Leah Wild/Collegian
Mike Sessions smiles at his victory in the Mayorial election on Tuesday.
After all the mayoral election votes were counted Tuesday, Michael Sessions had 732 votes to 668 for Mayor Doug Ingles, according to unofficial figures posted on the city’s Web site. The 18-year-old high school student was elected mayor after mounting a write-in campaign to oust the 51-year-old incumbent.
Before the results were announced Sessions said his stomach “was butterflies all over the place.”
Sessions first received the news of his election by phone at his home among family and friends. Sessions’ cousin Jeremiah Newsome said Sessions was mostly shocked at the news.
“He was really happy with the outcome,” he said.
Newsome, 25, started the family trend of running for office at a young age in 2002 when he was elected as a trustee on the Springport, Mich., village council where he still serves. He said he thinks Sessions will be able to handle both going to school and serving as mayor. Newsome was a student at Albion College while acting as a trustee.
Pending clearance by the County Board of Canvassers today, Sessions will be the youngest mayor in Hillsdale’s history, and perhaps the youngest ever recorded.
Newsome said the family is researching the matter and has not found a mayor younger than Sessions’ 18 years and 47 days.
Sessions was 17 and not yet qualified to get on the ballot in the spring. But on Sept. 22, one day after his birthday, he registered to vote.
The next day, he signed up as a write-in candidate.
Sessions’ political experience consists of job shadowing his cousin and the American Legion’s Boys State Program held on the Michigan State University campus. He said he plans to eventually expand his political career beyond mayor.
“I’d like to [go to school] at Hillsdale and study politics,” he said. “This is just a stepping stone,” Sessions said of the recent election.
Sessions said he hopes his new responsibilities will not hinder his high school career, and he said that school will come first.
“I’m a student from 7:50 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. I’m the mayor of Hillsdale,” Sessions said. “I think I’m going to be able to juggle this just fine.”
On Wednesday, Sessions was interviewed by Good Morning America at The Annex in Hillsdale, a small town business that has helped Sessions in his campaign.
“People came in [to the Annex], heard about my campaign and spread the word,” he said.
Sessions has also been contacted by CNN, the L.A. Times and USA Today, and he was featured on NBC Nightly News on Wednesday.
Sessions said he and his family were “blindsided” by all the media attention, but he has managed to handle the attention so far with the help of Newsome.
In regards to the city’s motto, “It’s the people,” Sessions said: “It’s who I represent. I represent the people of Hillsdale now.”