The OU students who ran for two Norman City Council wards lost their respective elections Feb. 14, but they are still optimistic about their futures.
Victor Reyes, public relations senior and president of OU College Republicans, received 2.31 percent of the total votes cast for the Ward 1 election. Kate Bierman won the Ward 1 election, receiving 53.96 percent of the vote, and incumbent Greg Heiple received the remaining 43.73 percent.
Traci Baker, political science freshman, ran for Ward 7, which encompasses a southeastern portion of the OU Norman campus, against incumbent Stephen Holman and also lost. Baker received 20.96 percent of the vote while Holman retained his seat with 79.04 percent.
While the results did not end in either Reyes' or Baker's favors, Reyes said he was happy to have the experience at 22 years old.
"Who am I to question the voters? They decided who was the best candidate for the job, and they decided Kate Bierman was the best," he said. "I'm okay with the results. I'm still disappointed, but I do think this is just the process working itself out. I'm just happy to have been a part of it."
Reyes said he is going to take some time to evaluate his experience during this election before deciding what his next career move will be.
"If nothing else, what this race did is it put me out there and it gave me a voice larger than even one on campus," he said.
"I'm excited for that, and I'm excited to see where it takes me," he said.
Baker said the experience of running was educational, and she plans on trying to join a committee or board in the Norman government. She will run for City Council again, but she has not decided when she will do so.
"I feel like I did fairly well given the circumstances, I’m pretty impressed with what happened last night. It was an educational and fun experience and I’m definitely going to build on that," Baker said.
Baker had previously served as the Oklahoma state volunteer coordinator for former Libertarian U.S. presidential candidate Gary Johnson. She is also the Libertarian Caucus chair for Oklahoma.
