How One Michigan Mayor Defied the Odds for 50 Consecutive Elections

Michigan is known for a lot of things, but we can add yet another to our list. Michigan is home to the longest-serving mayor in the entire country (possibly in history) presides over a small town in Northern Michigan.

The mayor has been running the town for fifty years now, which is impressive in itself, but how she's been the mayor for that long is even more impressive.

Michigan's (and the United States') Longest-Serving Mayor

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Grand Hotel (@grandhotelmichigan)

Meet Margaret Doud, pictured in the center of the photo above. She's been a resident of Mackinac Island for most of her life and has had the honor of being the mayor for fifty years.

If the last name sounds familiar, it's probably because Margaret comes from the Doud family, which, to this day, owns and operates Doud's Market - America's oldest family-owned grocery store.

According to the city's website, Mayor Doud was born and raised on the island and attended school there through ninth grade. She finished out high school at a school in Monroe, Michigan, before moving on to Central Michigan University for college.

Get our free mobile app

She was even crowned the Lilac Queen back in 1963!

She eventually became a teacher at Mackinac Island Schools, where she taught kindergarten for four years.

Margaret Doud Becomes the Mayor of Mackinac Island - 1975

In 1975, Margaret decided to run for mayor of Mackinac Island. At the time, she was just 31 years old. It turns out that Margaret was following in a long-ish line of Mackinac mayors named Doud. Her grandfather and father had previously been elected mayor.

READ MORE: Michigan's First Mail System Was Run By One Man on Mackinac Island

Here's the thing I didn't know about the mayor of Mackinac Island - since the beginning of time (or since they started having a mayor), the mayor had always been someone whose father and grandfather had also been the mayor. (That's not an official requirement, according to municipal code, it's just how it's always been.)

Margaret was no different in that regard, but in another way she was - because she was a woman. The island had never had a female mayor before.

In a newspaper clipping that I stumbled across online from back at the time that Margaret was elected, she's quoted as saying,

But she was elected. And then she was elected again, and again, and again.

Mackinac Island Residents Vote for Mayor

The nearly 600 year-round residents of the island don't just vote for mayor every four years like in many municipalities. The position comes up for a vote once every year.

That means that Mayor Margaret Doud has been voted in as mayor fifty times in fifty years.

UP NEXT: Hauntings, Lore, and Urban Legends of Michigan Upper Peninsula ⬇️

Her most recent win was in May 2025, when she ran unopposed to retain her position.