USG announces senatorial and presidential candidates


Candidates for Undergraduate Student Government President, Vice President and Senate made their official campaign announcements Thursday night. Two presidential tickets and 20 Senatorial candidates announced.

The tickets were revealed on the USG Elections Facebook page, USG website and the campaign’s respective pages.

Edwin Saucedo and Austin Dunn, are on one ticket for president and vice president, respectively.

Saucedo is a junior majoring in political science and policy, planning and development and has served as USG’s Program Board Finance Director. Saucedo is a first-generation college student, and a Presidential Scholar.

Saucedo previously served as the executive director of the Political Student Assembly, and he is the president of the Political Science Undergraduate Association, as well as a member of the Trojan Knights.

Dunn, the candidate for vice president, is a sophomore majoring in political science with minors in business administration and business law, and is pursuing a master’s degree in public diplomacy. Currently, Dunn is the director of University Affairs for USG. Dunn previously served as a member of USG’s elections commission and vice president of the Pre-Law Society. Dunn is also a member of the Zeta Beta Tau Fraternity.

The Edwin Austin 2016 platform includes increasing transparency between USG administration and students through a weekly lunch with various constituencies, increasing Title IX staff and decreasing their response time. Another initiative includes larger spaces for cultural resource centers and at least one in-house counselors in these centers.

The second ticket for  president and vice president  is Charlie Henriquez and Cole Pham. Henriquez, a junior studying business administration, is the director of finance for the Trojan Dance Marathon planning committee, and is currently serving as a senatorial aide for three USG senators. Henriquez also served as a delegate to the Wellness Affairs Committee, and advocated for increased mental health services on campus.

Vice presidential candidate Pham is a sophomore majoring in music industry, and ran for programming chair in Residential Student Government and  served as vice president of programming for RSG.

The Henriquez-Pham 2016 platform includes advocating for a fall semester break, maintaining greek rush for first semester students, increasing resources for transfer and spring admit students and including student athletes as a constituency in the undergraduate Senate.

The two tickets launched their social media campaigns on outlets including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Two debates will take place before official polling begins. A diversity debate will take place on Feb. 4, at 7 p.m. in The Forum and a later debate between the presidential and vice presidential candidates will take place on Feb. 8th, also at 7 p.m. in The Forum.

Associate Directors of Election and Recruitment Izzy Albert and Logan Dallas will help coordinate campaign efforts.

“It’s been a lot of work, there’s a lot of scheduling and planning  behind the scenes,” Dallas said. “But it’s interesting to hear new ideas being brought in, especially from the younger candidates.”

Dallas also praised the increase of student involvement with USG, especially concerning the senatorial race.

“In years past, we’ve had senatorial seats run uncontested, now we’ve got 20 people running for 12 seats.” Dallas said.

Voting will take place Feb. 9-11.

Correction: A previous version of this article quoted Undergraduate Student Government Associate Director of Elections and Recruitment Logan Dallas as saying there were “20 people running for 1 or 2 seats.” She said 12 seats. The Daily Trojan regrets the error.