Campaigning in a More “Competitive” Election

Four tickets initially announced their run for the ASUU presidency: Nasser, Kum, Hardenbrook and Madson. Madson’s candidacy was suspended and subsequently revoked by the ASUU Supreme Court less than a week into the election.

When the field was narrowed to three candidates, the primary elections were canceled and the focus turned to the general.

“We all had to step up this election cycle,” Kum said.

The Kum ticket’s platform revolved around one word: access. Their ticket was threefold: safety, affordability and connectivity.

“We chose what to run on based on student input,” Amaechi said. “We had a lot of awkward and uncomfortable conversations surrounding the issues that students have on campus to prevent them from succeeding. Once they were narrowed down, we found something they could all be tied back to — a lack of access.”

“All of the tickets had the same end goals,” Valdes said. “We all care about the U and the student body.”

Kum praised the Hardenbrook ticket for its detailed knowledge of the budget process at the U and the Nasser ticket’s mindfulness of community.

After the election results, all tickets, including Madson, were invited by the Kum ticket to meet and discuss strategies to implement the strengths of each campaign into Kum’s presidency.

What the Kum ticket thinks set them apart, though, was their connection to students.

“We had to focus on what we were doing more than anything else,” Kum said. “With competition, it’s really easy to get flustered and hung up on what other candidates are working on or saying,” he said. “I didn’t follow any of the other tickets on my personal Instagram page. We wanted to focus on our message and its impact on students.”