Michael Gsovski/The Daily Northwestern

On Wednesday night, Weinberg junior Muhammad Safdari waited for the results from his uncontested run for Academic Director for an hour and a half in Lisa’s Cafe. With him were Weinberg junior Dan Osher, his campaign manager, and Weinberg junior Jeff Cao, his campaign strategist. In that time, they talked about their campaign’s tactics, the presidential race and the prospect of a possible loss.

“If 2000 people vote no confidence…” Osher said.

“…Then I deserve to lose,” Safdari finished.

However, when the phone call from Elections Commissioner and Weinberg senior Paul David Shrader came in, it became clear that “no confidence” was not the case. Safdari had received 84.4 percent of the vote, among the highest percentages for a recent uncontested candidate.

“We crushed it,” Safdari said after hanging up the phone.

After the high-fiving and laughing subsided, Safdari said his result came as a surprise to him given the moves his campaign had made over the past two weeks.

“We didn’t do anything today, I made a politically stupid endorsement and I spent $25,” he said.

Safdari said his schedule was sparse Wednesday – he only visited Bobb Hall, Foster-Walker Complex and Hobart House to campaign. He spent the morning crafting proposals and outreach e-mails to various groups and individuals in advance of his first meeting as Academic Director on Monday.

Safdari added that the efforts of other candidates made further campaigning unnecessary.

“I didn’t stress about it, because Mike’s team and Bill’s team and Luke’s team were busy turning out my voters,” he said.

After the results came in, Safdari shared the news over the phone with his mother, then headed to the Public Affairs Residential College, where he said he would begin full-time work on the McGee campaign.

“I’m gonna see if I can help Mike,” Safdari said. “I’ll work with Bill if he wins, but given what I’ve seen over the past week, I think Mike’s a better choice.”