Friday evening it was announced that Kyle Kelly was elected as student body president.
With 6,067 votes, Kelly amassed over 60% of the total votes cast for all four candidates and clenched the position currently held by student body president Reid Joseph. Following the announcement, Joseph’s father, a former yell leader, led the crowd in a heartfelt yell. Kelly said he was filled with emotion as he heard his name announced.
“It’s an out of body experience,” Kelly said. “I’m so thankful, probably more than anything, for the team behind me.”
Kyle said he looks forward to working alongside student senate to bring changes to the culture of SGA.
“It is going to be a very good year,” Kelly said. “Things are going to be very different. I’m excited to make big changes and continue to improve the Aggie experience.”
Senior civil engineering major and head campaign manager Kevin Von Storch said the road to elections would have been much different without the support of the rest of the campaign team.
“I cannot talk highly enough about our team and the work that they have put in and the sacrifice that they have made for a couple of weeks to get Kyle in office for a year,” Von Storch said. “It truly says a lot about these people and about their character, we could not have done it without them.”
Von Storch said Kelly will help connect the future president of Texas A&M with the student body and help ease the transition.
“I truly believe that with Kyle in office, we’ll make sure that we smoothly transition interim President Hussey and when we do have another president, smoothly transition them into office and into students’ lives and connect them with the president,” Von Storch said.
Senior biology major Alex Brown, part of Kelly’s campaign team, said the week leading up to the election was exhausting but worth it.
“We’re absolutely very tired,” Brown said. “We put in a lot of sleepless nights this week and I had a couple of tests mixed in and Kyle did too but we were able to pull it off and I think that holding banners up on campus and just going out and pushing social media really won it.”
Roger Kelly, Class of 1985 and Kyle Kelly’s father, said he is proud of his son’s achievements.
“We’re all proud Aggies, and I couldn’t be more thrilled,” Kelly said. “He’s a courageous kid, hard-working, he’s one of the most honest people you will ever meet. I’m just really proud of him.”
Senior industrial distribution major RJ Shannon said the passion that Kelly showed upon his election announcement is a preview of the passion he will put into his first year in office.
“He’s going to step into this role and act with integrity, act with character, and do what’s right for this university no matter what,” Shannon said. “He’s going to do incredible things.”