An 18-year-old US boy has been elected as mayor of Aredale in Iowa.
Jeremy Minnier of Hampton Dumont High School was elected on Tuesday with 24 write-in votes, defeating incumbent Mayor Virgil Homer.
The high school senior may not be old enough to drink, but he can now dictate municipal policy.
According to local television channel KIMT-TV, Minnier decided to seek elected office because he thought the voices of Aredale’s 73 residents were going unheard.
“It’s just one of them things where people think you’re only 18 you can’t do this because you don’t know what’s going on-well that’s a false statement,” the New York Daily News quoted him as saying.
Minnier is taking after his father, who was mayor of the town before he was born.
The high school band member will assume office on January 3, and plans to attend community college so that he can finish his four-year term.