Grand Portage Tribal Council primary election results in

The primary election held to fill two vacancies on the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Tribal Council is complete. 
 
On the April 29 ballot were candidates for Tribal Council chair and a committee person seat.
 
The special election is necessary because the Grand Portage community lost its long-time leader when Chair Norman Deschampe died on February 9, 2019.
Since Deschampe’s passing, Tribal Council Vice-Chair Marie Spry has been serving as Interim Tribal Chair.
 
Spry filed to run for the chair position. To run for that position, she resigned from her committee person seat, creating another vacancy.
 
Running for Chair were Marie Spry, Beth Drost, Tony Swader and Donovan Dahmen. Advancing to the special election in July is Marie Spry with 132 votes for 45.52 percent of the vote and Beth Drost with 115 votes for 39.66 percent.
 
Running for committee person were Rick Anderson, Jason Burnett, Vallen Cook and Rob Hull. Winning the most votes was Rick Anderson with 145 votes for 50.52 percent of the vote. The next closest candidate was Rob Hull with 62 votes for 21.60 percent.  Because Anderson received the majority of the votes, he will likely be the new committee person, however that is not official until the election is certified by the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe.
 
The primary was held in accordance with the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe constitution, which calls for a primary if there are multiple candidates for the same seat. The Grand Portage Election Board confirmed the election results at 9 a.m. on April 30.

The special election will be held on July 1st.