Detroit residents will elect a new mayor this year. There's a large field of candidates and it's shaping up to be a competitive race.
Current Mayor Mike Duggan will not seek a fourth term. He's running for governor. Nine people are running to replace him.
Briana Rice is a reporter for Outlier Media in Detroit. She joined Michigan Public Morning Edition host Doug Tribou to talk about the campaign.
Doug Tribou: Mike Duggan was elected in 2013, won re-election twice by pretty wide margins. You and the team at Outlier Media have collected some data on what Detroiters are thinking about and hoping for as they get ready to choose their new mayor. Tell us about the survey Outlier commissioned and some of the results.
Briana Rice: Outlier commissioned this survey from the University of Michigan, and over 2,000 Detroiters were just asked some of their biggest concerns right now, and it was: housing, transportation, safety, utility costs, and healthcare costs.
City government is directly responsible for most of those issues that Detroiters say they need help with. And we also found that many of those Detroiters said they don't trust city officials to deliver. When asked how much do you trust the local government in Detroit to do the right thing, more than one in five said none and just 9% said a lot.
So I'm using that to kind of figure out how I approach this campaign this year. I want to ask candidates directly, what are you gonna do about transit? How are you going to make Detroiters feel safer? And we have some pretty big housing needs in a lot of Detroit. I hope to really get to the bottom of what these nine candidates are hoping to do to meet Detroiters' needs.
DT: Let's talk a bit about how Detroit is doing. The city just saw its first population growth in decades — a small bump, just under 2,000 people from 2022 to 2023. What are some of the other changes that have happened during the Duggan administration?
BR: It's whiter in Detroit now, especially in certain areas. There are a lot of new people who have moved to this city. But the development has really stuck to, I would say, the central 7.2 miles of the city, for the most part, and surrounding areas. So I do think a lot of Detroiters are starting to really, really wonder: when is this development going to reach different parts of the City? And I think that's a big talking point for these campaigns.
DT: All right, there are nine candidates running for mayor and you have published some basic info about all of those candidates and their priorities. I'll list their names one by one. And if you could, give us their ages and their current job or a notable past job that they held.
Jonathan Barlow
BR: Jonathan Barlow's 40. He's lived all over Detroit and one of his notable jobs he founded Let's Talk Roundtable, which is a place for different community leaders to discuss issues facing Detroit.
James Craig
BR: He's 68 and he's retired right now. He's known for running for governor and being Detroit's former chief of police.
Fred Durhal III
BR: He's 41 and he's a current city council member in Detroit for District 7.
Joel Haashiim
BR: He's 75 and he's an entrepreneur and a former wholesale distributor.
Saunteel Jenkins
BR: She's 54. She recently retired this year — in January — from the Heat and Warmth Fund, but she's also a former city council member.
Solomon Kinloch
BR: He's 51 and he's the senior pastor at Triumph Church.
Todd Perkins
BR: He is 55. He's a litigator and the city attorney for Inkster. He also founded a local nonprofit called The People's Voice.
Mary Sheffield
BR: Mary Sheffield is 37, the youngest candidate, and she is city council president.
DaNetta Simpson
BR: DaNetta is 53 and she's a retired cosmetologist.
DT: Let's talk about the logistics. There will be a primary on Aug. 5 in Detroit. That's a nonpartisan primary. How does that work? And how many candidates advance to the general election in November?
BR: Lots of people only vote in November elections or presidential elections, but this primary is going to cut down the field quite a bit. There are nine [candidates] right now. It's going to be two after this, the top vote-getters. So it's a super important primary this year.
Editor's note: Some quotes in this article have been edited for length and clarity. You can hear the full interview near the top of this page.
