Detroit mayor and Michigan gubernatorial candidate Mike Duggan touts crossing the political chasm 

In a state where political control of statewide offices can flip every two or four years, elected leaders in Michigan need to get over the wants of their respective parties in favor of the needs of the people, Detroit mayor and independent candidate for governor Mike Duggan told reporters in Lansing Monday.

Speaking after several meetings in the state Capitol and on his way to talk with students at Michigan State University, Duggan took a moment to share with media some of his thoughts on his separation from the Democratic Party and his outlook of a state government that can cross the heightening political divide.

After Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer incurred the wrath of many within the Democratic Party for meeting with Republican President Donald Trump earlier this month, where Trump publicly offered her praise, Duggan said the situation is a prime example of how toxic and ineffective politics has become.

“My intention running independent is I’m going to work with everybody, and I’m going to work with people of good will on all sides, so the governor’s at a disadvantage because she ran as a Democrat, and Republicans had to line up against her and criticize her. It’s in a strange situation now that you got Democrats criticizing her too,” Duggan said.

Formerly calling her the ‘woman in Michigan’, Trump praises Whitmer during Oval Office visit

Whitmer as a leader went to Washington D.C. to advocate for Michigan, Duggan said, to push for a fighter aircraft mission that would help keep Macomb County’s Selfridge Air National Guard Base in operation and advocate to bring more manufacturing jobs to Flint.

“Democrats are tearing her down for trying to help Michigan,” Duggan said. “We need more people to push back on that and it’s one of the things I’m going to do.”

Duggan was expected to run for governor, but it came as a surprise in December when the three-term official broke from the Democratic Party to campaign as an independent candidate for the 2026 race.

A disgust with “toxic” politics was one of the driving forces behind his decision to run for the governor’s seat, Duggan has said since announcing his campaign to replace Whitmer, who will reach her term limit in 2026.

The gubernatorial race is becoming crowded early on across the ballot with Michigan Senate Minority Leader Aric Nesbitt (R-Porter Township), U.S. Rep. John James (R-Shelby Township), former Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox, Genesee County truck driver Anthony Hudson and Traverse City native Evan Space putting their hats in the ring for the Republican bid and Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist, Genesee County Sheriff Chris Swanson and Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson in the running for the Democratic side.

Duggan, who has long been affiliated with the Democratic Party, joining former Vice President Kamala Harris on several of her presidential campaign visits to Michigan, is raising concerns within the Democratic party that he’ll be a spoiler candidate, leeching votes away from the eventual Democratic nominee.

“Democrats say that I’m splitting the party, but… the Democrats are doing just fine at attacking each other,” Duggan said. “What I hear up here and I’ve talked to a number of associations dealing with the Legislature, every one of them said they’ve never seen the partisan hostility as bad as it is today. You can’t get simple bills done because the Republicans and Democrats are constantly fighting and I think there’s a lot of enthusiasm for my candidacy. For everybody who deals with the legislature.”

Michigan’s GOP House Speaker and Mayor of Detroit push for expanded public safety funding

At the end of the two-year legislative session where Democrats held a first in decades bicameral majority in the Legislature, lawmakers reached a stalemate where House Republicans boycotted session over tipped wage and sick time leave bills not being put up for a vote, only for those policies to be addressed at the start of this year during a new session. In the meantime, many legislative efforts died in the crossfire and chaos of the lame duck session, including bills that would have made a Public Safety and Violence Prevention Fund to finance community law enforcement efforts statewide, a reality.

Detroit and other cities in Michigan, including Lansing saw spikes in violent crime during the COVID-19 pandemic that law enforcement and community violence intervention programs are still working to combat. Duggan has been a vocal supporter of the fund, which he believes will see movement in the state House this week.

Values like public safety and improving Michigan’s childhood literacy rates should be bipartisan efforts, with everyone in Lansing eager to lend a hand, Duggan said. And should he be elected, Duggan said that on his first say he’s sitting leaders down from around the state to address school funding and attracting tech companies and other economic partners to grow Michigan into a place where young people want to stay, noting Michigan’s stagnant population growth.

“I’m going to every corner of the state and talking to people who feel like they’ve been left behind and whether it’s rural areas up north or areas in southeastern Michigan that aren’t doing as well and I’m doing as much listening as talking right now,” Duggan said.

Ultimately, Duggan said Michigan needs to focus on the future and what could be rather than stay stuck in what has been under the ever-changing partisan control of swing-state Michigan.