As voting drew to a close today, the Northern Iowan Student Government shifted the announcement of the election results online due to the university reducing operations campus-wide. At 7 p.m., Alli Webster and Gabriel Salazar were announced as the next president and vice president of NISG, amassing 824 votes in the process. 

“We just want to say thank you to our supporters and the students in general,” said Salazar on the Zoom call. “We are by the panthers and for the panthers and that’s who we’re here to serve.” 

Webster and Salazar ran their campaign on the pillars of partnership, ambition, new opportunities, talent, helping others, engagement, resilience and sustainability. Their campaign slogan was “by panthers, for panthers,” which served as the tenant for their campaign. 

Webster said that winning the election was a relief, and is filled with excitement looking ahead to the term. “We’re definitely feeling relieved – campaigning was stressful but so rewarding. From the beginning, we were dedicated to be representative advocates for our student constituents. We were so lucky to have received such great support from students and student organizations. Being invited in conversation with students and student organizations is what kept us motivated to run – we saw that these groups were seeking support and looked to us as their representation,” said Webster in a statement to the Northern Iowan. 

Salazar and Webster also gave credit to their opponents, Evan Winters and Cooper Messina, for the campaign they ran. “We wanted to say thank you to Evan and Cooper for the campaign they ran,” said Webster during the Zoom election results. “You challenged us, and without your challenge we wouldn’t be able to run the campaign we ran.” 

Webster finished her statement to the Northern Iowan with this, “We are so excited to help the student body, as students for students. Once again, by panthers, for panthers! Go panthers!”