Barron Mayfield was elected Associated Student Body President after defeating Leah Davis in a runoff election on Thursday night.
His win was overshadowed by the vice presidential runoff results being withheld because of a lack of “equal opportunity” for one candidate to campaign according to a statement made by ASB Judicial Chair Alex Crouch. The secondary vice presidential runoff election will take place on Tuesday, April 9.
Mayfield, a junior public policy leadership major from Lubbock, Texas, won with 53.48% of the vote.
“I feel great, I feel awesome. Very energized, very jazzed up,” he said.
Mayfield said the first thing he wanted to do was sleep but added that he was ready to move forward on his campaign promises.
“So we’re going to go back and start planning now, hit the ground running this next week,” he said. “There’s a lot to do; there’s only about a month left of school and we’re going to get to work real quick.”
During his campaign, Mayfield focused on prioritizing students on campus, especially in ASB’s work. He was vocal about his support for the ASB Senate resolution to relocate the Confederate monument from the Circle to the Confederate cemetery before it passed. At the presidential debate, he said that mental health should be a major concern on campus.
5,300 students turned out to vote today, in what interim attorney general Anya Czerwinski described as the second highest turnout for a runoff election in the university’s history.
Mayfield said he was surprised about the undecided vice presidential race.
“I have no idea what happened, so I don’t know,” he said, immediately following the announcement of the election results. “I don’t know why they’re going into a second runoff. I’m interested to find out; we’ll do it all over again Tuesday.”
Mayfield and other newly elected ASB officials will inaugurated on April 26.
