ROFLMAO – …”audible gasps”!!!

North Carolina – An undocumented student at the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill who became a national cause célèbre in recent weeks as a candidate for student body president lost his election bid Tuesday in a landslide defeat.

UNC junior Emilio Vicente, a public policy major who was thrust into the spotlight after publicly acknowledging that he is not a U.S. citizen, lost his bid to represent the students of the public research university by a vote of 4,760 to 2,681, or 62.9 percent to 35.47 percent.

Prior to Tuesday’s election, Vicente – who describes himself as a “feminist” – had become the darling of left-leaning celebrities, earning praise and endorsements from the likes of Al Jazeera and actress Eva Longoria, for example.

Some at the school of nearly 30,000 students had heralded Vicente as a symbol against oppression, with one student declaring “he represents the Carolina that is fighting back against the political forces that want to make public education accessible to only … upper class white students.”

There were audible gasps as the election results were announced Tuesday night at Carroll Hall, where about 50 students had gathered. The tally represented the electronic votes casts throughout the day on a campus described by some as having a “tense” atmosphere Tuesday. (read more)