After a monthlong campaign “tail” and election, one lucky canine became Apopka’s first dog mayor Saturday.
With 5,684 votes cast, the 10-year-old border collie named Asher took the seat.
Asher is a founding member and unofficial coach of the Apopka Run Club and works as a cadaver search and rescue dog for the Apopka Police Department.
“He’s already so involved in the community,” said Christina Wilson, Asher’s “campaign manager” and now Apopka’s first dog mom. She said it was a natural choice to enter Asher for the race.
As part of the requirements to run for the seat, dog candidates selected a local pet rescue center to support during the campaign.
Voters could pay a dollar toward their favorite candidate with unlimited votes per person. Together, the dogs raised more than $19,800 combined, all supporting animal rescue organizations.
A sable German shepherd named Lola Bear was the runner-up and Kobe, a Siberian husky-Alaskan malamute, came in third.
The newly elected mayor dog is limited to a 12-month term with the runner-ups receiving commissioner seat titles with a 12-month term limit, as well, according to the guidelines for dog mayoral candidacy.
Wilson said she looks forward to exploring more of Apopka with Asher throughout the next year.
“We’re really looking forward to seeing some of the other parts of Apopka that we don't frequent or some of the events we had never considered going to before, especially if we can make it more dog-friendly now that we have a dog mayor,” she said.
Caitlin Kasheta said she came up with the idea after her friend, Ella Duke, sent her an Instagram post about a California town that has elected a dog as its mayor for over a decade.
“We thought it was the cutest story,” she said, “and Apopka needs more positive outlets.”
Kasheta and Duke got to work: they started planning in April, launched a website in June, called for nominations and organized an election.
Kasheta said they narrowed 30 nominations to five candidates: Asher, Lola Bear, Kobe, a 9-year-old Australian shepherd named Jarvis and a 3-year-old basset-dachshund named Murphy.
The candidates were announced on social media July 1, initiating the pack’s intense monthlong campaign for the mayoral title.
Voting concluded Saturday at 5 p.m., and Kasheta announced the results shortly after at Propagate Social House, located at 40 East 5th Street in Apopka.
Duke owns Propagate Social House, which opened in July 2021 and has become a popular gathering space for the community since.
“The more wholesome, family community-oriented events we can put out there, the more people are going to fall in love with Apopka the way her and I have,” Duke said. “We just want to make as much of an impact as we possibly can for animal welfare, and just have bigger, better and more positive things coming out of Apopka.”
As dog lovers, Kasheta and Duke consider supporting animal rescue efforts crucial.
“In our particular area, there is such an intense amount of strays,” Kasheta said.
Even non-domesticated animals suffer from increased development in the area, she said.
“The only people that can take these dogs in, outside of county shelters, are these pet rescue facilities,” she said. “We need to produce funds for these rescues so that ultimately they can keep doing the work that they're doing, they can find homes for the pets, they can find homes for the non-domesticated animals.”
In the span of an hour during the election Saturday, the community donated $13,000 to the rescue organizations, Kasheta said.
Asher’s campaign fetched more than $5,600 for the Orlando-based organization Second Chance Animal Rescue and Sanctuary.
“The amount of money we raised for them is significantly more than I expected,” Wilson said.
The cause received paws-itive responses, gained attention from national media and even saw voter engagement from as far as Australia.
Constituents can follow Mayor Asher’s journey on his social media pages and continue supporting animal rescue groups.
