By Vinny Porco

After a two-month Student Government Association election season, voter and candidate anticipation has been realized.

The Louisville Cardinal obtained full results from the 2026 SGA General Election.

The Results

SGA confirmed that Senior Director of Campus Outreach Yash Arabati prevailed in the student body president run-off race with 51.75% of votes. He will join his running mate, Riley Maddox, at the head of the executive branch. Maddox won the race for executive vice president in the late February general election, carrying 44.7% of the nearly 2,400 votes cast in the four-person race.

Arabati, in his new role, will serve in the 2026-27 academic year as SGA’s most forward-facing member and the sole student representative on the U of L Board of Trustees. Maddox will become the president of the student senate and represent students as a member of the U of L Athletic Association Board.

Rounding out the “Top 4”, candidates Connor Price and Gabriel Reed are the reported winners of services vice president and academic vice president, respectively. Price, like Maddox, won the general election with at least a 40% plurality, coming away with 45.53%. Reed’s work didn’t stop in February as the academic vice president race was also extended to a run-off election held in late March, in which he earned 52.24% of the votes.

The results for races of specific colleges and academic units are as follows:

  • College of Arts and Sciences
    • President: Olivia Flanagan
    • Vice President: Addy Ricafort
    • Senators: Amal Kalik, Peyton Ventura, Apolonia Guerrero, Peyton Dewitt, Ciaran Bowden, Schuyler Stone, Mahder Garredew, Asha Peoples and Hagan O’Daniel
  • College of Business
    • President: Cordelia Fleitz
    • Vice President: Lance Patterson
    • Senators: Maya Conner, Mishti Patel and Jureon Barner
  • College of Education and Human Development
    • President: Emma Rahm
    • Vice President: Maya Murphy
    • Senator: Brooklynn Busbee
  • School of Nursing
    • President: Zoe Scipio
    • Vice President: Cecilia Suarez
    • Senators: Preston Harper and Cole Grinar
  • School of Music
    • President: Allie Hughes
    • Senator: Cincere Flynt
  • Kent School of Social Work
    • President: Charlia Merritt
    • Vice President: Jade Johnson
    • Senator: Kingston Painter
  • School of Public Health
    • President: Olivia Cecil
    • Vice President: Makena Justice
  • J.B. Speed School of Engineering
    • President: Bella Saalfeld
    • Executive Vice President: Grant Popp
    • Operations Vice President: Isabella Burke
    • Director of Finance: Jasmine Looi
  • Graduate Students
    • President: Chadrima Chatterjee
    • Vice President: Katpady Akhil
    • Director of Finance: Nikhil Vinod
    • Director of Professional Development: Anna Williams

A closer look

The results of the 2026 elections mark a new day for SGA, one with potentially-changing implications.

Overall, participation in SGA has increased. Compared to the 2024 SGA General Election, the “response ratio” is up from 10.46% to 11.85% in 2026. Out of 21,680 students surveyed, 2,568 of them at least opened the form in their email and clicked through it.

This difference over two years may seem like a small bump. However, due to a 4.78% rise in “survey audience,” caused mostly by increased enrollment, this accounts for several hundred votes. The 2024 election saw 2,160 votes, while the 2026 election added another 408.

Additionally, the online-voting platform administered by the U of L Office of Institutional Effectiveness does not require survey respondents to vote in all or even any of the races available.

Taking a look at voter counts in 2024 and 2026 for student body president, the race in each election with the most votes cast, reveals an even greater bump in participation. 2024 saw 1,845 votes cast for student body president, while 2026 saw a 23.92% increase to a total of 2,425 votes.

Voter turnout increased in nearly every race in the 2026 General Election compared to 2024.

The Clock Tower stands tall over U of L’s Belknap Campus in Louisville, Kentucky. (File Photo / The Louisville Cardinal)

A unique set of winners

Arabati and Maddox won under unique circumstances. The pair notably received only two endorsements from current SGA members, with that support coming from Associate Directors of Campus Outreach Cameron Austin and Mo Al Salman.

For opposing slates, the complete opposite was true. Current Academic Vice President Kathleen Price and her running mate Seth Pinson received endorsements from the remaining three members of the SGA “Top 4” and several other high-ranking members of the student senate and executive branch.

Many of those same SGA members, including “Top 4” members Macy Waddle, Anna Hernandez and Grant Avis, likewise endorsed current College of Business Student President Mariana Meneses and her running mate Trey Stephens. Price and Pinson both later pledged support for Meneses and Stephens after placing third in the general election.

Additionally, Arabati and Maddox, for two primary reasons, stand out from conventional SGA “Top 4” representatives. Arabati, unlike the majority of “Top 4” members in recent history, is not a member of a Greek Life organization. Maddox is involved in Greek Life, however, she is notably not a current member of SGA.

Arabati and Maddox will work on developing relationships with fellow “Top 4” members Reed and Price, and appointing both executive cabinet members and SGA Supreme Court justices.

Results for the 2026 SGA General Election can be accessed here and run-off election results can be accessed here.