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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Richard Luscombe

Arkansas city elects 18-year-old as youngest Black mayor in US

Jaylen Smith: ‘You have to start somewhere, you really do.’
Jaylen Smith: ‘You have to start somewhere, you really do.’ Photograph: Helaine R Williams/AP

It is not even a year since Jaylen Smith was learning the power of the youth vote as a student government leader at his high school in Arkansas. Now the pioneering teenager is about to put his knowledge into practice as the youngest elected Black mayor anywhere in the US.

On Tuesday, as the Georgia Senate runoff was capturing the attention of the nation, Smith, 18, was steadily amassing the votes he needed to become the next leader of the small city of Earle, population 1,785.

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