Claire Rodenbush, an outsider candidate who centered her campaign on bringing radical change to student government at Emerson, has won a highly contested three-way race for the Student Government Association’s executive presidency, according to an email from SGA obtained by The Beacon.

Rodenbush, a sophomore at the college and self-described LGBTQ+ activist, ran her campaign in alignment with organizations like Students Supporting Survivors and the Emerson College Student Union, promising an overhaul of SGA as it is currently known.

“The student body was tired of the way things were, and they proved that by electing me,” Rodenbush said in an emailed statement to The Beacon. “SGA needs radical change, and I am prepared to usher that change in under my presidency.”

The newly elected president will inherit an SGA unlike any other when the fall semester rolls around, as she will be the first to lead SGA under its newly ratified constitution that will implement a legislative model focused on creating change in real-time.

Rodenbush ran an aggressive campaign, utilizing social media far more than her two opponents: Jehan Ayesha, a freshman who was a member of SGA this year, and Diego Torres, an outsider junior who fell in between Ayesha and Rodenbush on the level of change needed in the organization.

“What we need now more than ever is a president willing to push the power of student government further than it has ever been pushed,” Rodenbush’s statement reads. “We need a president who won’t back down when faced with administrative pushback. We need a president who will fight the good fight. I will be that president.”

SGA is set to release the full results of the election, which saw 19 candidates in total vie for positions, sometime Sunday. All candidates have already been checked for proper academic standing.