A dog is now the mayor of a small Kentucky town. And she’s not even the first one.

Since 1998, no major political party has been able to make any in-roads in the small Kentucky town of Rabbit Hash. Just one group has held the town’s political power in their paws.

You could say the place has gone to the dogs.

Meet Brynneth Pawltro, the new mayor of Rabbit Hash. She’s a 3-year-old pit bull, and she’s the fourth straight canine to be elected leader of the town. She goes by Brynn for short.

“She has the best smile I've ever seen,” one town resident told WDRB.

“There's always inappropriate licking going on,” another added.

Brynn’s owner, 23-year-old student Jordie Bamforth, said her dog ran for mayor on a platform of “peace, love and understanding” because of the personal discrimination she has faced because of her breed, according to Cincinnati.com, something Bamforth has long felt passionate about.

“The reason I decided to get a pit bull was to get a better name out there for the breed,” Bamforth told Cincinnati.com. “It’s been our mission since she was a puppy.”

According to People, Brynn received a total of 3,367 votes, beating out two other dogs, a chicken, a donkey and a cat. She succeeds Lucy Lou, a border collie who first won election in 2008 and retired in 2016 after her owner playfully suggested she would run for president.

Rabbit Hash’s nearly two-decade old tradition of electing canines is actually for a good cause: each vote costs $1 and all the money goes to the Rabbit Hash Historical Society, according to WDRB.

And this most recent election was especially important for the town. In February 2016, Rabbit Hash’s historic general store burned down in an electrical fire, and it has slowly been rebuilt. Funds from the election were used to fund that rebuilding process.

This story was originally published June 24, 2017 at 4:13 PM with the headline "A dog is now the mayor of a small Kentucky town. And she’s not even the first one.."