A day after her 40th birthday, Rosalynn Bliss has been elected the city’s 59th mayor, and she becomes the first female to win the job. Bliss received two-thirds of the vote Tuesday, Aug. 4, to win the city’s mayoral primary election.
A commissioner representing the city’s Second Ward since 2006, Bliss received solid support throughout Grand Rapids and cruised past the 50 percent threshold needed to avoid a runoff election in November. Runner-up Robert Dean, a former city commissioner and state lawmaker, received 30 percent of the vote while John George and Willard Lee had little impact with a combined 4 percent.
For the full article, see Matt Vande Bunde, “Rosalynn Bliss wins Grand Rapids mayoral bid, becomes city’s first female leader”, MLive, August 4, 2015.