Detroit's mayoral candidate pool continues to grow in race to replace Duggan
Crowded field of candidates vie to be next Detroit mayor
The race for outgoing Mike Duggan's seat has no shortage of choices on the ballot with likely more on the way.
(FOX 2) - Mega-church pastor Solomon Kinloch Jr. announced his bid for Detroit mayor Wednesday night, rolling out his campaign to fans and members of his congregation.
That makes eight different candidates running for the seat, which includes council members, nonprofit leaders, business executives, and lawyers.
Big picture view:
Detroit's mayoral race got a little more interesting this week when mega-church pastor Solomon Kinloch Jr. announced his candidacy for mayor.
Delivering his announcement from the Fox Theater on Wednesday night, he told the crowd the current revival within the city has not become the one others had imagined.
"It has become a tale of two cities," he said. "As mayor, I will champion workforce training programs."
Kinloch leads the Triumph Church, which touts a membership of tens of thousands.
He joins several other candidates, including City Council President, Mary Sheffield, City Councilman Fred Durhal III, former Michigan House Speaker Joe Tate, nonprofit CEO Saunteel Jenkins, Joel Haashiim and Jonathan Barlow, who are both local businessmen, and attorney Todd Perkins.
Local perspective:
The diverse backgrounds of the candidates are not surprising, according to political science professor David Dulio.
"People are maybe now more willing than ever to take a look at somebody with that non-traditional path," he said. "I think there is a growing appetite - we know this from survey research that we have."
And the bigger the group, the more strategic each candidate will need to be.
Dulio said depending on which candidate is sizing up the competition, they will need to "play off each other differently." That could mean varying campaign ads, framing certain issues depending on who is leading and who is not, and beyond.
"Take a hypothetical, you know, let's say that speaker Tate, former Speaker Tate, was going to run against Mike Duggan, he would run a very, very different campaign in that scenario than he will versus a field of other open seat candidates," said Dulio.
Dig deeper:
Among the most important factors in the mayoral race - as is the case in many elections - is turnout.
Getting one's name out could be good for branding, but, according to Dulio, a crowded field means standing out from the others. Doing it correctly will come down to who can break away from the rest of the pack.
"Turnout is an absolutely critical piece of this," said Dulio.
The Source: Information for this story was taken from candidate announcements for mayor and political analyst Dave Dulio, an Oakland University professor.
Mayoral candidates Mary Sheffield, left, Saunteel Jenkins, Fred Durhal III.