It was pretty clear from Tuesday's election that it would take something unusual to help Jasmin Jones make up the difference between her and Thomas Edwards in the student body president race.
Nabbing 41 percent of Tuesday's vote and almost twice as many votes as Jones Edwards was the clear frontrunner to seal the runoff election Tuesday.
But then something unusual happened.
In a meeting Saturday that was part strategy session and part pep talk the four candidates knocked out of the race in Tuesday's election — Ron Bilbao Michael Betts Ashley Klein and Matt Wohlford — dedicated their time energy campaign teams and platform points to getting Jones elected.
After sitting down and talking with both Jones and Edwards the defeated candidates decided to make a united endorsement.
All four candidates stressed the idea that Jones was simply a better fit for the role" saying she would be a better leader for the students and less of an administrator.
""By far" an SBP has to have the quality of motivation Bilbao said to Jones. You by far" capture people and make them believe in what you're saying and what you're doing.""
While the four eliminated candidates all had different reasons for backing Jones" their sentiments echoed one another's.
Klein was enthusiastic about Jones' openness to incorporating their platform ideas something they said Edwards wasn't as open too. At Saturday's meeting Jones agreed to include some of each candidates' major platform points in a revised platform.
And the defeated four candidates think that by throwing their lot in with Jones" they can change the election's outcome.
""If we can bring your old voters back and our old voters back" then you win this thing" Klein said.
If the five candidates bring back the exact same voters as Tuesday's election, their combined 4,844 votes would top Edwards' 3,288.
Obviously" it's worrisome" Edwards said. But I don't think it's in any way indicative of how Tuesday's election is going to go.""
He stressed that just because the candidates are endorsing together doesn't mean that their voters" or even campaign workers will follow suit.
Runoff elections also tend to see lower voter turnout. Edwards said the people who voted for him were likely to come back but the other candidates worried that theirs wouldn't.
The defeated four candidates noted how their voters were enthusiastic about them not Jones" and said it would be hard to get them to turn out again.
They also recognized the limited time frame within which they would have to work.
""We have" essentially one day to get these changes to people Bilbao said. The things that we could do in month" we have to do in a day.""
In the two-hour meeting" the five camps discussed how to spread the word about the decision including mass e-mails to lists and their own teams about why they support Jones.
They also plan to mobilize people to be in the Pit today and Tuesday and go to classrooms on election day. The group erected an A-frame sign bearing all their campaign logos in the Pit on Sunday.
The group also spent significant time addressing the concerns that people had during the regular election" especially the claim that Jones does not know policy as well as her competition.
""If you run a platform campaign" you're going to lose" said Adam Storck, one of Betts' campaign workers who filled in for Betts during the meeting.
They stressed that Jones needed to be more open and more personable. But Bilbao, in a moment of jest, summed up the group's goal.
You know" between the five of us" we could probably win a campaign.""
Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.
Defeated candidates all endorse Jones
Ashley Klein and Matt Wohlford" both former student body president candidates help Jasmin Jones paint a campaign sign Sunday in a show of solidarity. All four of Jones? former competitors joined her campaign against Thomas Edwards in what they?re calling the ?Jasmin Consensus.?
