Smith, Cobenais and Martin win their District Representative Seats; Pemberton and Donnell will be in a Runoff for Redby District - P2

RED LAKE, MN - On May 20, 2020, Red Lake Tribal Elections were held to fill 4-Seats on the Red Lake Tribal Council, one in each district of Red Lake, Redby, Ponemah and Little Rock. Fourteen Red Lake Band of Chippewa members filed for these seats in March 2020, with all seats 4-year terms of office.

Winning with 55% of the vote in Red Lake was incumbent Robert "Bob" Smith who had 509 total votes, while David F. Desjarlait came in second with 294 votes and Donovan May had 119 votes.

In Little Rock, Michelle Barrett Cobenais was reelected with 63% of the vote at 247, while Sherilyn Neadeau-Benais came in with 89 total votes, followed by Chris Jourdain with 56 votes.

Glenda Martin was the winner in the Ponemah District with 262 votes and ran unopposed in the election.

In the Redby District there were 7 candidates running, with incumbent Allen Pemberton receiving 41% of the vote with 256 votes, and coming in second was challenger Herman Donnell with 120 votes. Because no candidate received over 50% of the vote, those two will face off in a runoff election in July 2020. Others in that race were Gary Auginash Sr., Michael Cobenais, Kevin Jones, Sheldon Brown and Rodney Prentice.

Also on the ballot was an advisory vote by the Tribe in allowing medical cannabis legalization on the Red Lake Indian Reservation. The votes were 1765 for, and 425 against.

These results are official at this time, certified by the Red Lake Tribal Election Board on Thursday, May 21, 2020.