Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan announced he is running for Governor of Michigan in the 2026 election — not as a Democrat — but as an independent, he announced Wednesday.
“I’m not running to be the Democrats’ governor or the Republicans’ governor. I’m running to be your governor,” Duggan said in a pre-recorded announcement video released Dec. 4. “I intend to bring together Democrats, Republicans and Independents — and our young people, far too many of whom have given up on our political system — together to move Michigan forward.”
In the announcement, Duggan says his “first priority” in 2025 will be finishing his third term as mayor, before spending “full-time in 2026 visiting neighbors in every corner of this state.”
Last month, Duggan announced he was not seeking a fourth term as mayor — and at the time was believed by many to be planning a run for governor as a Democratic candidate. Now that the cat is out of the bag — what does his decision to run as an independent mean?
Detroit political consultant Adolph Mongo tells Hour Detroit he’s “not surprised” that Duggan chose this route. Mongo says Duggan is “thinking outside the box,” and compared it to Duggan’s securing the Democratic nomination for mayor in 2013, when he ran as a write-in candidate.
“It’s a gutsy move,” Mongo says. “He’s the type that does a lot of polling, and I’m sure that his polling [said] that [as a Democratic candidate] one he might not get the nomination, two if he did, he might not win. To take the seat, he’s going to have to build a coalition. So, he’s looking at folks disgruntled with the Democratic Party, he’s looking at moderate Republicans that don’t drink the MAGA Kool-Aid, and looking at independents that don’t have anywhere to go.”
His biggest obstacle will be securing enough signatures to qualify as an independent candidate, says Mongo, who adds, “Republicans probably see it as a good opportunity.”
Republican consultant Jason Roe tells Hour Detroit he thinks the decision “frees [Duggan] from the shackles of Democratic activists. [But] it hurts him in not having the infrastructure that the party provides …He will have to build his own.”
With Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s term ending in 2026, a number of potential candidates have either publicly expressed interest or have been rumored to be interested in running for Governor of Michigan.
Current Democratic contenders for the governor’s race include Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist; Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson; state Sen. Mallory McMorrow; Genesee County Sheriff Christopher Swanson; and Biden’s Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg.
On the Republican side, contenders include U.S. Rep. John James; former Attorney General Mike Cox; state Senate Minority Leader Aric Nesbitt; businessman Kevin Rinke; 2022 Whitmer challenger Tudor Dixon; and former state House Speaker Thomas Leonard.
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