Mason Yonover, a candidate with eyebrow-raising policy proposals and social media content, was disqualified from the 2025 Undergraduate Student Government (USG) senatorial race, Morning Trojan reported on Sunday, February 22. In an interview with Annenberg Media, he said he was “very proud” to be banned for obscenity.
“USG doesn’t actually do anything, and nobody gives a shit about USG,” Yonover told Annenberg Media when asked about those who view his platform as a joke. “I was very proud to join the great tradition of writers and thinkers who have been banned for being obscene.”
Some of Yonover’s proposals included turning sorority houses into homeless shelters and spending USG’s entire $2,500,000 annual budget on a sports betting parlay. The disqualification of the sophomore creative writing major confirmed the victory of the 12 remaining candidates in the race. 12 seats were open, and two other candidates withdrew before the voting period began.
USG determined that Yonover violated USG’s Code of Ethics Article 5.B, which bars officers from “excessively vulgar, crude or discriminatory” language. The published case document Driemeyer v. Yonover references the repeated use of “vulgar” words by Yonover, including “crude language” during the senatorial forum and on social media.
The nearly 4,000 word report cites a comment Yonover made at the annual senatorial forum: “Like I said, nobody gives a shit about USG,” an Instagram story that read: “Just to put a button on it… I would’ve killed baby Hitler,” another Instagram story that read: “THEY ARE COMING FOR YOUR MORNING WOOD!!! THEY CALLED ME A MADMAN. VOTE YONOVER FOR SENATE: #LEGALIZEMORNINGWOOD,” and more.
In addition to the inflammatory comments, Yonover clashed with senatorial candidate Dakota Driemeyer, to whom he said “You should be fucking ashamed of yourself. Fuck you. Go fuck yourself,” after discovering that Driemeyer voted for President Donald Trump, according to Driemeyer’s complaint.
Despite Yonover’s seemingly satirical campaign, the former candidate said he didn’t expect USG’s reaction to his antics, calling his campaign “about as stupid of a joke as you can get.”
“I didn’t realize how upset USG was actually going to be about everything that I was saying, which only speaks to the truth of the message,” Yonover said. “I didn’t think they were going to ban little old me for what I had to say, but I’m flattered that they’re paying me so much attention.”
The frustration from some members of USG stems from what they see as a lack of respect afforded to student government on campus.
“Running as a joke can really have an impact on USG,” said Heydy Vasquez, a junior senator currently running in the student government presidential election. “When people start adding on to this narrative, it only feeds into that as well, and really doesn’t add on to the credibility and also the work that we do in USG.”
USG rejected Yonover’s official motion to dismiss due to “insufficient reasoning.” He later questioned what he called hypocrisy in USG’s rules. Yonover said he believes USG has “total power” over the election, and claimed that people who can easily rig the election were angered by the campaign.
“They basically have total power over the entire student government body and can pretty much do whatever they want. But really, it’s just four twenty-year-olds with the gavel,” Yonover said. “The thing about USG — and specifically the judicial council — is that they create the rules and they can interpret them any way they like.”
USG Chief Justice Susanna Andryan responded to Yonover’s concerns in a statement to Annenberg Media.
“This year’s Judicial Council did not create these rules from scratch; They have been in place for many years. Each year, we amend the Elections Code based on the previous election, continuously striving to improve efficiency and fairness,” she wrote. “These amendments cannot be enacted without a two-thirds vote from the Senate.”
At around 3:00 p.m. on Tuesday, Yonover posted on his official Senate campaign Instagram account seemingly apologizing for his choice of words during his campaign. However, he ended the long message with a disclaimer stating: “DISCLAIMER (for any members of the Judicial Council or USG who cannot seem to understand a fucking joke): THIS IS SARCASM. I AM MOCKING YOU.”