USG Presidential race down to one ticket after drop-out

The USG presidential race has dwindled down to only one ticket. One of the tickets that had been in the race withdrew, so now the only remaining ticket will run unopposed for President of USG. Vani Sanganeria has more on this curious story.

Weston Belle-Geddes and Erica Wang announced Thursday on Instagram that they will be withdrawing from the race. In their post, the pair states they want to make positive changes at USC, but USG is not the place to achieve their goals.

Their decision to withdraw leaves Hannah Woodworth and Nivea Krishnan as the only ticket left. Hannah Woodworth is the Presidential candidate.

When Weston and Erica dropped out originally, I was pretty shocked. They were running a pretty tight campaign. Their platform actually mirrors a lot of our platform. I was surprised because I really thought it was going to be a great race.

And it still can be. Woodworth encourages others to declare themselves as candidates before this Friday’s deadline. Or, at least, she hopes for write-in candidates.

I mean, I hope someone writes in if someone, as we said, if someone has a clear vision for the school and is really passionate about bringing about this. change and feel like they can do it, and I absolutely I encourage them to.

I encourage all students to, you know, consider throwing their name in the ring if they believe that they can create change and if they believe that their ideals may align with other students at the university.

Kelly Peterson is the Director of Public Relations for USG. He urges students to get involved and says there are many ways to learn about candidates for all USG races this year.

A lot of stuff going up on social media. We’re doing some kind of in-person stuff, you know, coffee chats with the candidates, all sorts of things. So students really just have to, you know, keep their eye out on USG’s social media. And yeah, There’s a ton of opportunities to kind of get to meet and greet with the candidates and really figure out where your values align and who they align most with.

Voter participation is always important, and presidential candidate Hannah Woodworth points out that this year there are also contentious races for the Senate. So, she hopes students won’t be deterred by the possible lack of choice at the top of the ticket.

I think it might impact voter turnout. I hope it doesn’t. I really hope it doesn’t, especially because it’s a really tight Senate race and we really want people to vote for the senators because it’s only 12 that can be elected and I believe there’s about twenty one running. But I think like and realistically it might impact on voter turnout, we are going to do everything we can so that it doesn’t, but it might.

This year’s USG elections take place February 23rd to 25th. so don’t forget to go out and vote! And if you want to join the President and Vice-Presidential race, submit your names by this Friday, the 11th.

For Annenberg Media, I’m Vani Sanganeria.