Detroit Mayor Duggan To Run For Reelection In 2021 Race

DETROIT, MI — Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan announced on Wednesday that he is running for reelection in the city's 2021 mayoral race.

Duggan, 62, announced his intention to run for reelection at a virtual news conference that was prefaced by a video that included several endorsements from well known figures locally, including Wayne County Commissioner Warren Evans and Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, the city’s former health office director.

"Big city mayors last one term, maybe two, because the strain of the job these days," Duggan said in his announcement news conference. "Politics is so rough, so brutal. It beats them down. But (Detroit residents have) made this job a joy, and I still want to come to work every single day."

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Duggan first ran for the mayoral position in 2012. Initially, Duggan did not qualify to make the ballot because he filed less than a year after becoming a city of Detroit resident. But Duggan still won 52 percent of the vote in the August primary through a write-in campaign.

In the general election, Duggan garnered 55 percent of the vote en route to becoming the city's first white mayor since 1974.

Duggan won his first reelection campaign in 2017.

In his reelection news conference, Duggan touted his success at bringing business and jobs to the city — particularly for Detroit residents and people of color.

"What I'm really proud of is a lot of Detroiters, and a lot of entrepreneurs of color are opening these businesses," he said. "That's what we want to make sure. We want to make sure these opportunities aren't just made for those of the outside, because I wasn't elected by the 200,000 people who left in the decade before I got here. I was elected by the people who stayed."

Wednesday's reelection campaign announcement came just after Duggan announced a moratorium on water shutoffs in the city, something that he said is funded by state, federal and philanthropical money.

"My goal now is stop water shutoffs to low-income Detroiters once and for all," Duggan said. "We have secured the funding necessary to continue this effort through 2022 and we are building a coalition to make this permanent."