Tears filled Zarella Berrocal’s eyes Wednesday night, even though she won her District D Senate seat.
She said no one has worked as hard since the Inspire Party’s inception as Joel Kratt. But, he lost his seat as the Tolbert Area senator by only 23 votes.
He said he will only run again in Spring if someone can convince him to. Berrocal promised him she’d be the one to do that.
“I’ve learned a lot over the past year,” Kratt said. “I’ve grown as an individual, as a leader. I’ve learned strength through struggle.”
UF students elected Impact Party as the majority in the Student Senate during Tuesday and Wednesday’s elections. Of the 50 seats up for grabs, based off of students’ residential areas and zip codes, Impact claimed 35, while Inspire Party locked in 15. Inspire only won seats in three areas: District D, Keys Residential Complex and Murphree Area.
Impact won 30 seats, and Inspire won 20 in last Fall’s election, with the increase in Impact seats this semester the party will now have a stronger majority in the Senate.
This Fall, 8,388 students voted in the election, Fair announced. This is 211 fewer students than last year.
Fifty candidates ran with Impact and 43 candidates ran with Inspire, according to a list of candidates provided by Supervisor of Elections Henry Fair.
Impact President Anmol Shah grinned as Fair announced the election results from the Reitz Union staircase, peering down onto the party members on the ground floor. She decided not to run in this Fall’s election so she could lead Impact, Shah said.
She said she knew the candidates on the Impact ticket put in enough work to win, but she went into the night knowing anything could happen.
“I didn’t expect anything,” Shah said. “This time last year, I won my District C seat by one vote.”
Molishka Heriveaux jumped to hug her friend Tyler Kendrick when she found out the Impact senator won the first seat of the night in Beaty Towers.
Heriveaux claimed the Graham Area seat for Impact. She ran unopposed in the election.
“I’m very energized and lucky to be here,” Heriveaux said. “Everyone worked their butts off.”
Krishnah Sivakumaran’s smile dropped when he heard Inspire swept District D, which he ran on Impact’s ticket.
Sivakumaran said he felt both excited and nervous going into the evening. He campaigned for hours over the last few days.
“I have a passion for SG and tried to run a few times before,” Sivakumaran said. “I just wanted to represent the students.”
Inspire Party lost five seats in the Senate this election. Inspire Party’s President Ashley Grabowski said the losses will not prevent senators from motivating Impact to listen to underrepresented voices in the student body.
“We speak for every Gator,” Grabowski said.
Kratt said he will still be working to get Nov. 6 classes at UF to be optional or canceled so students can have ample time to vote on Election Day, one of Inspire Party’s platform points.
Although he lost as the Broward - Rawlings Area Senator to Impact Party, Branden Reis said the outcome doesn’t change the friendships he’s made.
“Our symbol is a light bulb, but it doesn’t burn out,” Reis said. “Everyone has a bad day, but it’s how we pick ourselves up.”
Contact Gillian Sweeney at gsweeney@alligator.org and follow her on Twitter at @gilliangsweeney
Contact Angela DiMichele at adimichele@alligator.org and follow her on Twitter at @angdimi
Beaty Towers - Impact Party
Tyler Kendrick, 135 votes, 64.59 percent
Broward - Rawlings Area - Impact Party
Gabi Zlatanoff, 379 votes, 69.29 percent
District A (32601, 32609, 32614) - Impact Party
Sophia Bond, 2,211 votes, 8.96 percent
Emily Dunson, 2,134 votes, 8.65 percent
Sam Girschick, 2,062 votes, 8.36 percent
Gabriella Manuszak, 2,042 votes, 8.28 percent
Katie Hernandez, 2,039 votes, 8.26 percent
Sydney Honeycutt, 2,025 votes, 8.21 percent
Michael Murphy, 2,025 votes, 8.21 percent
Meryl Jones, 1,972 votes, 7.99 percent
Rhodes Evans, 1,955 votes, 7.92 percent
Amol Dhaliwal, 1,941 votes, 7.87 percent
District B (32603, 32605, 32606, 32653) - Impact Party
Devin Cornair, 950 votes, 14.78 percent
Kyle Levy, 940 votes, 14.62 percent
Spencer Nguyen, 933 votes, 14.51 percent
Connor Haffey, 928 votes, 14.43 percent
Tony Emmett, 922 votes, 14.34 percent
Andrew Goren, 916 votes, 14.25 percent
District C (32607) - Impact Party
Lexi Ramos, 296 votes, 8.9 percent
Dilan Patel, 269 votes, 8.09 percent
Timothy Martin, 265 votes, 7.97 percent
Garrit DuBois, 264 votes, 7.94 percent
Kyle Garner, 264 votes, 7.94 percent
Nicholas Meyer, 259 votes, 7.79 percent
Andrew Herman, 258 votes, 7.76 percent
District D (32608) - Inspire Party
Matthew Diaz, 488 votes, 4.9 percent
Felipe Gatos, 445 votes, 4.86 percent
Sneh Patel, 437 votes, 4.78 percent
Benjamin Lima, 417 votes, 4.56 percent
Zarella Berrocal, 411 votes, 4.49 percent
Sam Jenkins, 408 votes, 4.46 percent
Ché John, 407 votes, 4.45 percent
Michael Dormeus, 405 votes, 4.43 percent
Mackintosh Joachim, 405 votes, 4.43 percent
Casey Witte, 395 votes, 4.32 percent
Richard German, 393 votes, 4.29 percent
Daziah Scurry, 385 votes, 4.21 percent
William Zelin, 385 votes, 4.21 percent
District E - Impact Party
Noah Wright, 69 votes, 75 percent
Family Housing - Impact Party
Tiffany Batten, 6 votes, 66.67 percent
Graham Area - Impact Party
Molishka Heriveaux, 104 votes, 88.89 percent
Hume Area - Impact Party
Christopher Matei, 101 votes, 54.01 percent
Infinity Hall - Impact Party
Shaan Patel, 102 votes, 83.61 percent
Jennings Area - Impact Party
Branden Pearson, 179 votes, 73.97 percent
Keys Residential Complex - Inspire Party
Jenna Yoss, 24 votes, 51.06 percent
Lakeside Residential Complex - Impact Party
Mauricio Perez, 63 votes, 66.32 percent
Murphree Area - Inspire Party
Zachariah Chou, 203 votes, 67.22 percent
Springs Residential Complex - Impact Party
Alexa Entringer, 170 votes, 73.91 percent
Tolbert Area - Impact Party
Brianna Adan, 97 votes, 56.73 percent
Yulee Area - Impact Party
Lindsay Kaighin, 143 votes, 64.71 percent
Lexie Atlas, a 19-year-old UF sophomore engineering student, celebrates with her friend Kyle Levy, who just won a District B Senator seat for the Impact Party. The results were read in the Reitz Union Wednesday night where Impact won 35 of 50 seats.
