Rylan Allen and Natalie Yaeger have won the SGA President and Vice President election with over 60% of the student vote.
SGA announced the result in the Connell Student Center lobby Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. Election Marshall Jake McCarthy and current SGA President Savannah Lackey rolled out a banner with the results: 623 votes for Allen/Yeager and 411 for Bearden/Mills.
“It took me a second to react,” Allen said. “It hasn’t hit me yet, it still hasn’t. It’s overwhelming.”
Allen said that he will be the third Black SGA President to serve Mercer.
“We’re very excited to represent you,” he said. “We want to connect with (the student body), and we want you to feel that we’re listening to you and we want to advocate for you.”
Yaeger echoed Allen’s sentiments, emphasizing how much she appreciates the trust that the students have put in her.
“I’m just very excited to have this opportunity to represent the student population and be able to make their voices heard,” Yaeger said. “This is a great honor, and I’m just very excited that they trust me enough to let me work for them.”
Voting lasted for two days on MyCourseEval with student participation coming in at 33% at the close of the polls.
“I’m super proud of every single person and both of the tickets for running,” Lackey said. “They both did an amazing job, and congrats to Allen and Yeager.”
Mary Helene Hall ‘23 is a journalism and women’s and gender studies student who has worked for The Cluster throughout her time at Mercer. She has held internships at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and AL.com, where she covered a variety of topics including politics, crime and culture.
