Mike Duggan’s Amazing Political Odyssey
DETROIT – Eleven years ago, I thought for a few days that Mike Duggan had lost his political mind. A white guy from suburban Livonia, he had moved to Detroit a year ago to run for mayor.
Detroit’s population was four-fifths Black, and there hadn’t been a white mayor in 40 years. Though I knew he was politically savvy, I thought he had little chance, and when a judge disqualified him from the primary ballot, I thought that was that.
So did Duggan. But a week later, he announced he would run a write-in primary campaign. That’s when I thought he must be crazy. But the one who didn’t have a clue was … me.
Detroiters were mad. The city was in bankruptcy and had been taken over by an emergency manager.
People were angry at conventional politics and politicians, thought it was unfair to keep Duggan off the ballot on a technicality, and saw him as a man who could get things done.
He won the primary easily. Two months later, he annihilated one of Detroit’s most popular figures, the lateWayne County Sheriff Benny Napoleon, in the general election.
Then, the new mayor went to work. Before long, streetlights were on throughout the city for the first time in decades. Vacant and derelict buildings started to be demolished at a dizzying pace. Police response times quickly got better, and violent crime fell.
When he ran for reelection four years later, he defeated the son and namesake of Detroit’s legendary mayor Coleman Young by almost three to one, and later cruised to a third term.
For months, it’s been rumored that the mayor, a strong Democrat until now, was preparing to run for governor in 2026 when term limits meant Gretchen Whitmer would have to leave.
Nobody was greatly surprised, then, when Mike Duggan announced last week that he was running. But the state’s entire political establishment was stunned when he announced that he was leaving the Democrats and would run as an independent.
What??
That seemed, well, nuts. No independent candidate for governor in Michigan has even made a significant showing. But I’ve learned my lesson about underestimating Mike Duggan.
When I met him three decades ago, when he was the energetic young deputy executive of Michigan’s largest county, I knew he was a rising star. Though his mentor, Wayne County Executive Ed McNamara had the top job, Duggan was clearly largely running things. He went on to be elected Wayne County Prosecutor, and then left government in 2004 to take over as CEO of the inefficient and financially unsound Detroit Medical Center.
His policies made it profitable almost instantly, and six years later he guided it to a sale to a private, Tennessee-based entity, Vanguard Health Systems. It has been sold again, but it still operates a network of fully accredited hospitals and is thriving.
Duggan has his share of critics, all of whom say he runs he city with an iron hand, and that he will spare no expense to defeat, crush or marginalize anyone who gets in his way.
Several years ago, he got into a feud with the late Bob Carmack, a somewhat bizarre businessman who claimed ownership of property the Duggan administration said wasn’t his. Angered, Mr. Carmack hired investigators who produced video of the mayor visiting the suburban home of a woman, Dr. Sonia Hassan, who runs a prenatal program that has been supported by the city.
If Mr. Carmack thought that would cause a career-ending scandal, he was wrong. Unfazed, Mayor Duggan divorced his longtime wife, married Dr. Hassan, and few seemed to care. Mr. Carmack, however, was hit with multiple lawsuits, was soon wearing two electronic tethers, and died earlier this year.
More often, however, Duggan wins opponents over, often by sitting in an endless succession of living rooms and explaining. Seven years ago, he told me he had no interest in running for governor because while he had almost a free hand in Detroit, he would have had to deal with an obstructionist legislature.
Clearly, times have changed.
But can an independent possibly win? There are reasons for thinking this might be exactly the right choice for Mike Duggan. Thanks to his business and political contacts, he is likely to have access to vast amounts of campaign cash.
He is well-known and well-regarded statewide as “the man who saved Detroit,” and might get the votes of outstaters who normally vote Republican. To get on the statewide ballot as an independent, he only needs to collect 12,000 valid signatures, far less than needed to get a proposed law on the ballot.
Perhaps most importantly, not running as a Democrat means avoiding a bitter and expensive primary fight against Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, Lieutenant Governor Garlin Gilchrist, and perhaps other Democrats.
Finally, as Mike Duggan told reporters, “a lot of people are fed up with both parties. They’re really turned off by the system.”
It is very clear that he is right about that -- which may be the biggest reason to believe he might win.
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Editor’s Note: A version of this column also appeared in the Toledo Blade.)