Gay Student's Election At Texas A&M Rigged, Says Rick Perry

U.S. Energy Secretary and former Texas Governor Rick Perry took issue with the election of the first openly gay student government president at his alma mater, claimingin a statement on March 22 that the election was stolen from the candidate who received the most votes.

Robert McIntosh, a senior at the university, received the most votes in the election, but he was accused of voter intimidation and financial irregularities and was disqualified. Bobby Brooks, 21, a junior from Belton, Texas, was declared the winner. (Sign up for Patch’s daily newsletter for your neighborhood.)

McIntosh 's disqualification stemmed from findings by a student board of financial irregularities. His campaign was also found to have committed voter intimidation, but that charge was dismissed on appeal.

Brooks, who has been openly gay for years, became president, and will assume his new role on April 21, when the term for current student body president Hannah Wimberly ends.

McIntosh's disqualification, and the ruling in Brooks' favor on March 9 led to Perry’s sharp criticism that the university engineered the election outcome in the name of diversity and political correctness, rather than due process.

"What if Mr. Brooks had been the candidate disqualified,” Perry said in a written statement. “Would the administration and the student body have allowed the first gay student body president to be voided for using charity glow sticks? Would the student body have allowed a black student body president to be disqualified on anonymous charges of voter intimidation?"

Meanwhile, Brooks, who was born in Houston, is a first for the traditionally conservative university, steeped in military tradition.

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He didn’t use his sexual orientation as a rallying cry during the campaign, choosing instead to focus on campus issues important to most students, such as improving diversity issues, boosting student services, keeping costs low and strengthening relationships with faculty.

In fact, many of the student body didn’t know Brooks was gay until the front-page story ran about his victory in the campus newspaper on March 20.

Although Perry’s comments have caused a bit of a dust-up, Brooks is embracing his new role.

“I believe in every human’s capability to change the world,” Brooks told the San Antonio Express-News “and I decided it was my time to try that.”

Image: Gage Skidmore via Flickr

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