Detroit voters pick 2 candidates from a large field vying to become next mayor

DETROIT (AP) — Voters in Detroit saw a mayoral ballot without Mike Duggan’s name on it for the first time since 2012 as they went to the polls Tuesday to narrow the field of nine candidates jockeying to succeed him in the job.

The continued growth of the city could be at stake since Duggan has helmed Detroit as it exited the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history and surged back to respectability following decades of mediocrity. The former prosecutor and medical center chief has overseen a massive anti-blight campaign and pushed affordable housing developments across the city.

The top two vote-getters in the nonpartisan primary will move on to the general election to determine who takes office in January. Duggan didn’t seek reelection as he launches an independent campaign for Michigan governor next year.

A long list of candidates

The field of nine features the Detroit City Council president, a current council member, former council member, pastor of a megachurch and a popular ex-police chief.

Council President Mary Sheffield is seen by many as the leading candidate in the primary, dominating campaign fundraising. She first was elected to the Detroit City Council in 2013 at age 26. She has been council president since 2022.

Saunteel Jenkins was elected in 2009 to the City Council where she spent one four-year term. Jenkins later became chief executive of a nonprofit, which provides utility assistance for families.

Either would become Detroit’s first female mayor.

Current Councilman Fred Durhal III also is on the primary ballot. He has been on the council since 2021 and was a Michigan state representative from 2014 to 2019.

The Rev. Solomon Kinloch Jr. has been senior pastor at Triumph Church for about 27 years. The Detroit-based church has more than 40,000 members across a number of campuses. Kinloch also was an autoworker and member of the United Auto Workers union.

Former police chief James Craig came to Detroit in 2013 amid the city’s bankruptcy crisis and remained in charge of the police department until retiring in 2021. Craig failed to make the Republican ballot for Michigan governor in 2022 due to fraudulent signatures on campaign petitions. In 2024, he dropped a Republican bid for an open U.S. Senate seat.

Other candidates include attorney Todd Perkins, digital creator DaNetta Simpson, business owner Joel Haashiim and entrepreneur John Barlow.

The stakes for Detroit

The next mayor will inherit a city on much firmer footing than the one Duggan was elected to lead in 2013 when an emergency manager installed by the state to oversee the city’s flailing finances filed for bankruptcy on its behalf.

Detroit shed or restructured about $7 billion in debt and exited bankruptcy in December 2014. A state-appointed board managed the city’s finances for several years. Detroit has had 12 consecutive years of balanced budgets.

Developers have built hundreds of affordable housing units in the city, and more than 25,000 vacant and derelict homes and buildings have been demolished.

The next mayor, though, will be under pressure to maintain that progress and continuing to keep the city’s growth — financially and in people — going. In 2023, the census estimated that Detroit’s population rose to 633,218 from 631,366 the previous year. It was the first time the city had shown population growth in decades.

Detroit also is becoming a destination for visitors. The 2024 NFL draft held downtown set a record with more than 775,000 in attendance.

New hotels are popping up in and around downtown. But perhaps the most visual example of the city’s turnaround has been the renovation of the once-blighted monolithic Michigan Central train station.

For decades, the massive building just west of downtown symbolized all that was wrong with Detroit. That’s before Dearborn, Michigan-based Ford Motor Co. stepped in and bought the old Michigan Central and adjacent properties. It reopened in 2024 following a six-year, multimillion-dollar renovation that created a hub for mobility projects.

While no longer a manufacturing powerhouse, Detroit’s economy still is intertwined with the auto industry which currently faces uncertainties due to tariffs threatened and imposed by the Trump administration. Stellantis, the maker of Jeep and Ram vehicles, has two facilities in Detroit. The automaker said last month that its preliminary estimates show a $2.68 billion net loss in the first half of the year due to U.S. tariffs and some hefty charges.