Taylor Stepp and Josh Ahart have been elected as Ohio State’s incoming Undergraduate Student Government president and vice president.
It was announced Saturday afternoon that Stepp, a third-year in public affairs and current USG president, was re-elected for a second term and will serve as the first two-term president in almost 10 years.
He ran unopposed on the ballot and was the first candidate to do so in almost 50 years.
Roughly 3,750 votes were cast in the presidential and vice presidential race, and Stepp and Ahart captured 70.6 percent of the vote, according to 2013 USG election results data.
More than 1,100 votes were cast for write-in candidates. Jacob Coate, a second-year in political science and his running mate James Prather, a second-year in finance, captured 412 votes. OSU students Josh Samuels and Michael Dasu captured 186 votes.
4,027 votes were cast overall and 33 USG Senators were elected as well.
The incumbent Stepp said he was “very excited” about the news.
“I’m honored to represent undergraduates again for another year,” Stepp said Saturday afternoon.
While Coate and his write-in campaign team lost the election, he said he was “really, really happy” with the outcome.
“We’re thrilled with the turnout, given that we ran the campaign for like six days,” he said.
Having never been involved with USG previous to his run for president, Coate was running to bring change to the system. He said the campaign allowed for a dialogue on key issues that might not have otherwise surfaced, and hopes to see changes in student government in the coming year.
“I’m going to be very disappointed next year if it’s business as usual at USG,” Coate said Saturday afternoon.
According to the USG Election Board, all elected members will be sworn in on March 27.
