American actor Murray Hamilton (1923-1986) played the role of Larry Vaughn, the mayor of Amity, in the movies Jaws (1975) and Jaws 2 (1978). When the mayor of the resort town was told about a vicious shark (in Jaws), he refused to close down the beaches. This resulted in another shark attack.
 
Adam Goodell posted on Twitter an important lesson on October 20, 2017:
 
“The mayor from Jaws is still the mayor in Jaws 2. It is so important to vote in your local elections.”
   
The jocular line went viral and has been printed on many images.
 
Similar Jaws jokes had been posted earlier. “How the hell did the Mayor from Jaws get reelected?” was posted on Twitter by Paul Francis Sullivan (Please Call Me Sully) on April 30, 2013. “How in the world is the mayor from Jaws still in office during Jaws 2? What kind of sham government is this?” was posted on Twitter by Kevin Clark on July 2, 2014.
 
   
Wikipedia: Jaws (film)
Jaws is a 1975 American thriller film directed by Steven Spielberg and based on Peter Benchley’s 1974 novel of the same name. In the film, a giant man-eating great white shark attacks beachgoers on Amity Island, a fictional New England summer resort town, prompting police chief Martin Brody (Roy Scheider) to hunt it with the help of a marine biologist (Richard Dreyfuss) and a professional shark hunter (Robert Shaw). Murray Hamilton plays the mayor, and Lorraine Gary portrays Brody’s wife. The screenplay is credited to Benchley, who wrote the first drafts, and actor-writer Carl Gottlieb, who rewrote the script during principal photography.
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Plot
During a beach party at dusk on Amity Island, New England, a young woman, Chrissie Watkins, goes skinny dipping in the ocean. While treading water, she is violently pulled under. The next day, her partial remains are found on shore. The medical examiner’s ruling that the death was due to a shark attack leads police chief Martin Brody to close the beaches. Mayor Larry Vaughn overrules him, fearing that the town’s summer economy will be ruined. The coroner now concurs with the mayor’s theory that Chrissie was killed in a boating accident. Brody reluctantly accepts their conclusion until another fatal shark attack occurs shortly thereafter.
   
Wikipedia: Jaws 2
Jaws 2 is a 1978 American thriller film directed by Jeannot Szwarc and co-written by Carl Gottlieb. It is the sequel to Steven Spielberg’s Jaws, and the second installment in the Jaws franchise. The film stars Roy Scheider as Police Chief Martin Brody, with Lorraine Gary and Murray Hamilton reprising their respective roles as Martin’s wife Ellen Brody and mayor Larry Vaughn. It also stars Joseph Mascolo, Jeffrey Kramer, Collin Wilcox, Ann Dusenberry, Mark Gruner, Susan French, Barry Coe, Donna Wilkes, and Gary Springer. The plot concerns Chief Brody suspecting another great white shark is terrorizing the fictional sea side resort of Amity Island following a series of incidents and disappearances.
 
Wikipedia: Murray Hamilton
Murray Hamilton (March 24, 1923 – September 1, 1986) was an American stage, screen, and television character actor who appeared in such films as Anatomy of a Murder, The Hustler, The Graduate, The Amityville Horror and Jaws.
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His best known performance is as Larry Vaughn, the obdurate mayor of Amity, in the Steven Spielberg thriller Jaws (1975). Hamilton reprised the role in the sequel, Jaws 2 in 1978. He was approached to reprise his role in Jaws: The Revenge, but died in 1986 aged 63.
         
Twitter 
Paul Francis Sullivan (Please Call Me Sully)
@sullybaseball
How the hell did the Mayor from Jaws get reelected?
3:58 PM - 30 Apr 2013
   
Twitter
Section Formerly Known As Aisle 424
@Aisle424
You don’t fuck with the Amity Democratic Machine. RT @sullybaseball: How the hell did the Mayor from Jaws get reelected?
4:18 PM - 30 Apr 2013
   
Twitter
Patyoncé
@WhiteDonCheadle
How in the world did the mayor from Jaws get reelected?
7:35 PM - 12 Dec 2013
   
Twitter
Kevin Clark
@bykevinclark
How in the world is the mayor from Jaws still in office during Jaws 2? What kind of sham government is this?
10:52 PM - 2 Jul 2014
   
Twitter
Mark Dubovec
@Duboduke
How is the mayor from Jaws still in office for Jaws 2? #questiontime
11:21 AM - 23 Dec 2016
 
Twitter
Aisling
@pashtie
31 May 2017
Jaws 2 is on
 
Aisling
@pashtie
Can’t believe the mayor from Jaws got re-elected
6:50 PM - 31 May 2017
 
Twitter
Mike’l Severe
@MikelSevere
Pretty sure the mayor from Jaws would not still be in office in Jaws 2. The guy basically let people die.
6:10 PM - 8 Sep 2017 from Omaha, NE
 
Twitter
Josh Carson
@JoshDCarson
Some days you find yourself wondering how the hell the mayor from Jaws got re-elected.
9:26 AM - 22 Sep 2017
 
Twitter
Adam Goodell
@adamgoodell
The mayor from Jaws is still the mayor in Jaws 2. It is so important to vote in your local elections.
9:32 PM - 20 Oct 2017
 
24 October 2017, The Salt Lake Tribune (Salt Lake City, UT), “News Roundup,” pg. ?:
Tweets of the day: From @adamgoodell: “The mayor from Jaws is still the mayor in Jaws 2. It is so important to vote in your local elections.”
   
Twitter     
Jeff
@Kalentarr18
Its laughable to suggest the mayor from Jaws got reelected because of low voter turnout like some people on here are suggesting and trying to politicize.
11:10 PM - 9 Nov 2017
 
BuzzFeed
24 Tweets About Movies That Are So Funny, You Need To See Them Right Now
“Imagine having chills and then imagine those very chills multiplying. That’s what life is like for John Travolta.”
Posted on September 12, 2018, at 1:06 p.m.
Jamie Jones
BuzzFeed Staff
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7.
Adam Goodell
@adamgoodell
The mayor from Jaws is still the mayor in Jaws 2. It is so important to vote in your local elections.
9:32 PM - Oct 20, 2017
     
The Wrap
‘Stranger Things’ Star David Harbour Uses ‘Jaws 2’ to Explain Why You Should Vote (Photo)
Actor offers his sharking take on why you should cast your ballot
Tim Kenneally | November 5, 2018 @ 3:52 PM
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The photo bears the message, “The mayor from Jaws is still the mayor in Jaws 2. Be sure to vote in your local elections.”
 
“CLOSE THE BEACHES, DAMMIT!!” Harbour wrote of the image, including the hashtags #vote and #america.
 
In “Jaws,” Mayor Vaughn overrules Brody and makes the unfortunate choice not to close Amity’s beaches, despite mounting evidence that there’s a big freaking shark with a hankering for humans lurking in the water.
 
Which makes Vaughn’s continued tenure as mayor in the 1978 sequel a particularly distressing circumstance.
 
Twitter
Abingdon Labour
@AbingdonLabour
The mayor from Jaws is still the mayor in Jaws 2. It is so important to vote tomorrow in your local elections.
#VoteLabour in Abingdon, for the many.
7:41 AM - 1 May 2019