Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan not seeking fourth term: 'An honor of a lifetime'

DETROIT (FOX 2) - After 12 years of leading the city of Detroit, Mayor Mike Duggan says he is not seeking reelection in 2025.

Duggan made the announcement on Wednesday but did not specify what his plans are after completing his term in 2025. Politicos believe the outgoing mayor could run for governor of Michigan with Gretchen Whitmer's term ending in 2026.

"Detroit's story of resurgence is one of Detroiters who never gave up on their city," said Mayor Duggan. "It has been the honor of a lifetime to serve as mayor over the past 12 years and I am incredibly proud of what we've accomplished together-from emerging out of bankruptcy to becoming a vibrant, healthy city that is a model of resilience and transformation. This last year is about continuing the work we started and ensuring Detroit's success remains rooted in opportunity for everyone."

Duggan will speak during a press conference at noon on Wednesday. You can watch his announcement live in the player above.

‘Today is a day for thank yous’

In his address on Wednesday, Duggan thanked the workers who stuck through the city 

"There were times in took an hour to make an EMS run and you stuck with us," he said.

He looked back on the past 12 years and reflected on the city's shape when he took over, highlighting the outdated computers and police responses. But it's not about looking back at how bad things were.

"Today is a day for thank yous." Duggan said.

He thanked his family, city council, and empoyees. But he also highlighted businesses that moved into the city.

"The 176 Motor City match businesses, right? They pulled plywood off 176 vacant buildings, and they're hiring 1,700 Detroiters. This is the way, that we came back," he said.

Above all, Duggan was thanking the people of the city.

"But mostly today I want to say thank you to the people of the city of Detroit. Being a big city mayor is kind of rough in this country. I watched I watched by, fellow mayors in San Francisco and Minneapolis and Chicago get voted out after their first terms. I watched mayors in Nashville, Atlanta just, leave after their first terms. But for 11 years, the people of the city have been kind and supportive. Every neighborhood I'm in, every church I'm in, every store I'm in. it has been, truly remarkable," Duggan said.

A write-in candidate leads Detroit

Duggan was first elected in 2013 after winning the vote through a write-in campaign. 

After working as the president and CEO of the Detroit Medical Center, Duggan moved to the city in 2012 with intentions of running for mayor. However, he hadn't lived in the city for a full year and subsequently filed his paperwork two weeks before he should have.

Even with the early hurdle, Duggan won the mayoral race with 52% of the vote in the August Primary and then 55% of the vote in the general election. 

Duggan went door-to-door seeking write-in votes and had some hard conversations with the people of Detroit.

"I talked to people across generations, and they didn't want to talk so much about the city. They wanted to tell me their story. And night after night, I heard the most powerful stories from our seniors growing up in the Jim Crow South. And to hear firsthand the stories of the separate bathrooms and drinking fountains and, yes, the back of the bus and the treatment that they had received in the South. How when they came up to Detroit in the 40s and 50s, they weren't ready for the discrimination they received in neighbors. They weren't allowed to move in, to get jobs. They were passed over for the treatment. At the hands of police officers and and as this generation built this city and built their homes, they watched it be taken away from them. With the financial and economic collapse of the city of Detroit. But mostly one of they wanted to talk about was, could somebody who look like me really understand their pain and their history and really support their aspirations? They were the most powerful meetings I've ever been in," Duggan said.

The mayor was confident the city could return but it would take everyone working together – from the mayor's office to the city council to unions – to make that happen. 

"We have to build a city that's welcoming to everybody. And if that's not what you want. I said, don't vote for me," he said.

Duggan recalled one conversation where he believed the job was too hard to get done.

"I had a night where a lady started in on me, and had a very powerful story of growing up in Jim Crow (in) Mississippi, and the way she was treated, and then the way her family was denied a house in a neighborhood in Detroit. And the way her father, couldn't get the good jobs he wanted, got the menial jobs. And and I'm listening, and I'm thinking of the pain. And she's looking at me, trying to figure out what to make of me. And I thought, this is too hard. The racial pain and division in this city is too historical. It runs too deep. I'm just not going to be able to get past it. And when I got up at the end of that night to walk away, that lady came up to me," Duggan said. "She took my hand like she had an iron grip. And she looked me in the eyes and she says, I'm 80 years old. She says, and I haven't voted for a white man for mayor in 50 years. She said, But I'm going to vote for you. And I thought - you can see what's wrong in the country."

That's when Duggan knew he had something special. 

He wound up winning 92% of the city's precincts in 2013.

He would win reelection two more times: in 2017 he was re-elected with 72% of the vote over Coleman Young II. Then in 2021, he was re-elected with 75% of the vote.

"In 2013, I was a kid who grew up in Detroit and remembered the city as a magical place and thought I could help. And I decided to go house to house and talk to people about how I thought I could fix the streetlights and do the abandoned houses. And I did the house parties, 250 people open their homes, and I sat in living rooms, and I thought we were going to talk about the drug houses in the neighborhood," Duggan said. "But when I got into those living rooms, the conversation options were not what I expected. And they transformed me."

Duggan's accomplishments as mayor

In the statement announcing his intentions not to run, Duggan highlighted improved EMS times, historic reduction in violent crimes, and the rebuilding of city's neighborhoods. When Duggan was first elected, there were 47,000 vacant and abandoned home. Today that number is 3,000.

Over his first four years in office, Duggan focused on improving emergency services response times, getting the city's streetlights back on, increasing park maintenance, and decreasing blight through the Detroit Land Bank Authority. 

Duggan's administration also spearheaded Motor City Match, a program that provides grants to entrepreneurs in the city. Since MCM started in 2014, it has provided more than $19 million in grant money to nearly 2,100 small businesses. 

In the spring of 2018, Detroit was released from state oversight, marking the first time in four decades that the city was fully in control of its own future. 

However, his second term wasn't as smooth sailing. In 2019, Duggan was caught up in a scandal involving the non-profit Make Your Date after he was accused of giving the organization preferential treatment. His relationship with the director of the organization came under scrutiny with accusations that Duggan had asked the staff to raise money for the nonprofit. 

Additionally, chief of staff Alexis Wiley ordered some employees to delete hundreds of emails related to the Make Your Date program as news surfaced about a potential conflict of interest.  

Duggan was ultimately cleared by the attorney general's office of any wrong-doing. A few years later, Duggan and the director of the organization, Dr. Sonia Hassan, were married.

In 2020 and 2021, Duggan navigated the city through the COVID-19 pandemic including testing and the eventual implementation of the vaccine ahead of his third re-eleciton.

Even with the health crisis, the city continued to grow and in 2023 it experienced its first year of population growth in nearly 70 years – a goal that Duggan had set when he first ran for mayor.

"Today, Detroit is offering a roadmap to cities across the nation as an example of what can be accomplished when leaders put people over politics and build bridges instead of sewing division," the statement from the city read.

What's next for Duggan?

Whether or not Duggan will run for governor is not a question he was going to answer on Wednesday.

"Today is not going to be about my future. I'm going to discuss that in the coming months. But I am here to say, that I will not be a candidate for reelection for Mayor Detroit in 2025," Duggan said.

He didn't endorse a candidate for mayor either.

"I don't have a favorite candidate. I don't have somebody that I picked out. I'm going to be like the other Detroiters. I'm going to watch these candidates emerge and see who the right leader is. Somebody will continue to bring us together. Somebody will have the courage to tell you the truth about what you can do and what you can't do," Duggan said.

Detroit's future leader

With Duggan's plans not to run, the city will look to its next leader. 

Names considered for the role are former Detroit City Councilwoman Saunteel Jenkins, current City Council President Mary Sheffield, City Councilman Fred Durhal, and former Detroit Police Chief James Craig are among the possible candidates.

"Here's what I know for sure about this city. The next mayor is coming in in a far better place. There's not 47,000 abandoned houses in Detroit - we're down to 3,000. We're not billions of dollars in debt and bankruptcy. We've had ten straight balanced budgets and investment grade credit rating, and we're leaving the city with $500 million in reserves in the rainy day fund and the retiree protection fund. This city is prepared to weather what comes," Duggan said.