The Undergraduate Student Government has officially approved two new write-in candidate teams for the 2022 USG Presidential Election, according to the USG elections commission. Since Weston Bell-Geddes and Erica Wang withdrew from the USG presidential race on Feb. 3, 2022, the write-ins will run against Hannah Woodworth and Nivea Krishnan, the remaining ticket on the ballot.
The two write-in tickets confirmed their campaigns just over a week before voting begins, according to the USG election commission.
One of the teams is Kyle Valdes, a junior business administration major and Safal Mengi, a junior real estate development major. They have listed 18 objectives for their campaign platform, some of which include extended Free Lyft (Fryft) services, increased support for international students and a larger USG budget.
Valdes and Mengi also want to advocate for spring admits and transfers and push the university to reevaluate where their budget is being utilized.
“I honestly think that people would be making a mistake by voting for anybody else,” Valdes said. “We’re going to take USC back to the glory days.”
Most recently, Rachel Lee, a junior philosophy, politics and law major, and Collin Colson, a sophomore majoring in writing for screen and television, announced their candidacy with a photo of the two shaking hands. In an interview Lee said, they did not want to stand back-to-back like all candidates do year after year and are using satire to publicize their campaign.
“Originally, my run to be president was mostly a joke,” Lee said. “I’m balancing between poking the bear and making fun of the bear to actually being serious about my job.”
She realized they had a shot at winning the election when the other ticket dropped out of the race. She said they can make changes in policies if elected.
Lee and Colson want to abolish fraternities, have communal refrigerators on campus to foster a sense of community and take concrete steps to reverse gentrification around campus.
Although the write-in candidates have only had a little over a week to campaign, they have plans to gain support.
“I promise we have [had] one week and we already have a lot of creative ideas going,” Mengi said. “We’re going to give you a little taste of what we can do, and we’re going to show you what we can do. So stay tuned.”
The Lee-Colson campaign seeks to be the voice of the people. “I think that there is a mutual lack of interest between USG and the student body at large,” Lee said. “Collin Colson and I are really emblematic of this effort to bridge that gap and to burn the difference between USG and the USC students because we are outsiders, we are not like currently affiliated with the USG and all of the inner political mechanisms and machinations.”
Conversely, Hannah Woodworth and Nivea Krishnan, the only presidential ticket on the ballot, announced their USG campaign entrance on Jan. 24 via their Instagram account. Woodworth, a junior majoring in journalism and Krishnan, a junior majoring in public policy and economics, said their ultimate goal is to “advance accountability, advocacy and accessibility to help students get the most out of their years at USC.”
Woodworth and Krishnan have planned to do things such as work with Campus Activities to implement strict standards for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), build on existing USG advocacy such as expanding Fryft policies and blueprint a virtual class options model for greater accessibility.
Woodworth and Krishnan said Wednesday in an email to Annenberg Media that they don’t have much information on the write-in candidates’ platforms but they look forward to Friday’s presidential debate.
The presidential candidates’ debate took place on Friday in the Annenberg building and was attended by students in-person and on the live stream.