Mayor Mike Duggan’s announcement that he is running for governor as an independent left a vacuum at the center of Detroit politics. For the first time in 12 years, someone else would be in charge of the city.

Current City Council President Mary Sheffield, former council president Saunteel Jenkins, attorney Todd Perkins and businessman Joel Haashim are all in the mix.

Wednesday night, District 7 City Councilman Fred Durhal entered the fray.

“Detroit is at a critical moment in its history,” Durhal told WDET. “We’ll have a new mayor (for the first time) in over a decade, and Detroit has made some tremendous progress.”

“But I think there are ways that Detroit can go to the next level.”

Durhal says Detroiters should have the opportunity to be able to walk to the store or their job.

“(Ideally) they can have commercial corridors where they can have fresh groceries, or grocery stores within one mile of their home, where they can access a pharmacy without having to drive 10 to 15 minutes to pick up their prescription,” Durhal said.

Part of making Detroit a walkable city is addressing a lingering issue — crime.

“Our community violence intervention (CVI) groups have been simply amazing. The Shot Stoppers program, I believe, has helped add to public safety here in the city of Detroit,” Durhal said.

However, the initial cost of the CVI groups was covered by funds provided by the Biden administration. An attempt to replace that cost with state money fell short late last year due to legislative — and leadership dysfunction — within the Democrat-led Michigan House.

“We’re going to need our federal government for funding, to continue to move this city to the next level, but we’re also going to have to develop strong relationships with our other partners on the state level, as well as the county.”

Durhal was in the Michigan House from 2015 to 2019.

As for new taxes to being in added revenue?

“I think it’s premature to talk about those taxes right now before we study and see how much revenue we can possibly generate.”

Detroit’s population grew last year — albeit by just a couple thousand people. It ended decades of decline dating back to the 1960s.

Durhal believes a comprehensive transit system will fuel growth within the city.

“When you look at most of the major metropolitan cities that are around our country, they have great regional transit and transit systems, and we’re going to have to step into the future that’s going to help us retain some of the talent that is leaving Michigan, that is leaving the city of Detroit,” Durhal said.

With himself and Council President Sheffield both running for mayor, Durhal says it will still be business as usual for City Council.

“We will still have our coffee hours. We will still do the things that are necessary to continue to provide the assistance that the residents of my district need. And then, on the other end, we’re going to be running a very tough, hard race for mayor of the city of Detroit.”

President Donald Trump is making good on a campaign promise to take swift action against undocumented immigrants.

With a slew of executive actions and the passage of the bipartisan Laken Riley Act, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are conducting raids in immigrant communities.

Though, some of those raids are subjecting American citizens and documented immigrants to harassment by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials.

Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (D-Detroit) has been a fierce critic of President Trump’s policies going back to his first term.

“Our immigrant neighbors, no matter their status in the United States are under attack right now and being vilified and seen as violent,” Tlaib said. “It’s incredibly hateful and divisive.”

Legal and illegal crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border has been characterized as an “invasion” by conservatives.

Undocumented immigration is characterized as a drain on the economy — though migrants generate nearly $100 Billion in taxes.

The Laken Riley Act allows for the deportation of non-citizens for low-level crimes like shoplifting.

Tlaib abstained from voting on the bill.

“It sounds like this is, that it’s going to make us safer. It’s not,” Tlaib said. “It literally would target people — merely accuse them of a crime, no conviction. Just accuse them of a crime, and they would be in mandatory detention.”

All of Michigan’s Republican Congressional delegation voted for it — as well as two Democrats in the House (U.S. Reps. Kristen McDonald Rivet and Hillary Scholten) and both U.S. Senators Gary Peters and Elissa Slotkin.

Tlaib says fearmongering about immigrants while refusing to address income inequality isn’t an accident.

“It’s the corporations, the big tax breaks and all of the things that we see in policy that make it easier for the wealthy to continue to make money off of these broken systems,” Tlaib said.

She says it’s important for her constituents to know their rights.

“Don’t open the door if an immigration agent comes knocking. ICE has no right to enter your home without a valid warrant. Don’t answer any questions from immigration agent if they try to talk to you. You have a right to remain silent. You don’t have to sign anything or hand anything over. You can ask for a lawyer…” she said.

Trump has expressed interest in using the U.S. Department of Justice to go after political opponents. Former President Biden issued blanket pardons to much of his family and political allies because of it.

WDET asked Tlaib if the possibility she might be targeted concerned her at all.

“I don’t think he knew both of my sittys, my grandmothers, if he met them, he’d know I’d be ready for them,” she said.

Hundreds of thousand of voters across the country marked “Uncommitted” on their Democratic presidential primary ballot as a way of showing their displeasure with the Biden Administration’s policy of supplying weapons to Israel.

Now, a new poll shows that displeasure lingered into the general election and disrupted Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign.

The poll was conducted by YouGov and commissioned by the pro-Palestinian Institute for Middle East Understanding Policy Project. According to the poll, for 29% of people who voted for Joe Biden in 2020, but didn’t vote for Harris in 2024 “ending Israel’s violence in Gaza” was their top issue. The economy was their second.

In Michigan, that number rises to 32%.

Those same voters say they would have been more likely to vote for Harris if she had broke with Biden Administration policy and pledged to end the sale of weapons to Israel.

Earlier this month, Biden pledged an additional $8 billion in weapons and last August sold $20 billion in fighter jets and other munitions to Israel.

Hamas killed over 1,000 Israelis and took dozens of hostages during their October 7, 2023 attack. At least 46,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, though that is likely a 40% undercount according to a study published in The Lancet.

On the campaign trail, Harris was often at odds with pro-Palestinian/anti-war protesters. At a campaign rally at Detroit Metropolitan Airport she told protesters interrupting her speech: “You know what, if you want Donald Trump to win, then say that. Otherwise, I’m speaking.” 

Harris earned 6.7 million fewer votes than Joe Biden in 2020.

Still, even for voters who opted to vote for Harris, over a third of those polled say they would have been more enthusiastic in their support.

Executive Director of the Institute for Middle East Understanding, Margaret DeReus knows that inflation was weighing on voters’ minds as well.

“People care about the cost of groceries, right? We know that,” DeReus said. “But what this poll shows is they also care about their tax dollars being used to kill and starve children overseas.”

The poll was released on the same day Israel and Hamas agreed to a six-week ceasefire.

Though Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears to be trying to back out of the deal last minute.

DeReus says news of a ceasefire is welcomed.

“But it’s also heartbreaking that this is a deal that looks nearly identical to one that’s been on the table since May,” she said. “It could have been achieved months and months ago if President Biden had used the great leverage that he has to get Israel to accept the deal.”

Detroit City Council was back at it this week with a light schedule — mostly taking public comment in Tuesday’s session.

With Mayor Mike Duggan running for Governor, council members Fred Durhal III and Mary Sheffield are both aiming to fill the spot. So this is expected to be a very busy year for the public body — if not a little distracting.

Councilwoman Gabriela Santiago-Romero is running for reelection in the newly redrawn 6th District, which encompasses parts of downtown, Midtown and all of Corktown and Southwest Detroit.

In an interview with WDET, she said the city’s allotment of federal money from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) is spoken for. All they have to do is approve contracts.

The ARPA cash has gone toward improving city services and infrastructure as well as things like eviction defense and job training.

One area that could still use an influx of cash is public transit.

“We’re going to be pushing for better transits. Many of us have been riding the bus during our terms. Here we have incredible transit advocates who are asking that we double the DDOT budget,” Santiago-Romero said.

Last year’s budget for the Detroit Department of Transportation was $188 million.

Detroit police and Duggan have credited Community Violent Intervention (CVI) programs for reducing crime in parts of the city. Much of the funding for those programs came from ARPA.

Santiago-Romero wants to go a step further.

“I have been pushing for an Office of Violence Prevention since my time here,” Santiago-Romero said. “It would codify an office that does research, that does best practices, that gives the kind of grants that we give to those CVI programs, but that, again, requires funding to staff to continue those programs.”

For the past two years, the Michigan Legislature has been completely controlled by Democrats. Santiago-Romero was optimistic some long-term funding for CVI would be passed. However, House Republicans and Rep. Karen Whitsett (D-Detroit) shut down the lame duck session last month preventing dozens of bills from receiving a vote.

Public safety funding was among the legislation that was killed.

“Lame duck season was incredibly disappointing,” said Santiago-Romero. “A lot of the bills that we wanted to get passed did not get passed.”

That included bills for water affordability championed by Detroit-area legislators like Sen. Stephanie Chang (D-Detroit) and Rep. Abraham Aiyash (D-Hamtramck).

Pollution is a problem in District 6 and is set to get worse with the opening of the Gordie Howe International Bridge later this year.

“We are also just bombarded by industry,” Santiago-Romero said. “So one of our main focuses is going to establish, is to establish a truck route, first in Southwest and then an ordinance that establishes those routes in other places in the city that have high truck traffic as well.”

Santiago-Romero says some in her district are being denied the basic functions of city government.

“My residents want basic city services, working street lights. When there’s an issue on their block, they want to call the police and have them show up on time. It’s about making sure that they are able to live a good, healthy quality of life.”

Santiago-Romero says the council should consider repealing and replacing the city’s human rights ordinance.

“Right now, city employees don’t have a way to file discrimination against the city, and we need to update our language, codify it, bring it up to speed to the state and federal policies.”

A challenge to Santiago-Romero is likely coming. She won in 2021 by a 3-1 margin. Why does someone want her seat?

“It’s a job that people think is a title and easy, or they just want the power,” Santiago-Romero said. “And quite frankly, that’s not at all how we do our work. We see this as an actual job that needs to get done, that needs to be taken seriously.”

With two of her colleagues running for mayor, Santiago-Romero is taking a wait-and-see approach and isn’t quite ready to make an endorsement.

“I think there are going to be a lot of candidates that run and whoever runs for mayor, in order to receive my support, I will need to see a vision. I need to see what their vision is for the city, what their plans are for the city.”

The beginning of 2024 was marked by turmoil within the Michigan Republican Party.

Infighting and complaints over the leadership of former party Chair Kristina Karamo led to a mutiny and Karamo’s ouster.

Enter former Congressman Pete Hoekstra. He took over leadership and got the party back on track, getting donor money flowing again. The GOP took back the Michigan House and Donald Trump won Michigan on his way to winning a return to the White House.

For his part, Hoekstra — the U.S. Ambassador to the Netherlands during Trump’s first term — is being rewarded with the Ambassadorship to Canada.

That leaves a vacancy for Michigan GOP Chair.

Longtime Republican political consultant Scott Greenlee announced his candidacy last week.

In an interview with WDET, Greenlee said he plans to build on some relationships made in 2024.

“You’ve got to be able to expand the party,” Greenlee said. “You’ve got to be able to have at least an honest level of communication with the different parts of the Republican Party to be effective, to get everyone working together.”

Part of working together means being able to bring in money.

“You’ve got to be able to put together a strategic plan that will motivate the donors to invest in the vision and give the grass roots, if you will, the juice to get out and do their job,” Greenlee said.

2026 marks a big year in politics both here in Michigan and nationally. It’s a midterm election, and historically the balance of power switches in the U.S. House of Representatives.

In 2010, Democrats were in power of Congress and the Presidency. In Michigan, Democrat Jennifer Granholm was ending her final term.

National and state Republicans swept into power at the height of the anti-Obama Tea Party movement. Greenlee says he was involved in that effort and thinks the GOP can do it again.

I want to take the experience of getting everybody involved (in 2010), of empowering delegates at the local level, of having a lot of local support so that local people can use their knowledge and be effective on the ground in their particular communities, and again, expand the party so that folks understand the Republican vision and what that can do for Michigan,” Greenlee said.

This week marked four years since pro-Trump rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol. President-elect Donald Trump campaigned on pardoning the over 1,000 people who have been convicted of crimes related to the attack.

Greenlee says he supports the pardons… for some, adding that there were a lot of people there who weren’t necessarily doing anything wrong.

“I think that anybody who did commit a crime — anybody who hit anyone or or what have you — they should be held accountable,” he said. “And I think they will. I think that his comments were directed toward people who were just in the vicinity and in the building.”

“If you did nothing wrong, in our society, there’s this pardon process that exists, and I think it will be appropriate for that to be used in many of those occasions.”

Trump has used the pardon process for people who did things wrong — including former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick. Trump pardoned Kilpatrick just over six years into a 28-year sentence.

In a news conference this week Trump evaded questions on whether he would pardon rioters that attack police. Over 140 officers were injured in the attack.

State Sen. Jim Runestad, former MIGOP Co-Chair Meshawn Maddock, and former U.S. Ambassador to Fiji Joseph Cella have all announced they are seeking the position.

Maddock is seeking the job, despite facing fraud charges related to being a fake elector — perpetuating the lie that Trump won the 2020 election.

Republicans will choose their new leader at the party convention on Feb. 22.