Michi­gan Demo­c­ra­t­ic pow­er­house Mike Dug­gan leaves par­ty to run for gov­er­nor

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Michigan Democratic powerhouse Mike Duggan leaves party to run for governor

Detroit May­or Mike Dug­gan, a long­time Demo­c­rat, announced Wednes­day that he will run for Michigan’s open gov­er­nor­ship as an inde­pen­dent, leav­ing the par­ty in the after­math of the 2024 elec­tions.

The may­or said in an inter­view with ABC News that “it’s clear” that “there are a lot of peo­ple in this coun­try who are tired of both par­ties and tired of the sys­tem,” and hopes to “offer peo­ple a choice” in the race to suc­ceed term-lim­it­ed Gov. Gretchen Whit­mer (D‑MI).

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Dug­gan has spent the last decade as may­or of Detroit, over­see­ing the city’s grad­ual revi­tal­iza­tion.

In his announce­ment video, Dug­gan tout­ed his record fight­ing for repro­duc­tive and LGBT rights but specif­i­cal­ly high­light­ed his resis­tance to the Defund the Police move­ment. Dug­gan cred­it­ed his deci­sion to increase police offi­cer pay and put hun­dreds of new offi­cers on the streets with Detroit achiev­ing its low­est num­ber of homi­cides since the 1960s and halv­ing the fre­quen­cy of car­jack­ings.

“The cur­rent sys­tem forces peo­ple to choose sides, not find solu­tions,” he said. “I want to see if I can change that. I’m not run­ning to be the Democ­rats’ gov­er­nor or the Repub­li­cans’ gov­er­nor. I’m run­ning to be your gov­er­nor, so if you and your neigh­bors are tired of the pilots as a con­flict and want to have a seri­ous con­ver­sa­tion about real change, please invite me to your com­mu­ni­ty.”

If he wins in 2026, Dug­gan would become the first inde­pen­dent to serve as the Wolver­ine State’s gov­er­nor. His deci­sion to leave the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty widens the cracks that emerged fol­low­ing Vice Pres­i­dent Kamala Har­ris‘s 2024 loss to Pres­i­dent-elect Don­ald Trump.

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Ed Dug­gan, Mike Duggan’s son, notably served as both Pres­i­dent Joe Biden and Harris’s state cam­paign direc­tor in Michi­gan this cycle, and Democ­rats’ under­per­for­mance in the crit­i­cal swing state played a major fac­tor in Harris’s loss.

Adolpho Mon­go, a Detroit-based polit­i­cal com­men­ta­tor, called Duggan’s deci­sion to leave the par­ty a “gut­sy move” that “hurts the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty.”

“There have been rum­blings from folks that we need a third par­ty, a real one,” Mon­go said. “There’s no ques­tion that he is going to take a ton of Democ­rats with him. It’s also going to free up those mod­er­ate Repub­li­cans who are not buy­ing MAGA.”

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Trans­porta­tion Sec­re­tary Pete Buttigieg moved his pri­ma­ry address to Michi­gan in 2022 and has been float­ed as a Demo­c­ra­t­ic can­di­date to suc­ceed Whit­mer.

State Sen­ate Minor­i­ty Leader Aric Nes­bitt, for­mer state Attor­ney Gen­er­al Mike Cox, for­mer state Rep. Tom Leonard, and Rep. John James (R‑MI) have all been float­ed as can­di­dates on the Repub­li­can side of the aisle.