Red Lake chairman race will be runoff rematch between Jourdain, Seki

RED LAKE — Incumbent Chairman Darrell Seki Sr. will once again face former Chairman Floyd “Buck” Jourdain in a runoff election in July.

Red Lake Nation residents cast ballots for their Tribal Council election Wednesday, May 20, also setting up runoffs in district representative races.

Of 3,484 votes cast, Jourdain earned 1,278, or 36.68% of the vote in the chairman election. Seki earned 36.25%, or 1,263 votes. Beltrami County Commissioner Tim Sumner came in third place, with 825 votes and almost 24%. George Spears Jr. finished a distant fourth.

Robert May won 75.64% of the 3,444 votes cast for the open tribal secretary position. With 2,605 ballots cast in his favor, May won the contest against Martina Beaulieu with no runoff.

Tribal Treasurer Vernelle Lussier ran unopposed and earned all 3,128 ballots cast.

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District results

There was only one incumbent in the four Red Lake Nation districts this election, with representative races having a wide field of candidates.

Incumbent Redby representative Harold Graves Jr. won his contest, earning 481 votes, or 52.11% of the vote.

For the Ponemah district, the top two vote-getters were Eugene Standingcloud, earning 31.03% of the vote with 162 ballots, and Delwyn Holthusen Jr., earning 30.84% of the vote with 161 ballots.

In the Red Lake district, the top two were David Desjarlait with 332, or 23.88% of the vote, and Clem May Sr., with 291, or 20.76% of the vote.

In Little Rock, Lisa Beaulieu earned 212 votes and Michelle Barrett-Cobenais earned 178 votes, representing 35.04% and 29.42% of all ballots cast, respectively.

All results were certified as official on Thursday.

Candidates have until May 26 to contest Wednesday’s general election. If the election were uncontested, the runoff election would be July 15. If contested, the runoff election will be on July 22.

As a sovereign nation, Red Lake conducts its elections per its own constitution, following a different calendar than the member bands of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe.