Mary Sheffield, a political phenom whose rise began when she was elected to Detroit City Council at age 26, made history Sunday when she was sworn in as the city’s first woman mayor. 

The post Mayor Mary Sheffield reflects on leading Detroit and the road ahead appeared first on Detroit Metro Times.

The post Detroit Evening Report: Brian White selected as Sheffield’s deputy mayor appeared first on WDET 101.9 FM.

U.S. Senate candidate Mike Rogers has assembled a campaign team of extremist pastors and activists who have long opposed LGBTQ+ rights and promoted false claims about election fraud, a Metro Times’s review shows. 

The post U.S. Senate candidate Mike Rogers builds team of religious bigots, election deniers appeared first on Detroit Metro Times.

Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan had an opportunity this weekend to say whether he thinks President Donald Trump’s threats of jailing and executing political opponents has gone too far. 

The post Duggan won’t say if Trump’s execution threats go too far appeared first on Detroit Metro Times.

Months after federal officials demanded voter data from Colorado and several other states, Secretary of State Jena Griswold and several peers are trying to determine what exactly the Trump administration is doing with the data.

“As Secretaries of State and chief election officials of our respective states, we write to express our immense concern with recent reporting that the Department of Justice has shared voter data with the Department of Homeland Security, and to seek clarity on whether DOJ and DHS actively misled election officials regarding the uses of voter data,” Griswold and nine other secretaries of state wrote in a letter sent Tuesday morning.

It was addressed to Pam Bondi, the U.S. attorney general, and Kristi Noem, the Homeland Security secretary.

Bondi’s Justice Department sent letters to Colorado and other states in the spring asking for voter rolls and, in some cases, it has sought more detailed data, including partial social security numbers and birth dates.

The state officials’ new letter asks Bondi and Noem whether the voter rolls were shared with Noem’s department, which has served as the tip of the spear in the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, or any others. The secretaries of state who signed on are all Democrats.

Colorado provided some of the information requested by the Justice Department as required by law, Griswold said in an interview Monday. Other states, particularly those tasked with turning over more extensive voter data, refused; six of them have since been sued by the federal government.

Griswold said federal officials had provided shifting answers on whether the Homeland Security Department had been given access to the data that had been turned over to the DOJ, including from Colorado.

Heather Honey, the agency’s deputy assistant secretary for election integrity, told the secretaries of state in September that DHS hadn’t received or asked for the data, according to the secretaries’ letter. But the next day, the agency confirmed to Stateline that it was collaborating with the Justice Department to “scrub aliens from voter rolls.”

Six weeks later, on Halloween, the agency posted an administrative update indicating it was expanding a tool — used previously to ensure federal benefits don’t go to immigrants without proper legal status — to check voting rolls.

“We would like the attorney general and the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security to explain what they’re doing collecting mass voter data on American voters,” Griswold said. “It also looks like the DOJ or DHS misled secretaries of state.”

Attempts to reach both federal departments for comment Tuesday were not successful.

Griswold said some of her staff members also had a brief conversation with officials from the Justice Department’s criminal division earlier this summer. The federal officials asked if Colorado election officials had a way to report election crimes to the state attorney general, Griswold’s office said. State officials replied that they did, and the conversation ended.

The state officials request a response from Bondi and Noem by Dec. 1.

In addition to Colorado, the secretaries of state from California, Minnesota, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Maine, Vermont, Oregon and Washington also signed the letter.

A Republican gubernatorial candidate is spreading misinformation and stoking anti-Muslim sentiment ahead of a planned march in Dearborn that he’s calling the “American Crusade.”

The post GOP gubernatorial candidate stokes anti-Muslim hate ahead of ‘American Crusade’ rally in Dearborn  appeared first on Detroit Metro Times.

By COREY WILLIAMS The Associated Press

DETROIT (AP) — City Council President Mary Sheffield will be Detroit’s newest mayor and the first woman to lead the city.

Sheffield defeated popular megachurch pastor the Rev. Solomon Kinloch in Tuesday’s general election.

She will take office in January and succeed three-term Mayor Mike Duggan who announced last year that he would not seek reelection. Duggan is running for Michigan governor as an independent to replace term-limited Democrat Gretchen Whitmer.

Sheffield thanked voters in her victory speech Tuesday night, addressing those who voted for her and those who didn’t.

“I am here to listen to you, to fight for you and to serve you,” she said. “Because, at the end of the day, we all want the same thing, a Detroit that works for everyone.”

Sheffield will inherit a city that continues to improve following Detroit’s 2014 exit from the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history. Duggan was elected in 2013 and took office in January 2014. Under his watch, Detroit has dramatically improved city services, including shorter police response times, public lighting and blight elimination.

Detroit has had 12 consecutive years of balanced budgets and the city has been showing historically low violent crime numbers.

Its population also has grown following decades of losses. Earlier this year, the U.S. Census estimated Detroit’s population at 645,705 — a gain of 12,487 residents since a May 2024 estimate, according to the city.

Detroit’s population reached 1.8 million people in the 1950s.

Sheffield and Kinloch, both Democrats, advanced to Tuesday’s election after finishing with the most votes in the city’s nonpartisan August primary.

Sheffield, 38, first was elected to the City Council in 2013 at age 26 and has been council president since 2022.

Sheffieldhas said that focusing on educating Detroit’s children, and continuing to improve public safety and life in the neighborhoods will be among her priorities if elected mayor.

“My commitment, Detroit, is to build on the foundation that has been laid working with Mayor Duggan and our council … by expanding opportunities, strengthening our neighborhoods and making sure that Detroit’s progress reaches every block and every family of this city,” Sheffield said alongside Duggan at a September campaign event.

Duggan endorsed Sheffield.

“Our city’s progress is in very good hands and I know she and her team will make sure it not only continues, but expands,” he said in a statement following her victory.

Kinloch conceded the election in a short speech to his supporters Tuesday night. He reiterated what he said throughout the campaign that all of Detroit has to share in the city’s revival.

“You can’t make all of the investments downtown,” Kinloch said. “It has to reach the whole town.”

Kinloch also said he hopes the campaign shows people they need to stay involved in their city government and repeated his campaign themes of pushing for more action on affordable housing, crime and support for neighborhoods across Detroit.

“This city’s in trouble and we need you to stand up and step up more now than ever before,” he urged supporters.

RICHMOND, Va. — Democrat Abigail Spanberger won the Virginia governor’s race Tuesday, defeating Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears to give Democrats a key victory heading into the 2026 midterm elections and make history as the first woman ever to lead the commonwealth.

Spanberger’s victory will flip partisan control of the governor’s office when she succeeds outgoing Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin.

“We sent a message to every corner of the commonwealth, a message to our neighbors and our fellow Americans across the country,” Spanberger told cheering supporters Tuesday night in Richmond. “We sent a message to the whole word that in 2025, Virginia chose pragmatism over partisanship. We chose our commonwealth over chaos.”

Also Tuesday, Democrat Ghazala F. Hashmi won the race for lieutenant governor and will succeed Earle-Sears, and Democrat Jay Jones defeated Republican incumbent Jason Miyares in the race for attorney general. Jones is set to become the first Black attorney general in Virginia, while Hashmi is the first Muslim woman to win a statewide office in the U.S.

Spanberger, a former congresswoman and CIA case officer, won by emphasizing economic issues, a strategy that may serve as a model for other Democrats in next year’s elections as they try to break President Donald Trump’s and Republicans’ hold on power in Washington and gain ground in statehouses.

Campaigning, Spanberger often sidestepped the historic potential of her candidacy. In victory, she embraced it.

“Just a few minutes ago, Adam said to our daughters, your mom’s going to be the governor of Virginia. And I can guarantee those words have never been spoken in Virginia ever before,” she said

“It’s a big deal that the girls and the young women I have met along the campaign trail now know with certainty that they can achieve anything.”

Spanberger’s eyes welled up as she told her family she loved them, as her husband and three daughters, standing behind her, wiped tears from their cheeks.

Spanberger was intentional in how she criticized Trump

Throughout the campaign, Spanberger made carefully crafted economic arguments against Trump’s policies, while she spent considerable sums on ads tying Earle-Sears to the president. She campaigned across the state, including in Republican-leaning areas, and in her first appearance as governor-elect she wore a bright red suit.

Yet Spanberger also emphasized her support for abortion rights in the last Southern state that has not enacted new restrictions or bans on the procedure, and she railed against Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, the U.S. government shutdown and their negative impact on a state with several hundred thousand federal employees.

That approach helped corral Democrats’ core supporters while attracting the kinds of swing voters who elected Youngkin four years ago. It also continued a historical trend for Virginia: Since Jimmy Carter won the White House in 1976, Virginia has backed a governor from the opposite party of every first-term president in the following year. This year is a special case, given the gap between Trump’s terms.

Republicans, meanwhile, must grapple again with a battleground loss by an arch-conservative from the president’s party.

Trump never campaigned for Earle-Sears, though he did give her his tepid support. Their uneasy alliance raises questions about the ideal Republican nominee for contested general elections and how the president’s volatile standing with voters might affect GOP candidates next November. The midterm elections will settle statehouse control in dozens of states and determine whether Republicans maintain majorities in Washington for the final years of Trump’s presidency.

Earle-Sears 61, would have become the first Black woman to be elected as a governor in the U.S.

In her concession speech, she said she hoped Spanberger would support policies that unite Virginians.

“My opponent, Abigail, ran as a moderate. If she governs as one, then she will unite us, and she’ll heal our divide and win our support,” Earle-Sears said. “I hope and pray she does.”

Spanberger balanced policy and biography

Spanberger, 46, ran on a pledge to protect Virginia’s economy from the aggressive tactics of Trump’s second administration, which has culled the civil service, levied tariffs and shepherded a reconciliation bill curtailing the state’s already fragile health care system.

Accountant Sherry Kohan, 56, who cast her ballot at the Aurora Hills Library in Arlington, said she used to think of herself as a Republican but hasn’t felt aligned with either party since Trump’s first term. She said her vote for Spanberger was a vote against Trump.

Stephanie Uhl, 38, who also said she voted for Spanberger, had the federal government shutdown on her mind when casting her ballot at the library in Arlington, just across the river from Washington.

Uhl was working without pay for the Defense Department and though she said, “I can afford (it) just fine,” she was bothered “that it affects so many other people.”

Spanberger’s background also figured heavily into her victory. As a former CIA case officer, she noted her public service and national security credentials. And she pitched herself as the mother of daughters educated in Virginia’s public schools and a Capitol Hill veteran who represented a swing district and worked across the aisle.

The pitch helped the Democratic nominee withstand Earle-Sears’ attacks on cultural issues, notably the Republican’s assertion that Spanberger is an extremist on civil rights and health care for transgender people. Spanberger, who consistently argued that local school districts should decide whether transgender students can participate in competitive sports, cast her opponent as the candidate more out of step with the middle of the Virginia electorate.

Her strategy echoed the approach Democrats used to flip U.S. House control in the 2018 midterms, halfway through Trump’s first presidency. Spanberger was among several high-profile women who brought national security or military credentials to campaigns in battleground districts. Another of those women, Rep. Mikie Sherrill, was vying Tuesday to become New Jersey’s Democratic governor.

Together, they were held up as examples of successful mainstream Democrats at a time when the party’s left flank has been ascendent, most notably Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist and the party’s nominee in Tuesday’s New York mayoral contest.

In Congress, Spanberger was a quiet workhorse

When she first got to Washington, Spanberger concentrated on lower-profile issues: bringing broadband to rural areas, fighting drug trafficking and veterans’ services. And she quickly established a reputation for working with colleagues across the political spectrum.

In her new role, she will face tightening economic projections, rising utility costs and growing unemployment — in part because of the Trump administration’s federal contraction. But she could have the advantage of a friendly Legislature if Democrats are able to maintain their majority in the House of Delegates. All 100 seats in that chamber were on the ballot Tuesday, as were other statewide offices, including lieutenant governor and attorney general. The state Senate, also controlled by Democrats, was not on the ballot this year. If Democrats have the so-called trifecta in Richmond, as Republicans do now in Washington, they could enact many policy priorities that lawmakers advanced to Youngkin only for him to veto the bills.

Spanberger won despite a late surprise that threatened Virginia’s Democratic ticket. In October, news reports revealed that Jay Jones, the Democratic nominee for attorney general, sent texts in 2022 suggesting the former Republican House speaker get “two bullets to the head.”

Republicans across the U.S., including Trump and Earle-Sears, demanded Jones drop out. He apologized and said he was ashamed of the messages but declined to leave the race.

The controversy dogged Spanberger. She condemned the text messages but stopped short of asking Jones to withdraw from the race, and she notably did not withdraw her endorsement.

“I have denounced political violence, political rhetoric,” Spanberger said in her lone debate with Earle-Sears, “no matter who is leading the charge.”

Olivia Diaz is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Barrow reported from Atlanta. Helen Wieffering contributed from Arlington, Virginia.

TRENTON, N.J. — U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill on Tuesday was elected governor of New Jersey, shoring up Democratic control of a state that has been reliably blue in presidential and Senate contests but had shown signs of shifting rightward in recent years.

Sherrill, a former Navy helicopter pilot and four-term member of Congress, defeated Jack Ciattarelli, who was endorsed by President Donald Trump, and quickly cast her victory late Tuesday as a referendum on the Republican president and some of his policies from health care to immigration and the economy.

“We here in New Jersey are bound to fight for a different future for our children,” Sherrill told her supporters gathered to celebrate her victory. “We see how clearly important liberty is. We know that no one in our great state is safe when our neighbors are targeted, ignoring the law and the Constitution.”

Ciattarelli called Sherrill to congratulate her on the results and said he “gave her my very best wishes in hopefully solving New Jersey.”

The start of voting on Tuesday was disrupted after officials in seven counties received e-mailed bomb threats later determined by law enforcement to be unfounded, said the state’s top election official, Lt. Gov. Tahesha Way. A judge granted a one-hour extension at some polling places after Democrats made a request for three schools that received e-mailed bomb threats earlier Tuesday.

Sherrill, 53, offers some reassurance for moderates within the Democratic Party as they navigate the path forward for next year’s midterms. A former prosecutor and military veteran, Sherrill embodies a brand of centrist Democrats who aim to appeal to some conservatives while still aligning with some progressive causes. She campaigned on standing up to Trump and casting blame for voters’ concerns over the economy on his tariffs.

Earlier at Sherrill’s victory party, other Democrats were also framing the results Tuesday as a rebuke to the Trump agenda 10 months into his administration.

“Today we said no to Donald Trump and yes to democracy,” said New Jersey’s Democratic Party chair LeRoy J. Jones Jr. to the people gathered.

She will be New Jersey’s second female governor, after Republican Christine Todd Whitman, who served between 1994 and 2001. Her victory also gives Democrats three straight gubernatorial election wins in New Jersey, the first time in six decades that either major party has achieved a three-peat.

Ciattarelli lost his second straight governor’s election after coming within a few points of defeating incumbent Gov. Phil Murphy four years ago.

New Jersey’s odd-year race for governor, one of just two this year along with Virginia, often hinged on local issues such as property taxes. But the campaign also served as a potential gauge of national sentiment, especially how voters are reacting to the president’s second term and Democrats’ messaging ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.

In the closing weeks of the campaign, Sherrill lambasted the president’s threat to cancel a project to build new rail tunnels beneath the Hudson River to replace the aging, disintegrating tubes now used by trains headed to and from New York City. She also pledged to order a freeze on electric utility rates, which have recently soared.

Sherrill steps into the governorship role after serving four terms in the U.S. House. She won that post in 2018 during Trump’s first term in office, flipping a longtime GOP-held district in an election that saw Democrats sweep all but one of the state’s 12 House seats.

During her campaign, Sherrill leaned hard into her credentials as a congresswoman and onetime prosecutor as well as her military service. But she also had to defend her Navy service record after a news report that she was not allowed to participate in her 1994 graduation ceremony from the U.S. Naval Academy commencement in connection with an academic cheating scandal at the school.

Sherrill said the punishment was a result of not turning in some classmates, not because she herself had cheated. But she declined to release additional records that the Ciattarelli campaign said would shed more light on the issue.

For her part, she accused Ciattarelli of profiting off the opioid crisis. He is the former owner of a medical publishing company that made continuing education materials for doctors, including some that discussed pain management and opioids. Sherrill called it “propaganda” for drug companies, something Ciattarelli denied.

Sherrill will inherit a state budget that swelled under Murphy, who delivered on promises to fund the public worker pension fund and a K-12 school aid formula after years of neglect under previous governors, by high income taxes on the wealthy. But there are also headwinds that include unfunded promises to continue a property tax relief program begun in the governor’s second term.

Also on the ballot Tuesday were all 80 seats in the Assembly, which Democrats control with a 52-seat majority.

New Jersey hasn’t supported a Republican for U.S. Senate or the White House in decades. The governor’s office, though, has often switched back and forth between the parties. The last time the same party prevailed in a third straight New Jersey election for governor was in 1961, when Richard Hughes won the race to succeed Gov. Robert Meyner. Both were Democrats.

A conservative Dearborn mayoral candidate who has made “faith, family, and freedom” the centerpiece of his campaign has struggled to pay his own bills, even as he poured more than $50,000 into his race for mayor.

The post Trump-supporting Dearborn mayoral candidate faced lawsuits, unpaid debts, and foreclosure appeared first on Detroit Metro Times.

Here are a few a things to know as voters head to the polls Tuesday:

ON THE BALLOT
Oakland County voters will see ballots full of local candidates for mayor, council and other public-board seats as well as ballot proposals from charter amendments to millage requests.

TURNOUT
Turnout is hard to predict because there are too many variables, according to a county clerk spokeswoman.

Several candidates are running write-in campaigns; their names won’t appear on the ballot, but they are listed on the county’s website. To learn about write-in candidates in your community. For details, visit the county’s list of candidates: https://elections.oaklandcountymi.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/27699/638960263474470000, or ballot questions ranging from charter amendments to millage requests are online at https://elections.oaklandcountymi.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/27223/638930222581900000.

To learn more, visit the Oakland County clerk’s elections page: https://www.oakgov.com/government/clerk-register-of-deeds/elections-voting.

WEATHER
The National Weather Service’s White Lake Township office predicts mostly sunny skies with a high near 57 and occasional wind gusts as high as 18 mph.

POLL HOURS
Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. in every jurisdiction.

WHO CAN VOTE
You can vote at your polling place until 8 p.m. Tuesday – anyone already in line by 8 p.m. will be allowed to cast a ballot. You have the right to register to vote and vote up to 8 p.m. Tuesday.I

NEED TO REGISTER?
If you’re not registered to vote or need to change the address for your voter registration, visit your city or township clerk’s office as soon as possible Tuesday to avoid lines. You can vote at your clerk’s office. You cannot register to vote after 8 p.m. Tuesday.

HOW TO VOTE
Check out the front and back of your ballot to review your choices. Be sure to vote for nonpartisan candidates and on any ballot issues. The non-partisan group MichiganVoting.org has a tutorial on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n483tnkddoE.
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If you’re at a polling place and make a mistake, election workers can spoil that ballot and issue a new one.

WHAT DO I NEED TO VOTE
Voters must be at least 18 years old and U.S. citizens. People currently in jail or prison cannot cast a ballot. Voters must show proof of being a Michigan resident and living in their city or township for at least 30 days before Tuesday. Proof must be either: a Michigan driver’s license or state ID; or a current utility bill, bank statement, paycheck or government check that shows your name and address or another document issued by a federal, state or local government agency. Michigan residents attending college can register to vote based on their school or home address. Out-of-state residents who are U.S. citizens attending Michigan schools can register to vote based on their school address. Michigan residents attending out-of-state schools can register to vote at their Michigan address. It is illegal to cast ballots in two different states for the same election.

WHERE DO I VOTE
Voters can find their polling places and confirm their voter registration status online at: https://mvic.sos.state.mi.us/Voter/Index/#yourclerk.

ABSENTEE BALLOTS:
These must be returned by 8 p.m. Tuesday to your municipal clerk’s office. If you filled out an absentee ballot but haven’t returned it and want to make changes, visit your municipal clerk’s office to spoil the ballot and get a new one.

WHAT HAPPENS AFTER TUESDAY
Unofficial results will start to be posted shortly after 8 p.m. on the county clerk’s website: https://results.enr.clarityelections.com/MI/Oakland/124349/web.345435/#/summary.
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At 9 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 5, the County Election Certification Board, which includes two Democrats and two Republicans, meets to validate results in the county canvassers training room in the west wing extension of the first floor of the county courthouse at 1200 N. Telegraph Road in Pontiac. This meeting is open to the public.

Highland Park activist Robert Davis is suing Detroit mayoral candidate Solomon Kinloch Jr. for slander and defamation, claiming the megachurch leader maliciously lied about him during and after a recent debate. 

The post Highland Park activist sues pastor and mayoral candidate Solomon Kinloch for defamation appeared first on Detroit Metro Times.

A Pontiac activist has filed an emergency court motion questioning whether mayoral candidate Michael McGuinness is eligible to run for office under a state constitutional amendment inspired by former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick’s corruption scandal.

The post Pontiac mayoral candidate convicted in election-fraud scheme faces challenge under Kwame-inspired ban appeared first on Detroit Metro Times.

As Detroiters prepare to cast their votes in the 2025 Detroit municipal election, one City Council candidate’s record raises serious questions about her ability to represent the people of Detroit.  State Representative Karen Whitsett currently holds public office, and her actions during her time in Lansing demonstrate a disregard for the needs and values of […]

The post Karen Whitsett does not represent her voters appeared first on Detroit Metro Times.

Detroiters who believe the city is moving in the right direction are far more likely to vote in next week’s mayoral election than those who say it’s on the wrong track, according to a new University of Michigan survey. The Detroit Metro Area Communities Study (DMACS), conducted from Aug. 6 to Oct. 1, found that […]

The post Detroiters’ optimism about city tied to likelihood of voting in mayoral election, U-M survey finds appeared first on Detroit Metro Times.

By Max Bryan, MediaNews Group

A Republican is the only city clerk candidate on the ballot in Democratic-dominated Southfield, a prospect that worries Democrats and has GOP leaders arguing that the Democrats are in disarray.

Republican Gavriel “Gabi” Grossbard is running for the Southfield clerk’s seat after losing his 2023 bid to current city Clerk Janet Jackson, a Democrat who was disqualified from running for reelection. Democrats are hoping either City Council member Coretta Hogue or city clerk’s office worker Wynett Guy can prevail as write-in candidates, but political experts said write-in campaigns are often uphill battles.

The clerk oversees local elections and public records in the predominantly Black city of more than 75,000 residents. This would include overseeing the local results of the 2026 midterm election, when Republicans are seeking to win an open U.S. Senate seat as well as take back the governor’s office and state Senate.

The Michigan Democratic Party has highlighted this race in part due to a November 2020 federal lawsuit that Grossbard filed with three other voters that sought to decertify the presidential ballot counts in the Democratic strongholds of Wayne, Washtenaw and Ingham counties. Grossbard and his co-plaintiffs accused election officials of clerical errors, fraud and counting illegal votes.

The lawsuit in the Western District of Michigan sought to invalidate more than 1.2 million votes — more than 848,500 votes for Democrat Joe Biden and more than 368,400 votes for President Donald Trump, a Republican — after Biden defeated Trump by 154,000 votes. But Grossbard and his co-defendants withdrew the lawsuit five days later.

“There’s good reason that, in a majority-Democratic city, we wouldn’t want somebody like that to be clerk,” said Michigan Democratic Party President Curtis Hertel, adding that “it’s incredibly important that those people’s votes are counted in a free and fair election in 2026 and beyond.”

Southfield Mayor Ken Siver said he’s known Grossbard to be “a reasonable, nice guy” and would be ethical in the clerk’s office if elected. Siver also said he doesn’t believe Grossbard is “MAGA” or a Make America Great Again diehard, although the mayor is not supporting his bid for clerk.

Grossbard didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment, and campaign manager Pea Gee did not arrange an interview with the candidate despite multiple requests.

Jackson, a former Oakland County commissioner who beat Grossbard 75%-25% for the clerk’s office in 2023, was taken off this year’s ballot due to an unresolved campaign finance fee.

Michigan Republican Party Chairman Jim Runestad called Jackson a “Keystone cop” for getting disqualified from an election she’s charged with overseeing.

“How catastrophic for the city, one of the biggest in Oakland County, to have this level of incompetence,” Runestad said. “So then, they’re now stuck with trying to plug in whoever they can as opposed to a gentleman who went about it the right way, filed in time, filed his paperwork correctly and is on the ballot.”

State Democrats have thrown their support behind Guy at the request of local Democratic chapters, Hertel said.

“She doesn’t come in with a learning curve,” said Southfield / Lathrup Village Democratic Club President Joseph Person, referencing Guy’s position in the clerk’s office. “(Grossbard and Hogue) come in with a learning curve.”

Expert: Write-in efforts ‘extremely difficult’

But the Democrats have unique challenges to win the Southfield clerk’s race, a political analyst said.

Write-in candidacies usually are “extremely difficult” because of the huge educational effort required by campaigns to ensure voters remember a candidate’s name and write it on the ballot, said Southfield-based consultant Mario Morrow Sr.

The Southfield situation complicates the situation further because of the dueling write-in candidacies, he said.

“Just off the bat, the write-in candidates might end up splitting votes if they get people to support them, which leaves the person who, love him or hate him, is a legitimate candidate, on the ballot, and very well could end up in this spot,” Morrow said.

Guy originally sought to be placed on the election ballot, but said her name was removed because Grossbard pointed out disqualifying aspects in her campaign. Grossbard’s campaign manager, Gee, rejected the claim, arguing that Guy failed on her own to ensure she complied with state election law.

As a result, Guy mounted a write-in campaign.

Guy said she would make sure the clerk’s office flows more efficiently if elected. She also said she would better educate its employees about the office’s functions.

Hogue said she put her name down before she knew Guy was going to launch a write-in campaign.

The City Council member said she is concerned about the prospect of split votes, but said she was the only write-in candidate before Guy threw her hat in the ring. Hogue also said she has experience running a voting precinct.

Asked about the possibility of a weakened write-in vote due to the two candidates, Person said he’s not concerned about “hypotheticals” and is instead focused on helping Guy win the election.

2020 lawsuit becomes focal point

Grossbard’s supporters said he was within his rights to try to decertify a portion of Michigan’s votes in the 2020 presidential election if he believed there were irregularities.

Grossbard and three other plaintiffs said in the lawsuit they were worried their votes were “unconstitutionally diluted” by fraudulent ballots, including some of the absentee ballots counted at what was then the TCF Center in Detroit.

“There exists sufficient evidence to place in doubt the November 3 presidential-election results in identified key counties, including issues with transparency, fraudulent changing of dates, a software glitch, clerical errors, illegal votes, and many other issues and irregularities,” according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit cited other lawsuits and conservative blogs in its reasoning and claimed the plaintiffs would analyze poll books and other records to create “expert reports” to provide proof of fraud. None of the other lawsuits seeking to overturn Michigan’s election results succeeded. Grossbard and his allies withdrew the lawsuit without explanation on Nov. 16, 2020.

The lawsuit would have invalidated more than 20% of Michigan’s 5.5 million votes if successful.

“This case was clearly designed to spread misinformation about the security and integrity of Michigan elections,” state Attorney General Dana Nessel said of the lawsuit.

Gee said Grossbard “had some concerns, didn’t break the law, put their name on a lawsuit.” Runestad agreed.

“It’s perfectly legal to be able to do this. It happens all the time that people feel that there were things that were not kosher in the election process,” Runestad said.

Gee said Grossbard would be “more cognizant” of election integrity than other candidates since he’s sued over them before.

Guy said she wouldn’t care about Grossbard’s politics if he hadn’t challenged the 2020 election.

“I was concerned about the city, so they needed to be told, and not just blindly vote for someone who’s the only person on the ballot without knowing their track record,” Guy said.

Noting prior clerk’s misconduct

Gee accused the Democratic Party of hypocrisy because it supported former Southfield Clerk Sherikia Hawkins in 2019. Hawkins was convicted in 2022 of misconduct in office for ending the city’s 2018 election without counting nearly 200 absentee ballots. She was forced to resign from office, leading eventually to the Jackson-Grossbard race in 2023. She was also ordered to pay a $10,000 fine.

Gee also accused the Democrats of making the campaign “about a Jewish man running against one African American write-in candidate,” and pointed out that both Guy and Hogue are Black.

Michigan Democratic Party Chair Hertel called Gee’s claim “ridiculous.”

“The only thing that we have talked about in this campaign is his lack of credibility in county elections when he himself has been part of denying them,” Hertel said.

Grossbard said he will “defend and preserve the individual right to vote, secure the voting process, and will fight voter suppression,” according to his campaign literature. The campaign materials also said Grossbard will expand services to include passport applications and process birth and death certificates in a timely manner.

Grossbard would bring council minutes up to date if he were elected, Gee said. She claimed these records have fallen out of compliance with Michigan’s Open Meeting Act under Jackson.

“I’m surprised that the Democratic Party is worried about the candidate as opposed to the people getting their accurate information,” Gee said.

Jackson did not respond to a request for comment regarding Gee’s claim.

Democrats mount ‘huge undertaking’

While the Democrats have thrown their support behind Guy in their efforts to keep Grossbard from office, the dynamic of dueling write-in candidates persists.

Volunteers have knocked on more than 7,000 doors in support of Guy, Southfield Democratic Club’s Person said. The Michigan Democratic Party has also invested in mailers and digital campaign materials for her election, Hertel said.

Mayor Siver claimed the local Democratic Club initially said it would support Hogue, but then switched to Guy a few days later.

“I said, ‘Well, I’m sorry. I’m not going to go back on my word to Coretta Hogue. I wish Wynett Guy every success, but I am backing Coretta,'” Siver said.

Person said Hogue “didn’t have any money” and wanted the club to “do the heavy lifting for her,” which contributed to the club’s decision.

Hogue said she believes “people have personal gains that they’re seeking” in their decision to support Guy but did not elaborate when asked what those were. She also pointed out that she was the only person running against Grossbard who wasn’t kicked off the ballot.

“It’s been a dirty campaign,” Hogue said. “I think that it’s really shown in how people are choosing to support and endorse and are overlooking qualifications.”

Like Grossbard, Hogue said she would get the City Council meeting minutes up to date. She also claimed integrity needs to be brought back to the office.

Grossbard’s Gee called Hogue a “valid and viable candidate.”

The result is that defeating Grossbard is “a huge undertaking” for the Democrats, Morrow said.

“It would have probably been beneficial if everybody was on the same page and wanted to go after Gabi, that one of the two write-in candidates would have pulled out,” Morrow said. “That would have been an easier task to take on.”

A new lawsuit alleges that Triumph Church and its pastor, the Rev. Solomon Kinloch Jr., who is a candidate for Detroit mayor, violated state and federal laws after the church purchased the former AMC Star Southfield theater site in Southfield. The church later conveyed that property to a private limited liability company “controlled exclusively” by […]

The post Triumph Church and Detroit mayoral candidate Kinloch accused of illegal property deal involving old theater site appeared first on Detroit Metro Times.

Mayor Mike Duggan is scheduled to attend a high-dollar fundraiser in Detroit on Wednesday night hosted by a wealthy businessman who donated $100,000 to a Donald Trump political action committee and has been linked to multiple corruption scandals involving city contracts. The invitation-only event, billed as a “Special Friends and Family” gathering for Duggan’s gubernatorial […]

The post Trump megadonor at center of Detroit scandals hosts fundraiser for Duggan appeared first on Detroit Metro Times.

Health care leaders and Democrats say Duggan is ignoring the reality of Trump’s legislation, which slashes $840 billion from Medicaid over the next decade

The post Duggan defends Trump’s Medicaid work rules as critics warn cuts will strip coverage from hundreds of thousands appeared first on Detroit Metro Times.