“It’s kinda surreal right now,” said Summers, a 27-year-old former minor baseball player and a member of UNC’s track and field team. “Taking a second and reflecting back on everything that’s happened over the last few weeks, it’s been a little bit of an emotional roller coaster in understanding some of the issues that people deal with on our campus on a daily basis.”
Summers’ won the election with 64.8 percent of the vote while runner-up Kathryn Walker received 35.2 percent.
Summers’ was the front-runner in last Tuesday’s general election, when he won 35.6 percent of the vote, while Walker received 26.3 percent. David Marsh, the third candidate in the race, received 21.2 percent and was eliminated after the general election.
Because no candidate received a majority, a runoff election was deemed necessary.
This year, 3,051 students participated in the runoff election. That number means only 16.6 percent of undergraduates voted, the lowest turnout in a runoff or general election since at least 2005.
Last year’s student body president runoff election drew in 7,441 undergraduates, one of the largest in UNC’s history.
Summers said he does not know what policy he will chose to work on first, but after his team is assembled, they will choose which items are most pertinent on campus to address.
He also said his team will be comprised of both members from his campaign team as well as outside students.
