ASUCD senators-elect say they were verbally harassed, accused of being “pro-MAGA” while campaigning
Grace Azanedo-Leon and Saba Rahimi say they do not align with MAGA views
By VINCE BASADA — campus@theaggie.org
Two candidates who ran and won in last week’s ASUCD Senate election say they were verbally harassed and falsely accused of being Trump supporters while campaigning late Thursday, Nov. 5 — including by a member of the student government they were running to lead.
Grace Azanedo-Leon, a second-year political science — public service major, and Saba Rahimi, a second-year economics major, say they were talking to voters outside of the Activities and Recreation Center around 10 p.m. when several students began shouting at them accused them of supporting the Make America Great Again, or MAGA, movement. They say they recognized one of the individuals who confronted them as working in ASUCD, and claim that they were soon joined by several others who had been lingering nearby.
“This girl runs up and she starts saying, ‘Yeah, vote for them, vote for them because you guys are MAGA, right? Vote for them because you guys are MAGA. They're MAGA,’” Rahimi said.
Azanedo-Leon, who said she is mostly liberal with some conservative views, and Rahimi, who described herself as fully liberal, called the characterization unfounded.
“It's just weird having people's eyes on you — false accusations,” Azanedo-Leon said. “What happens if they would have believed what that girl said? They could have hurt us. You don't know what could happen if someone's telling these lies and people believe it, because you don't know how all these random people are gonna act.”
The pair say that the confrontation lasted around 30 minutes, with the two sides shouting and arguing with each other over the slate’s perceived views. They also said that their harassers accused them of touching voters' phones and filling out online ballots on behalf of students, a violation of ASUCD Elections codes. Azanedo-Leon and Rahimi denied the allegations.
Alongside fellow candidate Lukas Logvin, a third-year political science major, Azanedo-Leon and Rahimi ran on The GOAT (Greater Opportunities, Affordability and Transparency) slate in the Fall 2026 ASUCD Elections. All three were elected to the Senate, per the official results released late Sunday, Nov. 8.
Azanedo-Leon and Rahimi acknowledged that their slate — a temporary coalition of candidates running on a shared platform — was composed of people with different political views, but with a shared vision for ASUCD. They pointed to discourse around Logvin, who had been accused of aligning with MAGA ideology after voters learned he had previously worked for The Heritage Foundation, a conservative organization.
In an email, Logvin confirmed he interned for The Heritage Foundation, working on its educational and professional development programming, but said he does not consider himself as solely aligning with the MAGA movement and that he received several direct threats.
“I identify as a right-leaning Independent, and my beliefs do not align exclusively with any one political party or movement, including MAGA,” Logvin said. “I am disappointed with the concerted harassment towards our slate, and believe it was unprofessional and wrong [...] Such behavior has no place in our campus community.”
The person who first confronted Azanedo-Leon and Rahimi ultimately apologized after learning they did not align themselves with the MAGA movement; another person who had confronted them had left beforehand. The two did not identify the individual who apologized, though did allege that she works in student government on a subbody of the ASUCD Senate.
At some point during the incident, an onlooker called the police and officers responded to the situation. Azanedo-Leon and Rahimi said that by then the situation had de-escalated and that no report had been filed, but called it an emotionally distressing experience.
“To know that these people in ASUCD are spreading all these lies to the point where they're coming up to us and accusing us and harassing us when we're just trying to campaign — it's a very scary feeling,” Rahimi said.
Photos of Azanedo-Leon and Rahimi outside the ARC were posted on Yik Yak with captions including “POV MAGA ASUCD LARPers harassing students for Senate.” Another post on Reddit accused the slate of being Islamophobic, despite Rahimi identifying as Muslim.
“The fact that they didn't even do any type of research and automatically jumped to conclusions that we are MAGA and we are Islamophobic when I identify as Muslim, it's just crazy to me,” Rahimi said. “It's genuinely crazy, and they were basically urging students to vote against us based off false labels.”
The candidates say they don’t harbor bad feelings toward the individual who works in ASUCD and apologized, and expressed hope that they could maintain a good working relationship once they take office later this quarter. However, the two did cast blame on the current ASUCD Senators and other elected officials who, they argue, perpetuated a culture of hostility and allowed accusations against them to grow unchecked without evidence. They say the individual who apologized to them and who works in ASUCD pointed to others within the Association as the source of the misinformation.
“I guess even if [the harasser] came with an initial assumption, at least after that she was willing to talk to us and hear us out and I think that itself was more than what a lot of other people in ASUCD have done,” Rahimi said, adding that Senator Pro Tempore Caleb Swaby-Pierce was the only ASUCD official to check in on the two as of late Saturday.
Senate Pro Tempore Sawby-Pierce, a third-year economics and political science double major who serves as a representative of the Senate, said that he was unaware of any rumors about the GOAT slate in ASUCD communication channels, though said he was aware of them from sources outside the Association. He asserted that the Senate, and ASUCD at large, is open to students of all backgrounds.
“We're people who are extremely passionate about making any improvements possible to our campus, advocating for basic needs, advocating for equal representation and really creating a safe, equitable campus,” Swaby-Pierce said of the ASUCD Senate. “I think everyone is united in that. I don't think we are particularly discriminatory towards ideologies. I think anyone is welcome to be a senator, no matter your background, no matter your beliefs.”
Five violation claims were filed against Azanedo-Leon and Rahimi before voting closed on Friday, alleging they touched voters’ phones and broke campaigning rules, according to the candidates. All five were dismissed by the ASUCD Elections Committee for a lack of evidence.
Written by: Vince Basada — campus@theaggie.org