Teens In The News (Part 1): Michael Sessions, Mayor of Hillsdale, MI

After votes were counted on Tuesday, 18-year-old Michael Sessions was named mayor of Hillsdale, Michigan. Michael was too young, prior to the filing deadline, to get his name on the ballot, but after turning 18 on September 22, launched an energetic door-to-door, write-in campaign, knocking off 51-year-old incumbent, Doug Ingles. A senior in high school, planning on attending Hillsdale College, Sessions funded his campaign with the $700 he made working a summer job.

Sessions elected Hillsdale mayor
By Leah Wild, Hillsdale Collegian, November 10, 2005

.... Michael Sessions will be the youngest mayor in Hillsdale’s history, and perhaps the youngest ever recorded.

[Michael's cousin] Jeremiah 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.”

Read the entire article here. You can also watch Session's interview with Keith Olbermann. Or, if want to know everything, check out the search results from Google News.

UPDATE: Session's lead has shrunk to two votes, with a recount remaining a possibility.

UPDATE #1: Please read this post for The Rebelution's full coverage of Michael Session's victory.