Detroit’s mayor tries to capitalize on voter disdain for both parties with independent run for governor
With much more than a year before the mid-term elections in 2026, Democrats and Republicans are already preparing for costly fights in the Chamber, the Senate and the Governor’s races across the country.
Enter the mayor of Detroit, Mike Duggan, who bet that there is a way to become the next governor of Michigan without kissing one or the other of these party labels.
Duggan, a longtime democrat who served for more than a decade as mayor of Detroit, announced in December that he would put an independent campaign to succeed the Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer, who cannot present himself for a third quarter next year. It is a daring bet, in one of the most closely divided swing states in the country, that voters who say they are fed up with the two parties are ready to support another choice.
But while some of the political conditions seem ripe, the recent independents with three -way elections could not push this feeling to victory.
“Each place where I go, the depth of anger against the two parties is deep,” Duggan at NBC News told an interview.
He said that he had decided to present himself as independent to escape the political expectations that accompany the service of one party or the other in Lansing, describing the current environment in the capital of the State as “toxic”. Michigan currently has a divided state legislature, the Democrats just controlling the State Senate (and the Governor) while the Republicans control the State Chamber after having pushed it from the Democrats in 2024.
“Each conversation in Lansing was:” Will this bill help me keep the majority? ” “Will this bill help me get the majority?” And no one solved any problems, “said Duggan. “They wanted to create a moment that they could [use to] Send fund collection calls to a certain type of conflict. »»
Opportunity – and a climb up – for independent candidates
Accessants for third party candidates increases throughout the country. A recent analysis of NBC news revealed that the Americans are increasingly enrolling to vote as unconvilled electors, choosing not to identify with a political party. Voters have negative opinions from the two parties, and the Democratic Party at the start of this year marked its lowest notes in 35 years of NBC News survey.
Some eminent political figures have sought a third option, far from the two major parties. Over the past three years, two former senators – Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Joe Manchin by Virginia -Western – have left the Democratic Party and have registered as independent.
More recently, Elon Musk, a technological magnate and former advisor to President Donald Trump who spent more than a quarter of a billion dollars to help him in 2024, published on X in the middle of a quarrel with Trump on the appetite for “a new political party in America which really represents 80% in the middle”, although it is clear how serious musk is. (Duggan wrote in response to the CEO of Tesla and Spacex: “Now you have my attention …” alongside a smiling emoji.)
This feeling aside, transforming the broad idea of misfortune with the two parts into a real victory on the level of the state for an independent candidate is difficult, as shown in the last years of the elections.
In Oregon, former senator from the Betsy Johnson State launched an independent campaign well funded for the governor in 2022, sometimes receiving almost 20% of the support of voters in public polls. But on election day, Johnson received less than 9% of the vote, Democrat Tina Kotek winning the race.
Last year at Nebraska, the veteran of the Navy Dan Osborn led an independent campaign for the Senate which caught national attention. The Democrats did not present a candidate in the race and Osborn lost against the outgoing senator Deb Fischer, a republican, of more than 6 points, although he held fischer well below the margin of Trump in the state.
In Michigan, Duggan insists that he received the support of voters on both sides of the aisle, saying that he simply offers them a choice outside of traditional bipartite bipinaire.
“This entirely divided, republican and democratic, attacking every two years in an electoral cycle” does not work for Michigan, and perhaps I give the voters a different choice, “said Duggan.
A big race in a key condition
The presence of Duggan adds another layer of complexity while the two parties are preparing for a competitive race.
Although Whitmer has won its second term of more than 10 points, Michigan is generally a closely balanced battlefield. In 2024, the state supported Trump for the president by less than 2 points and the Democrat Elissa Slotkin for the Senate by an even thinner margin. Four years earlier, Biden beat Trump in the state of the big lakes of almost 3 points.
But Democrats and Republicans still have to sort who will be their candidates to the governor, and voters do not go to the polls in the state primary until August next year.
On the democratic side, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, Lieutenant-Governor Garlin Gilchrist and the Sheriff of the county of Genesee, Chris Swanson, launched campaigns to succeed Whitmer. The Republican representative John James, the head of the minority of the State Senate Aric Nesbitt, the former president of the Chamber of the State Tom Leonard and the former prosecutor of the Mike Cox State all jumped in the primary of the GOP.
“”[Duggan] Announced from the start of the year, which gives it two complete years without primary to move in the state and tell his story, “said Jason Roe, a republican strategist from Michigan who is currently working for any candidate for the Governor, in NBC News.
Democrats and Republicans focused on their own primaries, “there is really no reward for any of these candidates to attack it,” said Roe, adding: “And so I think he can go around, you know, speaking of rainbow and unicorns” without being attacked.
The Democrats targeted Duggan recently, if not in a way, many voters would have seen, accusing him of corruption in a digital announcement funded by the victory fund of the Association of Democratic Governors in May.
“Duggan leads an selfish campaign that has no way to victory,” said DGA communications director Sam Newton in a statement, adding: “The DGA has already beaten welcoming third -party candidates in 2026.”
The president of the Michigan Democratic Party, Curtis Hertel, also criticized Duggan, telling NBC News that the mayor presents himself only as independent because he did not want to present himself in the Democratic primary.
“I think that most of this concerns the Mike ego. He was bruised by the fact that he could not really win a democratic primary,” said Hertel. “He has very thin skin.”
On the other side of the aisle, the Republicans have not yet participated in an official campaign against Duggan. But a national republican strategist noted that the Michigan race would be competitive – and costly – next fall, that Duggan is making significant support or not.
Roe noted the popularity of Duggan in and around Detroit, adding that it was very appreciated by the business leaders of Michigan.
“People see the business world, the organized business world, migrate to it,” he said.
Roe, who lives in the suburbs of Detroit, said that the Republicans in his region also seem particularly attracted by the Duggan campaign. But he warned against the conclusions of Duggan’s popularity between supporters until next year’s primary.
“There is a big one but here. They have no binary choice. They do not know who the Republicans are. They do not know who the Democrats are,” he said.
Hertel compared Duggan’s support now that of early support for previous independent candidates elsewhere.
“What we have seen, often, with these independent candidates is, you know, they receive a lot of attention at the start, but when we get closer to electoral time, people make different decisions,” said Hertel.
“Right now, it’s:” Well, I know that Duggan, and I think Duggan has done superb things in Detroit. No clue to these other people, “right?” Said Roe. “Once there are nominees and you have three people to choose, it will probably change.”
