Life is becoming less affordable for Michiganders. And in Lansing, despite the constraints they face, many believe lawmakers are not doing enough to change that for residents. 

With state Senator Erika Geiss term limited out of her seat, two Democrats are now vying to improve life for residents in parts of Detroit and Downriver.

Justin Onwenu is running as a Democrat for District 1’s state Senate. He spoke about what he wants to change with The Metro‘s Robyn Vincent.

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With less than six months until the midterm elections, independent candidate Mike Duggan has dropped out of the race.

This week on WDET’s MichMash, Gongwer News Service’s Zach Gorchow and Alethia Kasben discuss the factors that led the former Detroit mayor to make his decision and the reactions from both Democrats and Republicans.

Even though Duggan faced an uphill battle running as an independent, the general consensus was that if anyone could win in that position, it would be him. Kasben said the current political climate did not allow for that possibility.

Later in the episode, we discuss earmarks, a way to secure funding for local government projects. Following a decision from the Michigan Court of Claims, what lawmakers consider an earmark could change. Gorchow and Kasben also discuss how the evolution of this type of funding led to current criticisms. Patrick Wright, vice president for legal affairs at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, joins the conversation to help explain the decision.

Wright said the Mackinac Center felt it was the right time to file the lawsuit that led to the Court of Claims decision.

“We thought the grant process was being abused because the voting threshold wasn’t being met,” Wright said. “We looked at the constitutional history and we tried to put a stop to it.”

The Mackinac Center’s challenge focused on two specific grants: one for a minor league baseball stadium in Lansing and another for a baseball stadium in Utica.

• More from WDET:

  MichMash: What are earmarks? A breakdown of the 2026 state budget

  Detroit Evening Report: Mike Duggan drops out of Michigan governor’s race

  MichMash: Why the MEA is withholding its endorsement; Inside Michigan elections

Money is getting tighter.

The cost of life can be even more daunting if you have a kids. Children are expensive — diapers, food, clothing, and so much more. 

We don’t have paid family leave in Michigan, but a public-private partnership has tried to ease the cost burden. Rx Kids provides unrestricted cash to mothers who are at least 16 weeks pregnant or to guardians who have a child who is six months or younger. 

It began in Flint two years ago. Now, Rx Kids has expanded to dozens of communities across Michigan. 

What have the impacts been for moms and kids? And, why is Rx Kids popular among people and places across the political spectrum?

Nushrat Rahman is the Economic Mobility Reporter at the Detroit Free Press and BridgeDetroit. She spoke with The Metro‘s Robyn Vincent.

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Former Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan announced the end of his independent campaign for Michigan governor. Duggan said he aimed to ease “the toxic two-party atmosphere in Lansing that’s holding this state back.”

At a press conference in Detroit, Duggan said the two biggest components of the race that held him back were dropping poll numbers and a lack of funding.

“The truth of the matter is, when you’re down 11 points and you’re down in the fundraising, the path is not realistic,” Duggan said.

Duggan launched his campaign in December 2024, one month after Donald Trump won the state in the presidential election.

Duggan said his plan at the beginning of his campaign was to earn 20% of Republican votes and 20% of Democratic votes. This idea, he said, was based on polls that showed 65% of both Republicans and Democrats in Michigan were open to supporting an independent candidate.

“There is a national clamor for someone who will stand up and say ‘I’m tired of these two parties fighting with each other’,” Duggan said.

According to Duggan, his fundraising team raised “more money than the major party candidates,” and 94% of it came from the state of Michigan. However, he said that national funding for independent candidates is still in its infancy. He believes that person will need to be an independent – and independently wealthy.

“Somebody is going to break through, but I’ll make a prediction. It’s somebody who’s got the wealth to be self-funded,” Duggan said.

Duggan’s advice for the remaining partisan candidates is to make sure their platforms are not based on attacking the other side. Having “something that you stand for positively,” he said, is what will make an impact on voters.

“There are people in this state who want change and are willing to work for it, and I’m hoping you’ll see the Democratic and Republican candidates reach out and embrace those folks,” Duggan said.

Reactions roll in

Duggan was a frequent target of criticism from the Michigan Democratic Party, but Chair Curtis Hertel’s tone was more conciliatory.

“As we look ahead, we welcome Mayor Duggan’s supporters into our growing coalition as we work to elect a Democratic governor this November who will continue to move Michigan forward,” Hertel said.

The Detroit Regional Chamber was one of Duggan’s earliest champions, as well as a source of campaign contributions. The Chamber’s president and CEO Sandy Baruah said the organization is still appreciative of the ex-mayor’s efforts.

“Obviously, I am disappointed that Mike Duggan’s campaign for governor is ending, but we are thankful for his leadership for Michigan and driving a critical conversation about how to move our state forward,” Baruah said.

What comes next for Duggan

Concerning his next steps, Duggan said he planned to spend time with his family before he thinks about endorsing candidates who match his beliefs.

“If there are candidates in this state that take up the message of fixing the schools, fixing affordable housing, getting the jobs of the future by working together, I’m going to be open to endorsing them in the fall campaign,” Duggan said.

Severe storms raced through metro Detroit Tuesday, bringing strong winds, heavy rains and even hail.  Streets throughout Detroit were left with large puddles, causing drivers to avoid them. Wind gusts knocked down trees and broke limbs in some places.  

The canopy of a gas station on Detroit’s west side was knocked over by the winds, forcing its closure.  The Mobil station at Plymouth and Hubbell remains out of operation today. 

Additional headlines for Wednesday, May 20, 2026

Mary Waters disqualified 

Detroit City Councilwoman Mary Waters announced last month that she was running for Congress in Michigan’s 13^th District.  She made the announcement just before the filing deadline.  But Waters has now been disqualified from running for failing to gather sufficient petition signatures.   

Waters tried to run for the job in 2024, but came in second to incumbent Shri Thanedar in that year’s Democratic primary.  She was re-elected to Detroit City Council last year.  

Congressman Thanedar is running against State Representative Donovan McKinney in this year’s August primary election. 

Mackinac Policy Conference preview 

Politicians, industry leaders and philanthropists are making last-minute preparations for the Mackinac Policy Conference.  They’ll travel to Mackinac Island next week to network, discuss policy and learn from one another.  

The annual event is held by the Detroit Regional Chamber.  Speakers will include Governor Gretchen Whitmer, former U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, and Professor Cornel West.  There will also be a debate between the Democratic candidates for U.S. Senate.  

You can hear coverage of the Mackinac Policy Conference on WDET beginning Tuesday, May 26. 

Gas prices drop slightly, but still hurt 

Metro Detroit gas prices have fallen slightly in the past few days, but are still nearly two dollars per gallon higher than they were at the beginning of this year.  The average price for a gallon of self-serve unleaded in the area is now $4.74.  That’s down eight cents from a week ago.  

Motorists planning to head out on the road for the Memorial Day holiday weekend should still plan for prices that remain near $5 per gallon.  AAA says Michigan is one of the 10 most expensive states when it comes to gas right now. 

NAACP calls for sports boycott 

The NAACP is calling on college athletes to boycott southern schools in response to a Supreme Court decision impacting the Voting Rights Act.  NBC News reports the civil rights organization launched the “Out of Bounds” campaign this week. 

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled recently that using race to create two majority Black Congressional districts in Louisiana was unconstitutional.  

The NAACP is asking Black recruits to withhold their commitments to attend certain colleges, most of which are in the NCAA’s Southeastern Conference.  The boycott could have a financial effect via national sports television deals, ticket sales and alumni gifts. 

Listen to the latest episode of the “Detroit Evening Report” on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

Partisanship isn’t just a Washington problem. 

This year, Michigan’s Legislature has been one of the slowest in recent memory as only a few bills passed since January. This is happening as costs keep climbing and families keep stretching. Life is getting really expensive and people want their leaders to take action.

With state Senator Erika Geiss, who is overseeing parts of Detroit and Downriver, unable to run for re-election, two Democrats are now vying to fix the problem of rising costs.

One of them is former state House representative Abraham Aiyash. He spoke about his campaign and his plans with The Metro‘s Robyn Vincent.

Editor’s note: this conversation discussed the possibility of data centers recycling water. Water sprayed or circulated in evaporative cooling systems can be recycled at data centers. But the recycling process requires significant on-site treatment to manage high concentrations of salts and other contaminants.

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Five years ago drug overdoses were killing more than 3,000 people a year in Michigan. It was the worst the state had seen. Behind that number were parents, sons and daughters — people who’d been trying to get well for years.

That number is coming down. By the state’s early count, last year had the fewest overdose deaths in more than a decade.

But the people who do this work are cautious about it. Fewer deaths may not mean fewer people in danger. 

Addiction touches lives in different ways. For many of us, it might be indirectly. One analysis put the cost to Michigan last year at $38 billion: lost work, lost wages, courts, treatment. 

Now there’s money to fight this—millions from the settlement with the maker of OxyContin, Purdue Pharma. Detroit gets a share, and it’s deciding how to spend it now.

Ali Abazeed leads Detroit’s health department, and founded Dearborn’s before that. He spoke to The Metro‘s Robyn Vincent about what the city is doing to reduce overdose deaths and help residents be healthier.

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If you’re a leader in Detroit, your attention is trained on a big task: attract more people to the city. 

That’s for good reason — with more people comes more tax revenue. With more revenue, Detroit can provide better social services, quicker Detroit Department of Transit buses, more paved roads, and working streetlights.

But the city is running into a problem when it comes to increasing its population: High property taxes. 

Because property taxes are capped until a property is sold, homebuyers in Detroit neighborhoods that have become more desirable bear the burden of potentially very high taxes. As an example, hundreds of homes will see their taxes climb above $10,000. That’s according to an Outlier Media estimate of the city’s 2026 tax roll. 

So what does it mean when the system rewards staying still and punishes moving in? What does that do to a city trying to grow?

Kevin Bain is the chief financial officer for Public Sector Consultants, and a former debt manager for the city of Detroit. He spoke with The Metro‘s Robyn Vincent.

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In this episode

• How many years has the Michigan Education Association supported a Democratic candidate for governor?
• Does the Michigan Bureau of Elections check every signature?

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The Democratic gubernatorial race hit some turbulence this week after a key endorser, the Michigan Education Association, did not decide who it will support. This week on WDET’s MichMash, Gongwer News Service’s Zach Gorchow and Alethia Kasben discuss why the association has withheld its endorsement for now.

The MEA normally backs Democratic candidates. Despite Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson leading in the polls, its hesitation may show that Sheriff Chris Swanson and independent candidate and former Mayor Mike Duggan might have gained some ground. The MEA’s endorsement could shift momentum in favor of whoever it backs.

“Going back to 1982, the MEA has always supported the Democratic candidate for governor. A Duggan endorsement would be a monumental embarrassment for Benson or Swanson if that were to occur,” said Gorchow.

The MEA is the state’s largest employee union, with more than 140,000 teachers and support staff as members, so its endorsement would have a large impact.

Later in the episode, Jonathan Brater, director of the Michigan Bureau of Elections, explained how the government office works in conjunction with the secretary of state, how signatures are approved and more.

There is a different system for reviewing signatures depending on the office a candidate is running for and the number of signatures required. The process is thorough to guarantee the authenticity of signatures.

“My position is a little bit unusual in that it is listed in the state’s statute. It does expressly require that it’s a civil service position as opposed to a political appointee position, so there is a level of separation and protection there,” said Brater.

Brater said there is concern about misinformation surrounding the election process, and he emphasized that voters should get their election information from their local election officials.

More from WDET:

• The Metro: Trust in elections is declining. A Michigan Republican clerk blames politics
• Detroit Evening Report: Shri Thanedar questions validity of campaign signatures submitted by Adam Hollier
• Governor candidates present school funding plans at education forum

President Trump is visiting Beijing to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping this week. Michigan lawmakers are warning him against agreeing to any deals that would allow Chinese electric vehicles into the U.S.

While they are not currently available in the states, President Trump suggested he may be open to allowing them during a visit to the Detroit Economic Club earlier this year. The EVs have become popular, low-cost sellers in Europe and are now available in Canada and Mexico.

Legislation has been introduced in Washington to ban sale of the vehicles. That includes a bill co-sponsored by Democratic Michigan Senator Elissa Slotkin and Ohio Republican Bernie Moreno.

Slotkin argues that having those models on U.S. roads driving near military bases and civilian infrastructure could be a security risk.

“Taking all that data, all that video, all that mapping and sending that back,” says Slotkin. “As someone who’s from the Pentagon, that is the exact detailed information an adversarial nation loves to have in their war planning.”

While Slotkin acknowledges that major tech companies, such as Google, are already collecting people’s data, she argues those companies must follow U.S. laws when handling that information.

Another concern is the impact it could have on American manufacturers, who would stand to lose out on sales.

Republican John Moolenaar represents Michigan’s 2nd Congressional District. He warns that one of the factors keeping Chinese vehicle prices down are unethical labor practices in the country.

“Chinese companies use slave labor to undercut the fair wages of hard-working Americans,” says Moolenaar.

Lawmakers say the U.S. can’t compete with the way the Chinese government subsidizes their auto industry. They argue that creates artificially low pricing for Chinese products that  American companies can’t compete with.

The 13th district state Senate seat is open as Democrat Rosemary Bayer is stepping down after one term. There are several people running to represent the district that spans Northville, Plymouth, and West Bloomfield.

One of those individuals is Cecil George. The owner of a landscaping company, George has never before held public office. 

The Metro’s Sam Corey spoke to him about why he’s running.

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A common assumption shapes American crime policy: that the people most exposed to crime — victims, and the officers who respond to it — want the harshest punishment in return. 

The evidence says otherwise. 

Crime victims, in survey after survey, favor rehabilitation over punishment, roughly two to one. And now officers are saying something similar. In a new survey from the Alliance for Safety and Justice, 8 in 10 officers said things like community violence intervention would make their jobs safer. 

Officers want neighborhood programs. They want clinicians on certain 911 calls. They want job training, therapy, and addiction treatment instead of long prison sentences. Why is that the view from inside law enforcement? And if it is, why haven’t we built the systems to match?

Harvey Santana is the Michigan director for the Alliance for Safety and Justice. He’s based in Detroit. He spoke about all this with The Metro’s Robyn Vincent.

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Michigan Secretary of State Joceyln Benson says she’ll maintain a firewall between herself and elections officials overseeing this year’s race to become the next governor.

Some view the Democrat as her party’s heir apparent to term-limited Gretchen Whitmer.

But Benson says her bid for governor stems from a very personal place.

Interview edited for length and clarity.

Jocelyn Benson: I’m a mom of a nine-year-old little boy. And in 10 years he’s going to be deciding what he’s going to do with his life. I want Michigan to be the best place in the country for him or anyone else to choose to call home, to build a career, to build a family. So it is personal for me. I want to make sure Michigan is leading in every metric possible so that it truly is the best place in the nation to be a kid and to raise a kid and to retire. But in a lot of ways, we’re not that right now.

I think there’s a lot of reasons why. But it’s clear to me that the next governor of this state needs to be prepared on day one to streamline how government works. Drive down costs on everything from healthcare to housing to our energy costs. Build our economy so that we’re diversifying and creating more well-paying jobs. And be prepared to work with the federal government when required to accomplish those goals, but also be ready to stand up to even the president of the United States if he would try to interfere with our rights, freedoms, security, safety, privacy, or our democracy.

I’ve done all those things as secretary of state and I’m ready to do it as the next governor.

Quinn Klinefelter, WDET News: You mentioned a few there, but in terms of the issues facing people in Michigan, what do you see as the most vital right now?

JB: Without a doubt, the fact that the cost of everything is going up while our wages are stagnant. It’s heartbreaking. I’m hearing stories all across the state. A mom in Muskegon who is struggling to cover health care costs for her family and choosing to go without health care for herself so that she could cover it for her kids. Impossible choices. Seniors in Flint who told me they have to literally decide in a given month whether to eat or pay for their medicine. One small business owner in Saginaw told me he wasn’t sure he’d be able to keep his doors open because of these chaotic tariffs that are causing him to potentially lose his inventory. That’s while rising energy costs from month to month make it hard for him to just pay to keep the lights on. So, it’s clear the anxiety, the challenges that so many Michiganders are facing right now, given that these rising costs are just out of control.

But we also need to grow our economy. About 60% of jobs in the state pay $60,000 or less. That’s impossible to sustain in an economy like this one. So we have to invest in the growth of new, well-paying jobs, diversify our economy and invest in clean energy, clean tech as well. Those are the jobs of tomorrow that can help us ensure that my kid and every one of our loved ones in this state can build their career here and get a well-paying job while being able to afford to live in the communities they want to live in, pay their bills and thrive.

QK: If you were elected, what could you do from the executive level as governor to actually address some of those issues?

JB: A lot of it I’ve done as secretary of state. I’m the CEO of one of our state’s largest agencies. And I’ve been able to transform it to ensure we’re cutting wasteful spending, while also reinvesting in our employees and our operations. We’ve eliminated wait times, we’ve made it easy and affordable to renew your license, renew your plates. If all of state government worked that well, it would be a lot easier and more cost effective to build homes, making them more affordable. We can reform our Department of Health and Human Services to streamline how people get access to the benefits they’re already entitled to, in a way that reduces costs and enables us to reduce premiums as well. We can ensure we’re reforming our economic development corporation and our agencies that focus on economic growth to invest in new and emerging economies as well as small business growth.

I’d like to make Michigan the small business capital of the nation. That requires it to be as easy as possible to start and grow your business. And a lot of that is just making government more efficient, while also sitting down with regional economic hubs to grow what’s working in Muskegon, what’s working in other parts of the state. So that when we see other local governments reducing costs in an effective way, we’re amplifying that work and expanding it statewide.

But it all starts and ends with a well-run state government, agencies that are actually showing up when you need it, getting out of the way when you don’t. Saving people time, saving people money. And a lot of that is tied up in public education as well. I say this also as a mom, I want to make sure we are partnering with our local governments to invest and turn around the defunding of schools that has really made it difficult for many teachers, educators and others to meet our needs. Take our schools from being at the bottom of far too many rankings to being at the top.

QK: You mentioned earlier about “standing up” to President Trump. Gov. Whitmer had a contentious relationship with him when the pandemic erupted. But then she also worked with him on issues like preventing invasive carp from getting into the Great Lakes. And it seemed to get some traction, where people like Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker did not from his contentious relationship with Trump. If you were elected, how do you see balancing working with the Trump administration and the president in particular?

JB: I’ll always work with anyone if it helps us drive down costs for Michiganders, take on polluters or other bad actors that are driving up costs. I’ll work with anyone who will help us create well-paying jobs in our state. I’ve been proud to do that as secretary of state, particularly when it comes to working with a Republican legislature, to get things done.

But I’ve also been very clear about standing unafraid up to anyone, whether they be wealthy or powerful, the most powerful person in the United States, if they try to interfere with the safety, the rights, the freedoms, the votes of our citizens. At the end of the day, my job is to stand up for the Michiganders who I will be elected to represent. And fight for their freedom, fight for their safety, fight for an economy that ensures everyone can thrive. And that does mean being willing to and ready to effectively stand up to anyone who would try to get in the way of that, enact tariffs that would drive up costs or potentially interfere with our elections.

QK: As secretary of state, you’re running in an election that you’re tasked with overseeing. Some of your opponents have complained it’s not fair that you can “referee your own game.” What’s your reaction to those kinds of comments?

JB: First, I agree we need to make sure we have very clear firewalls and delineations between partisan officials and election administrators. And we actually do have that in Michigan. Our elections are run at the local level by 1,500 clerks and 83 county clerks, and then we have our non-partisan Bureau of Elections. But in addition to that, I think it’s important to note that candidates who have come before me, not just in Michigan but in many other states, have also run for office while serving as secretary of state. So what I’m doing is no different. But what I am doing differently this time is making sure we are building that firewall so we are acting in a way that’s transparent, leading with integrity and actually becoming a model for how to ensure state’s chief election officers are continuing to run for office, if that presents itself, while ensuring the integrity of elections and operations.

QK: You’re running in a gubernatorial election now that’s a little bit different than ones in the past. You have someone who could be a viable independent candidate, the former mayor of Detroit Mike Duggan, who was a well-known Democrat for a long, long time until recently. There are some political pundits that say they worry that’s going to hurt the Benson campaign, that Duggan would pull Democrat votes away from you. Do you have concerns about that?

JB: I’m not a pundit so I can’t really prognosticate on all those pieces. But what I can say is I do think the choice that’s going to be facing voters this fall, what they need to be looking at as they elect the next governor of the state, is the question of who does the governor actually work for? Do you work for the people? Do you work for corporate interests? Do you work for Donald Trump? Because I want every citizen in Michigan to know, no matter what side of the political aisle they may be on, that I work for them, that I will stand up for them. Then when I’m faced with a choice, the voices in my head, the focus of my heart will be “what do the people of Michigan need? Not my highest corporate funder, not the president of the United States. What do the people of Michigan need from me?

An important state senate race for Michigan’s 35th Senate District was decided Tuesday, and it could have huge implications for the November midterm elections. This week on WDET’s weekly series, MichMash, Gongwer News Service’s Zach Gorchow and Alethia Kasben discuss what how the race was decided. They are joined by Alvin “AJ” Jones from WCMU Public Radio to break it all down.

Subscribe to MichMash on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

In this episode

• What were the campaign strategies for Democrat Chedrick Greene and Republican Jason Tunney?
• Why did it take so long to call this special election?
• What could this race signal for the 2026 midterm elections?

Jones also pointed to the focus on the race being a reason why Greene won this special election. “The two candidates had very different strategies. Tunny’s campaign really hammered in local issues—talking about reading levels and tax cuts. Greene’s focused on national issues of affordability.” 

Both Greene and Tunney will face off again in the 2026 November midterm elections. 

More from WDET

• MichMash: The 2026-27 fiscal year budget process is outpacing last year
• The Metro: Trust in elections is declining. A Michigan Republican clerk blames politics
• 4 living ex-Michigan governors make case for civility in politics

Last month, hundreds of Oakland County residents packed a Pontiac meeting room. They came to speak against a proposal that would put surveillance drones, built by a company called Flock Safety, into the hands of the county sheriff.

Police nationwide have used Flock cameras to run thousands of immigration-related searches on behalf of ICE.

Many residents did not get a chance to speak. Just before the discussion began, Commission Chair Dave Woodward held a vote to move public comment to the end of the meeting, after the contract had already passed.

When Commissioner Charlie Cavell asked for a roll call vote — to make every commissioner go on the record — Woodward denied it and moved on.

The drones were approved, 14-4.

After that meeting, residents launched a campaign to recall Woodward, and by late April, petition language was approved. 

Yesterday, Woodward appealed that approval in Oakland County Circuit Court. If a circuit judge upholds the petition language, organizers will have 60 days to gather roughly 9,000 signatures across Royal Oak, Birmingham, and parts of Troy.

Woodward has called the recall “a distraction.” 

He joined Robyn Vincent on The Metro to discuss the recall effort, his business connections that have prompted ethical concerns, and whether he should have handled that April meeting differently.

Editor’s note: During this conversation, Woodward said some people involved in the recall campaign are advocating for political violence. The Metro reviewed the social media posts Woodward referred to. In one, a person supporting the recall effort praised Luigi Mangione — the man charged with killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in December of 2024 — calling him “the closest thing to a superhero we have.” A leader of the recall campaign says that supporter is no way affiliated with the campaign. 

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Many look at our politics and feel powerless. But they often skip over the decisions that are happening in their backyard, and turn to the actions in Washington. 

For many, that’s not the story in Oakland County. 

On April 8, hundreds of people showed up to protest surveillance technology. And because of the way that meeting was conducted, a number of people decided to organize to try to recall Oakland County Chair Dave Woodward. 

What happened at that April 8 meeting? What would it mean to recall the legislative leader of Oakland County? What might come of all this local political organizing?

Justine Galbraith is a leader of the I Am Oakland County campaign. Justine joined Robyn Vincent to discuss her attempt to recall Chair Woodward.

The Metro called and emailed Oakland County Commissioner Dave Woodward prior to this segment. He later responded and appeared on The Metro on Thursday, May 7, 2026.

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There’s an unusual twist in this year’s race to become Michigan’s next governor.

Longtime Democrat and former Detroit mayor Mike Duggan is running for the state’s top job as an independent.

Duggan says taking the long view of what Detroit needs in the future helped turn his eyes to Lansing.

Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Mike Duggan: I was born in Detroit and the city I grew up in was spectacular. You could get a good-paying job in the auto plants, the neighborhoods were beautiful, the shopping was great. And in the course of my life, everything that we knew was taken away from us. The auto plants moved out, the stores moved out, the banks moved out, the movie theaters moved out. I ran for mayor because I felt like the federal government, the state government and other people had turned their back on Detroit for too many years. And I felt like if we pulled together, we could change the trajectory. And you saw what happened, with all of the factories that came back, the rebuilding of the riverfront, the violence going way down. When the population numbers came in last year and we grew by 7,000 people and led the state of Michigan in population growth, I felt like I’d done what I had set out to do. So really the next question was, do I go back to the private sector or do I try something else in the public sector?

Quinn, you know the biggest problem in Detroit is the public school system. And when we had 7,000 people move back, we weren’t having families with school-aged children. And I think (Superintendent) Dr. Vitti and the school board are doing a good job with the resources they’ve got. But the state has not supported public education. And 60% of all the children in Michigan, not just Detroit, do not read at third grade level. You’re stealing the futures of these children by the time they’re nine and 10 years old if they can’t read. That’s certainly critical.

There is nowhere you go in the state where people are not stressed by the cost of housing. Young people are being forced out of the state because they can’t afford their first home, whether it’s an apartment or a house. There’s no easy way to say this, but the jobs of the future are going to Ohio and Indiana. Our biggest export is no longer our cars, it’s our young people. People said you can’t solve the affordable housing problem. In Detroit, we built 6,000 units. And I understand how we did it. We didn’t do it with a lot of state help. But if you both reduce the cost and put in some subsidy, the problem is solvable, as we’ve proven.

Quinn Klinefelter: When you do go around the state, is what you’ve done in Detroit translating to people outside the metro area? Do they say, “What’s some Detroit guy doing, coming in here trying to tell us what to do?”

MD: It’s so interesting. I’m spending a lot of time on farms. I’ll have 25 farmers who’ll say, “What does the mayor of Detroit know about us? We’ve been ignored. We’ve been forgotten. Our costs for our fertilizer is going up. We don’t have access to markets. Nobody in Lansing cares about us. What does the mayor of Detroit know about us?” I said, “Gee, let me see. What does the mayor of Detroit know about representing people who feel like they’ve been ignored and forgotten? I’d like to take you back to Detroit and introduce you to a mom who is raising two kids on a block with four abandoned houses, no streetlights, parks completely overgrown with grass. The ambulances and police didn’t show up. I didn’t make excuses. We went to work and solved the problem. Let’s talk about your problem.”

And you should see their shoulders actually relax. They think, “Maybe we have a lot more in common with Detroit than we ever thought.” I’m talking to farmers who can’t get permits from EGLE to build a new irrigation system because they don’t have inspectors. And I tell them about the housing projects that got delayed because EGLE couldn’t get inspectors to it. Before long, it turns out there’s a lot more in common in this state than we think.

QK: I know it’s all politics, but you were really a standard bearer for the Democrats for a long time. Now you’re running as an independent. You’re technically the political enemy. They’re running billboards that you’re spreading contaminated dirt all over the city. What’s it been like for you facing that after being for so long a face of that party?

MD: You said it right. They treat me like I’m the enemy. And I think that’s why people are so angry at the two parties. You look at the polling nationally and Gallup says this year 27% of Americans consider themselves a Democrat, an all-time low. And 27% Republican, an all-time low. And 45% independent, an all-time high. It’s because the two parties don’t tell you what they’re going to do, they’re just so toxic tearing each other down. And the Democrats have done me enormous good. Because as soon as I announced I was an independent, they didn’t say he has a bad record on crime or housing or jobs. They say he’s corrupt, he’s MAGA, he’s poison dirt, he’s whatever. It’s all this same stuff. And I’m just saying to people if you think the two parties are working for you, you’re gonna have a Republican and Democratic candidate. But if you think this state is heading in the wrong direction, I’m gonna give you a third choice.

QK: The political pundits will always say that an independent doesn’t have any chance, you’re just gonna waste your vote if you go for them. What’s your response to those kinds of comments?

MD: Yeah, those were the same political pundits that said in 2013 a white guy can’t get elected mayor in an 83% black city. You know how many times I heard that? But it’s different when you sit down with people and talk to them about their situations and how we solve them. I’m doing seven, eight town halls a week all over the state, just the same way I campaigned for mayor. And the people who are showing up, we’re not doing stuff where you rail on Trump, you rail on Whitmer, you talk about the evil folks on the other side. These folks want to talk about what’s going on with the data centers and why aren’t we being protected so that we know if they’re coming here that our rates won’t go up and that our water won’t be damaged. We’re talking through solutions. And it’s Republicans and Democrats sitting in rooms together.

Quinn, this is the most fun thing. We’re in a primary time where the Republicans are going to the Republican clubs. They’re going to the Muskegon Republican club or the Grand Rapids Republican club. The Democrats are going to the Democratic clubs, they’re at the Westland Democratic club or the Alpena Democratic club. I don’t have any clubs. So I’m having open town halls in community centers and restaurants and churches across the state where Republicans and Democrats both come and listen. And they invariably take my petition forms, head out the door and say, “I want to have a third choice.”

This is the thing I found out. No matter where you go in the state, people are fed up with the two parties. It was pretty interesting, last August 200 elected officials endorsed me at a big event at the Michigan Central train station, about 100 Democrats and 100 Republicans. And the Democratic Party chair, Curtis Hertel, was so angry he announced he was punishing the hundred Democrats who stood up with me, shutting off their access to voter lists. You have advantages and disadvantages, but I’m not spending time whining about it. I’m gonna go get far more than the number of signatures needed to get on the ballot. I have to put in 30,000 signatures by July 15th. We’re doing well, we’re gonna make the signature threshold. There’s no doubt about it, the parties have stacked the rules against an independent, which is why you don’t see them. But I’ve dealt with odds before.

Progressives won big at the recent Democratic nominating convention. Eli Savit for attorney general, and Amir Mackled for University of Michigan Board of Regents. 

There were cheers for progressive Senate candidate Abdul El Sayed, and there were boos for more moderate speakers like Congresswoman Haley Stevens, who is also running for Senate.

Progressives organized well, and now there’s a lot of energy at their backs. But some are concerned that they will struggle to win general elections. 

Adrian J. Hemond is one of those people. He’s a longtime Democrat and the CEO of Grassroots Midwest, a bipartisan grassroots advocacy firm. 

Producer Sam Corey spoke with him about the promises of progressive organizing, and the challenges that could await them come November

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