Kansas State’s Student Governing Association held student body elections this past week, with Lauren Wolter and Matthew Hendricks running against Christian Peña and Caden Bastian for president and vice president candidacy. All positions within the organization were up for election, including student senator, the Union Governing Board and the Collegian Media Group Student Advisory.
According to the SGA website, K-State SGA is the “15th most active Student Government in the United States,” and “advocate[s] for improvements to student life.”
In 2025, Brady Kappelmann and Zoey Pudenz ran unopposed, claiming the presidency and vice presidency for the 2025-26 academic school year.
According to the SGA website, “Anyone enrolled in at least one credit hour of class work at K-State with cumulative grade point average of 2.000 or who is a graduate student with a minimum cumulative grade point average of 3.000, or who is student who has completed less than 24 credit hours at Kansas State University,” can run as a SGA senator or for presidency.
This year, the Senate saw a large number of seats to fill, re-electing 60 seats, varying in seat number per K-State college.
K-State students were able to vote through Canvas starting at 8 a.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 24, and closing at 11:59 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 25, with results announced at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 26.
On Feb 19, SGA held the 2026-27 Presidential Candidate Debate at the K-State Student Union, with both candidate parties in attendance.
Peña said he’s focused on continuing a positive and productive environment within the association.
“I think that one of the things that has stood out to me the most throughout my time with SGA is that we spend a lot of time together, whether that’s on a Tuesday or a Thursday, we get to spend a lot of time together and get to be with people who don’t think like us,” Peña said. “We all have different perspectives on what SGA can and will look like moving forward. That allows us to grow as individuals as well as go into the Senate, with differing opinions, but at the end of the day, walk out of there shaking hands for the good of the university.”
Wolter said voter advocacy is a focus of her campaign, and she wants to get students involved in local elections.
“Our platform is ‘Inspire, Innovate and Impact, ‘ and that is truly what we hope to do,” Wolter said. “We really hope to inspire students by exposing them to new opportunities to actually fit their interest. I’m personally really passionate that students should not just be involved on campus but involve citizens. We hope to do that by creating a partnership with a program called ‘Vote Online’ that would make it really easy for students to be able to be registered to vote and figure out how they can vote without leaving Manhattan … with this being a primary year I think that that’s really relevant in terms of innovating this campus.”
Peña said he wants to emphasize that systematic change has to come from within.
“If we [are] elected, a couple things I want to take into it is a strong work ethic, integrity and transparency,” Peña said. “ Everything behind that is all leading into the fact that we’re here to listen to you, but if we’re not there to truly listen, no action happens. We wanna make sure that students feel that we’re being held accountable from the things that they want to see happen here at K-State. If you want to be a part of that change…you have to be willing to show up.”
Wolter said being SGA president means shaping the lives of every Wildcat, no matter the barriers possibly in place.
“My parents are really big in raising us that if the institution or any individual invests in you, that you owe it to them to invest back, and so this is my opportunity to invest back in the university that’s done so much for me,” Wolter said. “We’re [Wolter and Hendricks] really passionate about trying to give those opportunities to other students to really take down any barriers that might be inhibiting any student’s experience and make everyone’s time at K-State as meaningful as it can be. It would be absolutely humbling to be elected to serve these positions and try to make those goals become a reality.”
