Harrisonburg Unleashes its First Dog Mayor

Harrisonburg Downtown Renaissance (HDR) took a playful approach to economic development by turning dog lovers into downtown ambassadors!

Last year, HDR launched HBurg Hounds, which promoted downtown Harrisonburg as a dog-friendly destination by showcasing the community’s growing number of dog-friendly businesses. HDR complied a comprehensive guide to dog-friendly patios, shops, and services, and printed rack cards that were distributed around the district and region. The campaign was launched during their Levitt AMP Harrisonburg concert series with free branded bandanas, dog cookies from a local dog treat baker, and a pet portrait station staffed by the Friendly City Youth Photo Corps (local youth photographers).

This year, local residents were invited to nominate their four-legged family members for Dog Mayor—an idea they borrowed from Downtown Macon Inc. in Georgia after learning about it at Main Street Now. Using a Google Form, dog owners submitted bios, campaign platforms, photos, and short videos. HDR’s marketing interns took this content and designed custom posters, developed social media content, and produced engaging campaign reels with AI-generated voiceovers for each candidate that went viral on Instagram and Facebook. Every canine candidate’s human was provided an online toolkit—including Canva templates and promotional tips—so campaign managers could produce materials and promote their dogs. And a central landing page was created on HDR’s site so community members could easily find tail-wagging campaign details, a gallery of candidate pups, etc.

“Downtown Harrisonburg has always been a dog-friendly, but programs like Hburg Hounds and the dog mayor campaign helps get the word out to new visitors and to remind locals that there are many places they can go with their pups. We love seeing an increased presence of dogs not just at our events but also on any given weeknight and look forward to seeing many more wagging tails at our dog friendly businesses.” –Emily Winter, HDR Director of Marketing

Supporters voted for free with likes and comments on social media and had the option of buying additional votes ($5 per vote) by donating to HDR through Givebutter. This dual-voting approach encouraged community members to engage with HDR’s online platforms and brought in donations.

Opal, the winning pup, was sworn in as Harrisonburg’s first Dog Mayor on Saturday, June 14 during HDR’s summer festival—Best.Weekend.Ever. Mayor Deanna Reed was present to make it official, and a local artist’s portrait of Opal was unveiled and hung in her human’s office.

Some human campaign managers were really enthusiastic about the election, raising enough funds to unlock additional campaign assets from HDR, including custom stickers, buttons, lawn signs and t-shirts with their candidate’s photo and slogan. Opal’s campaign manager raised over $1,000 in donations by hosting two happy hours to boost votes at downtown businesses (that welcome dogs, of course).

Proceeds from the campaign will be used to further dog-friendly programs like dog-friendly festivals, growing the Hburg Hounds program, and hopefully working with the City of Harrisonburg’s Urban Wood Utilization Program to create custom water bowls for dog-friendly business entryways. Upcoming programming include a pet costume competition at the annual Skeleton Fest, a dog bowl-making workshop (in partnership with the Urban Wood program), and a dog cookie tour during their annual holiday festival—Winter Wonderfest.

Harrisonburg’s Dog Mayor campaign brought lots of joy to the community, boosted social engagement, raised funds for the Main Street organization, and reinforced their status as a pawsome dog-friendly destination!