Great Pyrenees beats out YouTuber and 2 other dogs to become Minnesota town’s mayor

Khaleesi, the Mother of Dragons and Breaker of Chains, now has a new title — mayor of Cormorant, Minnesota.

But unlike the “Game of Thrones” character the Great Pyrenees is named after, Khaleesi does not have three dragons at her side.

What she has is a “winning mentality,” her owner, Jake Sherbrooke, told InForum. It helped her beat out two other dogs and a local YouTuber to win the honorary mayoral title in Cormorant, a town with a population of less than 1,400.

“You just immediately loved her, she’s just a sweet dog,” Julie Sherbrooke told WSVN

Tammy Odegaard, chair of the Comorant Daze festival, said Khaeesi had “tough competition,” WSVN reported. She went up against a Bassett Hound named Teddy, a golden retriever named Ollie, and a YouTuber with just two legs named Ken Matthees.

Matthees, a member of the YouTube channel CboysTV with 3.8 million subscribers, was entered into the election by his friends as a joke, according to WFMZ.

The four candidates vowed for the title previously held by Duke, also a Great Pyrenees, according to USA Today. He held the title from 2015 until 2018 when he retired.

Voting was open to the public in an online election, with more than 103,000 votes being cast, USA Today reported.

Khaleesi won in a landslide, receiving 76.5% of the vote to become the honorary mayor of Cormorant.

“She would go to every person, she never showed any favorites,” Dave Sherbrooke told WSVN.

On Saturday, Aug. 17, Khaleesi was sworn in at the Cormorant Daze festival to become the second mayor in the town’s history. The town went without a mayor during the COVID-19 pandemic, per USA Today.

Khaleesi won’t have to worry about policy making or executive decisions. Instead, she’ll be tasked with participating in parades and fundraising events, USA Today reported.

“She’s just gonna also keep it the way it was,” Jake Sherbrooke told Inforum. “I feel like Cormorant is honestly the most friendly and one of the best places on earth.”

Cormorant is about a 215-mile drive northwest from Minneapolis.