The Elections Council announced Cole Callahan, junior in biomedical sciences, as the next vice president of Auburn's Student Government Association for the 2021-2022 year at election callouts on the back steps of Cater Hall on Tuesday night.
The election result was made to a small gathering of the candidates, their close friends and members of student media groups in near-freezing temperatures. Callahan made his way to Cater Hall after his name was called.
"I've said it once and I'll say it again now," Callahan said. "I would not have been standing up there at the debate; I would not have even put my name into the race if it weren't for the people around me who had invested in me and loved in me and believed in me since the beginning."
Callahan ran against Andrew Dismukes, junior in finance, for the position, winning with 5,643 votes cast, or 67.43% of the total vote. Dismukes garnered 2,726 votes, or 32.57% of all votes received.
For Callahan, he wanted to make sure that every person on his campaign team knew they were selected because he cared for them, not because of a title or position that they held.
“If I had to name one thing, it would genuinely be that when I was choosing my team, when I was choosing the people who were going to surround me for the entire month and the entire week leading up to tonight, I wanted to make sure it was people who I had a genuine relationship with,” Callahan said.
Callahan said he had an "immense amount of gratitude and thankfulness" for his team, advisors and every student who has gotten to know him when his name was called and he looks forward to his upcoming term.
“One of the first things that I’m really excited about is that I would love to set office hours,” Callahan said. “I feel like now more than ever, with the way this past semester has gone ... students have a lot of concerns; students want their voices heard.”
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