The executive candidates for the 2025 Student Government election sat down with The Daily Gamecock and SGTV to discuss their platforms and goals for the student body. Elections will be held on Feb. 25 and 26.
Candidates for student body president
Courtney Tkacs, David Henao and Bradley Gittens are the candidates for student body president. Gittens is the only presidential candidate without a running mate.
Tkacs is the student body vice president for the 2024-25 academic year, serving alongside Student Body President Patton Byars. Her platform is dedicated to “keeping students first” and prioritizing the student experience at the university.
Tkacs and her running mate, second-year mass communications student Jordan Richardson, have three main priorities their campaign is centered around.
“Quality academics and advising, space and the student experience,” Tkacs said.
Henao has no prior involvement with Student Government but wishes to bring awareness towards the organization and ensure the student body knows what they do.
“I think like, coming from the outside and realizing that more people don’t know about it than do,” Henao said.
Henao plans on shifting the power dynamic of Student Government, placing more power within the senate. He believes this will give power back to the students.
“I want to decrease my power to empower the students to have their voice heard,” Henao said.
Gittens is a United States Marine and decided to run for student body president in order to make a change, provide transparency and help the student body.
Gittens is a transfer student and thinks more needs to be done to support transfer, commuting and international student populations.
“I feel like we can’t really have a united campus if all we have are many if just the freshmen are experiencing that great university experience,” Gittens said.
Read more about the presidential candidates here.
Candidates for student body vice president
Jordan Richardson and Emma Connelly are the only candidates for student body vice president, and they are running mates for Tkacs and Henao, respectively.
One of Richardson’s goals is to increase student engagement on campus.
“I really think it’s time for Student Government, not only Student Government, but other organizations on campus, to reach out to students first,” Richardson said.
Connelly has previous experience serving on the Congressional Advisory Board which involved her working directly with the student body president, vice president, university officials and members of the Leadership and Service Center. She wishes to use that experience to improve the quality of the university.
"I want to scale that back and work with students directly and tell Student Government and the university administration what they can do to better the university," Connelly said.
Read more about the vice presidential candidates here.
Candidates for student body treasurer
There are three candidates for the treasurer position, Ashley Reynolds, Eleanor McMakin and Lester Lewis II.
Reynolds decided to run for treasurer to make changes to the funding process as she was involved in student organizations that have experience difficulty with applying and receiving funding.
She believes education factors into this lack of understanding.
“I think if organizations knew how to request funding and what was approved and what wasn’t approved, instead of having to go decipher those codes themselves, they had someone come to them and explain how it works and they could request funding,” Reynolds said.
McMakin has been a comptroller for the past two years and decided to run after experiencing the lengthy process of receiving funding for the organizaiton she is president of, Spur-ing Debate.
McMakin said she wants to reinstate students’ trust in the treasurer branch that has been lost in the past two years.
“I understand why some trust has been lost and I’m definitely trying to reinstate that trust as treasurer and just show them that we are there for you,” McMakin said.
Lewis wants to resolve the prolonged periods of student organizations waiting for their reimbursements and claims the treasurer position has not been reachable in doing so.
“From day one, I’m going to remove all the restrictions and I’m going to give the money back to the organizations. It’s not my money, so I’m going to give it right back to them,” Lewis said.
Lewis also wants to rid and limit certain fees, such as late class fees and textbook fees.
Read more about the candidates for treasurer here.
Candidate for speaker of the student senate
The sole candidate for speaker of the senate is Maura Hamilton. She is running for reelcetion.
Hamilton wanted to run again because she enjoyed serving USC and its students as speaker of the student senate last term.
“The ability to give back every single day to a campus that I care so much about is so rewarding,” Hamilton said.
Her goals include continuing the work that the student senate has done in the past year.
“I want to make sure that senate is continuing the great work in the upcoming year,” Hamilton said. “It would be awesome to pass another 100 pieces of legislation that are going to serve the student body.”
Read more about the candidate for speaker of the senate here.
The candidates participated in a debate on Feb. 19 in the Russell House Ballroom. Voting will begin at 9 a.m. on Feb. 25 and conclude at 5 p.m. on Feb. 26. Students can cast their votes online through Self Service Carolina. The results will be announced on Feb. 26 at 5:30 p.m. on Greene Street.
Editor's note: Nat Campbell, Morgan Dunn, Colin Elam, Dakota Morris and Kevin Radlein contributed to reporting.