In the race for Harbert College of Business senator, Porter Kennedy and Crandall Hinton found themselves in a rare situation: a dead-even tie.
Both Kennedy and Hinton received exactly 715 votes each at SGA Callouts on Tuesday, Feb. 7. The tiebreaker will be an interview process held by the newly elected SGA executives.
Porter Kennedy, sophomore in finance, said he already has projects planned he'd like to see completed as a senator.
"I want to represent the business school in SGA to maximize the benefits and subsidies for the business students," Kennedy said. "To oversee a massive new building project for the COB that will include a great dining facility."
Crandall Hinton, sophomore in international business, said she's focused on advocating for student and overseeing projects.
"My platform is to advocate for student interests as the new business building is being built," Hinton said. "[I want to] promote more involvement within the Harbert College of Business by creating a freshman leadership organization for first year students, to unify students by offering events and activities available to all business students and to establish a designated feedback system to better represent student interests and concerns."
When the campaign began, Kennedy said he figured he had no chance of winning.
"Frankly, I thought I had no chance at all," Kennedy said. "I thought to myself 'I might as well run and get my name out there to set myself up for a presidential run in 2018.'"
Kennedy said he assumed his chance would have to come next year as he compared his campaign techniques to that of his opponents.
"As election day got closer, I believed my chances were getting worse," Kennedy said. "My opponents were campaigning everyday in Lowder and giving out truckloads of Krispy Kreme doughnuts, and I thought 'well, this was fun. Try again next year.'"
In her ticket's meetings leading up to campaign week, Hinton said she'd grown very familiar with the goals within her platform.
"I actually had the opportunity of talking with some administrators that week and sharing some of our ideas together," Hinton said. "I would be really excited to continue engaging with them throughout my term."
When the SGA head of elections announced the tie between Hinton and Kennedy, Kennedy said he assumed it wasn't an exact tie.
"At the callouts for the SGA winners I went in with a mindset that if I lose, that's what I expected and if I win, this would be the greatest comeback since the Super Bowl," Kennedy said. "When they said that we had tied, my first thought was 'whoa, this is crazy we must have been within like 20 votes and they called it a tie' and I later learned that we had tied at exactly 715 votes each. What are the odds?"
When the tie was announced, Kennedy said matters were made more interesting because his opponent was someone he'd known prior to the election.
"Crandall Hinton was in my Freshmen Leadership Program called ELITE last year and she stood out as an extremely kind person, which probably helped her pull so many votes," Kennedy said.
Hinton said even though the tie suprised her, it put things into perspective for a moment amongst the craziness of campaign week.
"To be honest, I was pretty surprised," Hinton said. "My ticket had campaigned really hard that week and I was very confident heading into voting day and call outs. It was a really humbling thing though, and I think it was just God's way of telling me to take a step back and realize I'm not promised anything."
Her campaign was not made any easier by the fact Hinton said she'd made the decision to support other friends in their campaigns that week as well.
"The biggest challenge I had while campaigning was time management," Hinton said. "I had the privilege of working on two other campaigns for major candidates and friends of mine, Jacqueline Keck and Sarah Patrick. It was a demanding week, but it was an honor to serve alongside my friends."
Hinton said her passion to serve the students within her college would make her a successful SGA senator.
"I think I would be a great senator because of my desire to serve and actively engage with business students," Hinton said. ""I think that past and current campus involvement as well as having worked in a professional setting this past summer will help me in conveying my ideas confidently in the interview."
Kennedy said he's looking forward to his interview.
"Thank you to everyone who voted Kennedy," Kennedy said. "Win or not, I'm just grateful to even have this opportunity."
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