The western Minnesota township of Cormorant, population about 1,400, has held honorary mayoral elections since 2014 — and a human has never won.
The first winner was Duke, a big white Great Pyrenees. According to NPR, he took just 12 votes in a dollar-a-vote fundraiser at the Cormorant Daze festival but was declared the winner in a landslide. Duke rode in parades on the back of a red convertible, wore a top hat in his official portrait, and served four one-year terms before retiring in 2018. When he died the next year, the village wrote him a song.
In 2024, according to Valley News Live, the town elected a second Great Pyrenees, Khaleesi Sherbrooke — named for the dragon queen of “Game of Thrones.” She won 76.5 percent of roughly 103,000 online votes, beating two other dogs and a local YouTube star.
Khaleesi was due to stand for election again this year.
Cormorant is not alone. Stubbs the cat ran Talkeetna, Alaska, for two decades, and Rabbit Hash, Kentucky, keeps electing dogs. Actual township business is left to a human board.
Briefs and quick reads selected and edited by The Smart Reader’s editorial team.
