'Deeply Concerned' Rick Perry Pens Op-Ed About Student Election

US energy secretary accuses Texas A&M of rigging election for gay student
By Michael Harthorne,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 24, 2017 12:46 PM CDT
Rick Perry Claims College Rigged Election for Gay Student
Rick Perry has accused Texas A&M of rigging a student election in favor of a gay student.   (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)

Rick Perry, new US energy secretary, is "deeply concerned" about something. But don't worry, it's not America's aging nuclear stockpile but the results of a student election in Texas. CNN reports that after the winner of Texas A&M's election for student body president was accused of voter intimidation and disqualified for not disclosing campaign expenses, runner-up Bobby Brooks became the college's first openly gay student body president. That led Perry to pen an 851-word opinion piece for the Houston Chronicle in which he accused the administration of Texas A&M, his alma mater, of making a "mockery of due process" and stealing the election in a misbegotten "quest for 'diversity.'"

Perry says the disqualification of original winner Robert McIntosh—the son of a major Texas Republican fundraiser who campaigned for President Trump—didn't "fit the crime" and wouldn't have happened if McIntosh weren't straight and white. While others criticized a federal official for publicly addressing a student election, Texas A&M settled for "respectfully" disagreeing with its former student. It points out the decision to disqualify McIntosh and make Brooks president was made entirely by students in the form of the all-student election commission and judicial court, the Washington Post reports. Furthermore, Brooks' sexuality wasn't part of his campaign. (More Rick Perry stories.)

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