The Hannah Administration Building on Sept. 20, 2020.
Republican Pat O'Keefe and Democrat Rema Vassar have secured the two open slots on the Michigan State University Board of Trustees — surpassing incumbent Brian Mosallam and Republican Tonya Schuitmaker.
With all 83 counties reporting their results to the Michigan Secretary of State, O'Keefe received the largest amount of votes with 24.22%, Vassar had 24.02%. Mosallam received the third-highest with 23.65%, while Schuitmaker came in fourth with 23.45%.
Thursday morning's update had 82 of 83 Michigan counties reported, and O'Keefe, Vassar, Mosallam and Schuitmaker were all within 1% of one another.
For a large part of the counting process, the Michigan Secretary of State had O'Keefe and Schuitmaker in the lead.
However, Vassar and Mosallam consistently received the highest amount of votes in Ingham County.
Vassar had 30.67% of the vote, and Mosallam had 29.88% of the vote in Ingham County.
Mosallam was the first trustee on the board during the breakout of the Larry Nassar scandal to seek reelection, as Joel Ferguson announced he would not be seeking reelection.
O’Keefe is an MSU alumnus and founder and CEO of O’Keefe, a strategic and financial consulting firm.
On his website, he is described as a true conservative wishing to serve conservative student voices at MSU.
The Republican Party held a runoff election Aug. 30 for their second nominee between O'Keefe and Rick Wendorf, with O'Keefe ultimately winning and taking the spot on the ballot.
Vassar's husband is a two-time alumnus, and her daughter is a current sophomore at MSU. She is a former K-12 public school teacher, counselor, administrator and parent organizer.
She has received endorsements from the Michigan ALF-CIO, the United Auto Workers and a number of other organizations.
Trustees Ferguson and Brianna Scott have voiced their support for Vassar as well.
Other candidate results:
Brandon Hu (GRN): 0.68%
Robin Laurain (GRN): 0.76%
Will White (LIB): 1.26%
Bridgette Abraham-Guzman (NLP): 0.47%
Janet Sanger (U.S. Tax): 0.89%
John Paul Sanger (U.S. Tax): 0.61%
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