The Manship Slate won this year's Student Government Association election Tuesday with 1,329 votes out of 2,039 total votes cast, beating the Loving Slate by 619 votes.
The four members of the slate hugged while their supporters cheered upon hearing the news.
"I thought it would be a closer race," said Adam Ittenbach, vice president-elect. "The Loving Slate did a great job and really made me nervous about the outcome."
Eric Michel, treasurer-elect, said their success came because of their honest campaign.
"Our slate played extremely fair," Michel said. "We played an honest and fair campaign. The Loving Slate blamed us for a lot of things and could have played more fairly."
Michel said the slate members' lack of SGA experience will aid them during their time in office.
"We're coming from outside the box," Michel said. "We have a better communication with students since we've been involved with more organizations."
Until the slate's March 19 inauguration, Jayson Manship, president-elect, said he and his team will spend time learning how SGA works.
"We have a lot to do before then," Manship said. "We'll be working with Tolu (Olowomeye) to find the ins and outs of the office and go through the paperwork and get our budget items in order."
Manship said he also did not believe this process would hinder his team's ability to govern.
"The four of us have a really strong bond and we always get the job done," Manship said. "We've also talked to those who were in office before and were told the learning curve is going to be short."
Manship said upon taking office the slate will concentrate on raising student awareness of SGA and will continue current legislation that is already working its way through.
"We'll make it the smoothest transition possible," said Richard Garcia, secretary-elect.
Garcia said the slate also plans on meeting with staff members and academic departments before inauguration.
"We'll make use of the grace period as much as possible," Garcia said.
Most of all, help from others lent a hand to the slate's success, Garcia said.
"We've had a lot of great support and like to thank them (supporters) for the effort they put into campaigning," Garcia said.
Ittenbach said he did not believe that the Manship Slate played more fairly than the Loving Slate.
"We just tried to focus on our own campaign," Ittenbach said.
Ittenbach said the Manship Slate was grateful for the experience of campaigning, even when the result of doing so was not yet known.
"We knew coming in (tonight) that no matter what the outcome, we wouldn't have regrets. We had a lot of fun, and met really good people."
Michel said traveling down campaign trail has been rewarding.
"It's been a great experience I'll remember the rest of my life," Michel said. "I wouldn't take anything back."
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