent a lot of nights wondering how this was going to turn out, we weren’t sure what was going to happen but we’re glad it happened this way, we’re ready to go to work,” Vazquez said.
Senator elections were announced before the ASUI president and vice president. The new ASUI senators are Montana Novich, Sam Harrich, Ariana Suaste, Jacey Bacon and Ramon Juarez. Kristen Nesbitt, Hannah Spear and Jacob Lockhart won re-election for their senator positions.
“We worked really hard and I think it showed off, there were a lot of great candidates, I’m really honored that we were elected to represent the student body,” Skinner said.
Skinner-Vazquez won with 700 votes, followed by Austin O’Neill and Sean Collins with 661.
Kali Nelson can be reached at [email protected]