Ahead of Florida Atlantic University’s 2026 Spring Student Government election, three political parties have grown: the Atlantic Party, Sunshine Party, and Paradise Party. 

At stake is more than campaign rhetoric. Students at Florida Atlantic fund Student Government through the $12.32 to $12.70 per credit hour Activities & Services fee, which is attached to tuition. This would mean that a full-time student taking 15 credits contributes roughly $185 to $191 each semester. 

The fee funds dozens of Registered Student Organizations, campus events and concerts, sports clubs and Greek life, recreation center, and travel funding for student conferences and competitions. Student Government ultimately decides how those funds are distributed, making its elections consequential for everything from campus improvements to student organization budgets.

The first party to formally organize was the Atlantic Party, which dates back to last year’s SG election.

Atlantic Party

Student Body President Darsham Gonzalez and Vice President Kade Salzer organized the Atlantic Party during their 2025 campaign. Gonzalez described the creation of the party in an interview with the University Press as both a strategic and vision-driven decision.

“You’re sitting there trying to win,” Gonzalez said, reflecting on campaign season. “Your body, your mind, and your spirit are all tired. You’re just trying to survive. You see the best and the worst out of everyone, including yourself.”

He acknowledged that the Atlantic Party structure carried advantages in an election. “In the real world, that’s how parties work,” he said. But Gonzalez maintains the original vision was centered on collaboration, not division.

“The whole point of creating the party system was to get qualified people in who wanted to collaborate, who wanted to make change, who wanted to unite people,” he said. “It was about unity and representing the students, the university.” 

Campaign finance disclosures show that Gonzalez and Salzer received funding from the Campus Victory Project, a political initiative originally created by Turning Point USA. TPUSA is a national conservative student organization that promotes limited-government and free-market principles and has historically supported campus political organizing efforts.

Gonzalez said there were “no strings attached” to the money and emphasized that his intention was not to bring partisan politics into Student Government.

“Nothing we’ve done is political,” he said. “I made it very clear that when I took that money, what I was doing was not political. We’ve done everything we can to represent students.”

Still, the funding has drawn scrutiny, particularly as party groups have questioned whether outside affiliations influence campus governance. Gonzalez argues that criticism of candidates based on ideological associations risks discouraging students from running.

“What if a Republican student who didn’t want to bring Republican policies into student government wanted to run, but read that and thought they’d face opposition?” he said. “How is that not discriminatory?”

He also questioned whether criticism of Atlantic’s funding differs from the political affiliations of other student leaders. “Are we really sure this is about representing students,” Gonzalez said, “or is it because you don’t like the ideology you think someone aligns with?”

Gonzalez acknowledged that the party system has evolved since its founding and expressed disappointment at what he described as increasing polarization. “The goal of the party was never what it’s turning into now,” he said. “It saddens me to see it become almost like an attack on one another.”

SG statutes forbid elected officials from affiliating with political parties while in office. Gonzalez and Salzer have passed leadership of the Atlantic Party to others as a result.

Gonzalez described that transition simply: “You hand the keys over after you win and you don’t look back.”

Now under new leadership, the Atlantic Party is fielding a full slate of candidates for the Spring 2026 election, including Lance Moore for Student Body President, Ellie Raab for Vice President, and Dylan Salisbury for Boca Campus Governor.

Ellie Raab, who ran for Student Body Vice President in Spring 2025 against Gonzalez (The Atlantic Party), initially won the popular vote alongside her running mate Jean Luma. However, the Student Government Elections Board later disqualified the team’s ticket after determining they had violated campaign bylaws by distributing campaign t-shirts at an event in the Student Union. The disqualification was upheld by the Student Court, resulting in runner-ups Darsham Gonzalez and Kade Salzer being sworn into office instead.

Party members say the organization has grown from a small campaign coalition into a structured group focused on preparing students to run for office and navigate Student Government. 

“One of the things our party does is run students for elections by helping them campaign and learn more about what it means to be in Student Government,” Raab stated in an email to the University Press.

Atlantic’s platform centers on campus operations and improvements to student life. Priorities include short and long-term parking solutions, upgraded campus Wi-Fi, enhancements to the recreation center, and expanded funding for Registered Student Organizations, sports clubs, and Greek life. 

Members stated tangible results from their time in leadership, including increased funding for Registered Student Organizations, expanded athletic tailgates, and a $195,000 allocation for recreation center upgrades.

Sunshine Party

Before the Sunshine Party formally organized, it began with a letter. Earlier this Spring, Caroline Ribeiro, an SG senator based on the Jupiter campus, published a letter to the editor in the University Press, raising concerns about campaign financing, political ideology in campus elections, and what she described as growing outside influence in student government.

In an interview with University Press, Ribeiro said the letter was meant to inform students about what she believed was happening behind the scenes.

“We want students to know everything that’s going on,” she said. “The funding going into it, where exactly the money is going, the bills that are being discussed and passed.” 

In late November, the Senate passed an elections statute clarifying that party registration would occur during the Fall and that candidates would declare their candidacy then. Around the same time, Ribeiro and Boca House Representative Nicholas Ostheimer began organizing what would become the Sunshine Party.

Ostheimer said the statute underscored what he viewed as broader gaps in how parties are defined and regulated. While candidates face spending gaps, he argues party fundraising exists in a gray area.

“Two years ago, there were no parties,” Ostheimer said. “Now we have two, and there is virtually nothing in the election statutes that clarifies how parties function.”

Both founders point to funding in parties as a central concern. Ribeiro contrasted her own $30 Senate campaign, funded with candy and printed flyers, to what she described as “thousands of dollars” backing candidates in the Atlantic Party.

“You work for who pays you,” she said. “When national political organizations are involved in campus elections, students have to ask whether the student government is staying student-focused.”

Ribeiro spoke at the Sierra Club, an environmental advocacy organization, about campus issues. She explained that they need a board of trustees seat to address these issues. Later, Ribeiro asked for donations for the Sunshine Party. “Surprisingly, a lot of them were alumni.”

Ribeiro added, “They all have such deep ties into the FAU community. They all had an interest in making it better.”

Ribeiro said her concern is not about individual political beliefs, but about outside influence shaping campus governance.

“The one place I don’t want big funding to speak louder is in my university,” she said. 

Ribeiro added that she would not have formed a party under different circumstances, describing the Sunshine Party as a response to division rather than an attempt to escalate it.

“If the Atlantic Party hadn’t been created in the circumstances that they were, I wouldn’t have created one,” she said.

Now with about 25 members, the Sunshine Party says it is focused on transparency, affordability, and campaign finance rules heading into the spring elections. 

“The only way to get everyone on the same page and have a competitive shot at the elections was to form the party,” Ostheimer said.

For its founders, the letter raised the alarm. The party became the answer.

Paradise Party

What began as internal frustration within the Atlantic Party turned into the creation of a new slate: the Paradise Party.

Paradise was founded by former Atlantic Party members who said they felt sidelined during the spring slating process. Party chair Jack Nixon said roughly “90%” of Paradise’s members previously belonged to Atlantic.

Members point to two reasons for the split: how who selected candidates, and what happened after promises were made by party leadership, Gonzalez and Selzer 

“To our understanding, it was going to be a slating committee that would send recommendations to a party vote,” said former Atlantic Party member Enrique Toro-Mendez, a Paradise candidate for Boca campus Governor.

“The party vote never happened. It felt like a closed-door committee picked the people they wanted, and the members had no say.” Toro-Mendez added.

But Toro-Mendez and Nixon say procedural frustration wasn’t the only issue. They also said key initiatives, including advocacy for Greek housing and other student priorities, stalled after being promised by the Atlantic Party in the past election.

“We weren’t seeing action,” Nixon said. “There were a lot of ideas, a lot of conversations, but not a lot getting done.”

For Nixon, that disconnect became central.

“At the end of the day, students don’t care about meetings,” he said. “They care about results.”

Jack Nixon points to his work passing a student transportation bill as a concrete example of the type of action Paradise prioritizes: putting resources directly into students’ hands and making everyday life on campus easier.

“I don’t want to be the guy that’s been here for two years and gets nothing done,” Nixon said. “I want to get stuff done that actually impacts students.”

The party’s initiatives range from practical to safety-focused: expanding funding for student organizations, restoring “The Burrow” social space, offering more undergraduate travel funding, providing CPR classes, and implementing programs that give students tangible benefits, like transportation services that lower costs and increase convenience.

“The students are my bosses,” Toro-Mendez said. “It’s not my money. I want to be transparent about how it’s being spent, short-term, long-term, whatever project it may be.”

Nixon adds, “It’s about giving the students their money back.” 

Paradise has adopted the slogan “One campus, one voice,” framing itself as results-driven rather than ideological. 

The party hopes to use Instagram to promote candidates, educate students about which bills they want passed, how those proposals move through Student Government, and what steps are being taken to ensure follow-through.

“We’re literally going to show the playbook,” Nixon said. “What we want done, how we’re going to do it, and where it stands.”

Faisal Albaldawi, Representative in the Boca House of Representatives and chair of rules and policies, states that their funding is self-expensed, as is that of a non-partisan group called Engage.

Members say that the level of accountability prevents what they describe as stalled initiatives from the past.

“When we start politicizing student government, we divert away from delivering for students,” said Albaldawi. “We want to focus on what students actually see and feel on campus.”

For Paradise members, the split from Atlantic wasn’t just about internal disagreement; it was about redefining what student leadership should look like.

“Student government is a very powerful advocacy tool,” Toro-Mendez said. “We believe in this place. We just want to make sure things actually get done.”

Emily Ives is the Political Reporter for the University Press and is reporting on the Spring 2026 election. Email her at [email protected] for more information on this and other stories.