USG disqualifies candidate for dropping too many F-bombs

A USC student government candidate colloquially known as “the beer guy” was disqualified from holding office after allegedly using “excessively crude” language throughout his senate campaign, according to an unpublished document obtained by Morning, Trojan.

Mason Yonover, whose policy agenda includes encouraging smoking on campus and turning sorority houses into homeless shelters, has become something of a micro-celebrity for his expletive-laden social media posts and outlandish campaign proposals.

Voting for this year’s elections closes Sunday evening.

The nearly 4,000-word report penned by the Undergraduate Student Government’s judicial council accuses Yonover of violating its code of ethics by routinely espousing vulgar language.

It cites over a dozen instances of apparently crude language, including:

• A pre-Super Bowl Instagram story that read: “Vote Yonover

  for senate if you fucking hate the fucking fucking Chiefs, man.”

• An Instagram post that lamented the end of “Jerk It January.”

• An Instagram story that read: “Just to put a button on it… I would’ve killed baby Hitler.”

• An Instagram story that read: “Vote Mason Yonover for USG Senate. Y’all fuck with the new campaign poster?”

• A remark at the annual senatorial forum where Yonover in part said: “Nobody gives a shit about USG.”

• A stream of F-bomb-laden remarks directed at senate candidate Dakota Driemeyer after Driemeyer said he voted for Donald Trump at the senatorial forum.

“Candidates are expected to uphold respectful discourse that fosters constructive conversation, rather than resorting to language that undermines the professionalism required by the Elections Code,” the council wrote.

Yonover, whose name is still on the ballot, said he will appeal the ruling but declined to comment further.

Driemeyer, who lodged the complaint against Yonover alongside a member of the judicial council, said the decision to disqualify Yonover was “correct.”

“We need folks who can spread their ideas in a rational and professional manner, not a voice that seeks to demean and cheapen the very integrity of the organization,” Driemeyer wrote in a statement.

Driemeyer himself has taken fire on social media for opening his campaign with a now-deleted post pledging to fight the “woke agenda.” He has styled himself as a voice for conservative students on campus, and recently called on USC to defund the beleaguered Daily Trojan newspaper.

Pending appeal, Yonover, a sophomore studying creative writing, is disqualified from this year’s election but could run again in the future so long as he doesn’t run further afoul of the student government’s rulebook.

Yonover previously told the Daily Trojan that he was running on a “campaign of indifference.”

He has mourned the recent lack of Varsity Blues-style admissions scandals at USC (“We need to get the brand back on its feet man”), and called on the student government to invest its roughly $2.5 million annual budget in sports betting (“Absolute lock of a parlay”).

Student government senators earn a $3,600 annual stipend paid for by undergraduate tuition fees. Senators tend to serve as credentialed advocates for undergraduate interests rather than policymakers with real authority outside the confines of the student government.

Still, they can carry weight. Senators last year helped overturn a largely unpopular scholarship cut, and have continued to rail against similar cuts as the cash-strapped university dramatically pares back its spending.

They have helped implement vending machines with affordable medicine, contraceptives, and hygiene products, and have perpetually pushed for popular measures such as making USCards Apple Wallet-compatible.

But Yonover’s disqualification adds to the general clownishness of this year’s elections, which have increasingly come to resemble a caricature of high school student council contests.

Candidates opened the month-long campaign slog by promising to remove seed oils from the dining halls, bring a KFC to campus, start a free shuttle to The Grove, and offer free In-N-Out during finals week.

Presidential candidate John Breitfelder earned a somewhat baffling endorsement from NFL Hall-of-Famer Lynn Swan. Days later, the judicial council slapped Breitfelder with a three-day campaign suspension for touting the supposedly unauthorized endorsement.

Ali Bhatti — a presidential candidate who, in his bid for his current senate seat, promised to bring a Raising Cane’s to campus — has faced several charges of misconduct himself.

In an 18-page brief that reads something like an FBI affidavit, the judicial council handed Bhatti a four-day suspension for stacking two lawn signs on top of each other.

Bhatti later reported that USC shot down his effort to bring Raising Cane’s to campus. Now, he’s railing for a Shake Shack.

Correction: This story was updated to note that Yonover may run for office again next year so long as he complies with the student government’s orders.

Tomo Chien can be reached at [email protected].