The Voice Editorial Board has chosen to rescind its endorsement of the Vincent/Hirai ticket, with the caveat that we still believe Camber Vincent (SFS ’24) would be the most progressive candidate to support in this election.
Since the Editorial Board published its endorsement of Vincent and Alyssa Hirai (SFS ’24) for the ongoing GUSA Executive election, the Voice has received half a dozen tips from concerned Hoyas regarding Vice Presidential candidate Hirai. In addition to her involvement with Georgetown University College Republicans, concerns have been raised about her relationship with the Network of Enlightened Women—a conservative organization that is slated to host a transphobic speaker event on Nov. 14. Hirai wrote in an email to the Voice that she is no longer a member of said club, although she is in pictures taken at multiple club events, including one seven weeks ago. We are also concerned about new allegations of her making comments that are contrary to some of the core values of the Voice.
The Voice has done extensive due diligence work to attempt to verify or discredit the allegations raised to us, but cannot fully attest to all the concerns simply because the election window is already open and closes Saturday night. The Vincent/Hirai ticket has communicated unequivocally to the Voice that they intend to support transgender students on campus, including in terms of Georgetown housing policies, and have denounced the transphobic speaker event that harms trans athletes. But the surplus of other allegations has intensified our concern about Hirai’s suitability for elected office.
We are choosing to rescind our endorsement because we are gravely concerned about Hirai’s affiliations and beliefs. We would like to acknowledge that though these allegations cannot be formally verified at this time, the concern from our readership is of utmost importance and we have a responsibility to them to be transparent. Out of this pool of candidates, we stand by our general belief that Vincent brings work experience and an overall commitment to progressive stances that is worthy of our support. We are wary about his choice of Hirai in the first place given the abundance of our concerns about her, but still believe he is generally dedicated towards enacting progressive policies relative to others. In total, though, we cannot continue to support a ticket with both of their names on it, especially in the absence of a write-in option this year.
The Editorial Board is committed to putting our support behind candidates who will make Georgetown more equitable, inclusive, and safer for its most vulnerable students, and we are not confident that continued support of Hirai aligns with our values. Despite acknowledging substantial concerns about Hirai’s involvement with other conservative groups on campus in our original editorial, we deeply apologize for not doing further due diligence before issuing our endorsement. We take the privilege of having this platform very seriously, and are vehemently opposed to any form of transphobia, racism, or harm here at Georgetown.
