Written by: Joe Adgie 

Tyler Barker is the next SGA president.

He defeated Tamelonie Thomas in a landslide victory during the SGA elections last week, winning with almost a 2-to-1 margin.

“Now, it’s time to get to work,” Barker said on Monday. “We’ve been discussing about shadowing (President Jimerson), and I really want to pick up right where he left off. We don’t want to miss a beat as far as going into next year, and I’m really looking forward to going into newer and bigger and better things.”

Barker called his vision for VSU “phenomenal” and stated that he loved the potential of the university.

His running mate, Nick Buford, ran unopposed for vice president.

“I just want to say that we ran a great campaign, we were very confident, and I was very confident that we would win, and the results kind of reflected the hard work that we put into it,” Buford said. “I want to say thanks to our campaign team and thanks to all of the organizations who endorsed us over the last three weeks.”

Buford also said that he would start working to ensure a smooth transition between the outgoing executive board and the incoming one.

Barker’s opponent, Tamelonie Thomas, remained optimistic.

“My plans now are to just continue what I was doing before, just continuing on, being that student leader, (trying) to make people proud of me,” Thomas said.

Thomas did not definitively say whether she would return to the senate.

“I’m just going to see where life leads me, and I’m just going to go with that,” Thomas said.