Who won the mayoral debate? Detroiters, and an expert, weigh in

The first and likely only televised debate between Detroit mayoral candidates provided a big opportunity for Rev. Solomon Kinloch Jr. to shake off his underdog status against City Council President Mary Sheffield. 

The candidates shared a stage for a full hour at the WXYZ-TV studio in Southfield, outlining visions for the city and lobbing rhetorical bombs at each other. Who won? Aaron Kall, director of debate for the University of Michigan and a scholar of political argument, said Sheffield came into the event as the favorite and ended the night largely unscathed. That’s enough to be considered the winner. 

“Sheffield was prepared,” Kall said. “In political debates these days, zingers have become important sound bites, what is going to make clips or mini news cycles of their own after the debate. I don’t think she was ever rattled.”

But some residents weren’t so sure. BridgeDetroit reached out to voters we met throughout the campaign season. Their reactions were mixed — and some said they didn’t even know the debate was on.

Carlos Nielbock, a master craftsman and artist with a prominent studio near Eastern Market, said his opinion was unchanged by the debate. He remains undecided. 

Nielbock wanted to hear the candidates speak on building skilled trades talent and supporting longtime businesses. Nielbock said Kinloch is energetic but he believes the city needs to be “managed by experience” to navigate a difficult road ahead.

“That’s the politician’s role, to point the direction to give a fair chance for the people that live here,” Nielbock said.

Jeremy Vidito didn’t catch the debate; he has a newborn to take care of. He was a supporter of Saunteel Jenkins during the primary but has since decided to support Sheffield. Vidito said Kinloch is rightly pointing out the city’s problems but doubts that the pastor has the “capacity or experience to do anything about it.” 

“Politics is hard, management is hard,” he said. “I just don’t think Kinloch has the management and political expertise to lead the city. Those are skill sets that just really, really matter. I don’t fully agree with Sheffield, and she wasn’t my top choice. Kinloch just doesn’t have the skills to do it. 

“Sheffield may not be the perfect person, but I’d rather not break anything.” 

Eyandra Otis, a write-in candidate for the Board of Police Commissioners in District 5, also remains undecided. Otis described the debate as a “heavyweight fight” with less attention on moving the city forward. He was hoping for a second debate focused on “real policies” and was disappointed to hear that there may not be. 

“If we don’t get another one, there’s going to be a lot of undecided people,” Otis said. “A lot of us were waiting to see what they would say against each other. You have people that are hardcore for Kinloch and hardcore for Sheffield, and you have those trying to wait and see who will present something worth pushing.” 

Meanwhile, Toyia Watts, a constituent of Sheffield’s in District 5, said broken promises were on her mind as she watched Sheffield and Kinloch on Wednesday. Watts said federal pandemic relief from the American Rescue Plan Act “didn’t uplift us at all.” She’s voting for Kinloch but expects Sheffield to win. 

“I feel that Mary is going to be ruled and run by the billionaires,” Watts said.

One tough hour

Kinloch said the $827 million in ARPA funds Detroit received cited as a major opportunity to reverse poverty in the city, but instead it got worse. Kinloch said Sheffield, as council president, should have directed more pandemic relief funding toward neighborhoods and housing projects. Sheffield said “that’s completely false,” pointing to investments in parks, commercial corridors, housing rehabilitation, home repair and other programs. 

Kall said Kinloch threw a lot of criticism at Sheffield but didn’t offer as many detailed policy prescriptions to balance out the attacks. Kinloch, a senior pastor of Triumph Church who has never held public office, would take an non-traditional route to the mayor’s office if elected. Kall said voters sometimes embrace political outsiders in elections that are about changing the direction of a community, but it depends on the political moment. 

“There hasn’t been a lot of polling, and given the breakdown of the primary and the endorsements and fundraising, Sheffield is the favorite,” Kall said. “Kinloch was in a tough position in one debate using the opportunity to try and throw the kitchen sink and change the dynamic. It’s tough to do in an hour.” 

Kinloch described himself as a CEO, saying he has executive experience that Sheffield lacks. He also outlined a few notable proposals, like a children’s trust fund that would invest $1,000 annually for babies born until the age of 18. The funds could be used to open a business, go to college, buy a home or invest in their community.

Throughout the night, Kinloch painted a negative picture of the city’s progress. Kinloch highlighted Detroit’s 51% child poverty rate, the city’s status as the second-most violent city in 2024, and the struggle of residents to find affordable housing. Kinloch said it reflects a “failure of institutional politics and institutional leadership.” 

“People are tired of waiting on you,” he said to Sheffield. “They’ve been waiting on you for 12 years. You’re talking about all this stuff that you’ve done. It’s symbolism and ceremonial. It has not been structural and substantive.”

Related:

• Mary Sheffield, Solomon Kinloch fight for Detroit’s future in heated mayoral debate
• What mayoral candidates Sheffield and Kinloch said about education at this week’s debate
• 7 things we learned from our last big Sheffield interview
• Kinloch campaign targets unhappy residents with pitch for new leadership

Kinloch criticized Sheffield for increasing her pay while on the council. Sheffield claimed that’s untrue. 

“It’s unfortunate, it’s misinformation and false statement, City Council doesn’t approve our pay raises,” Sheffield said. “A compensation commission makes those decisions, not the City Council.” 

While the increases were recommended by the commission, Sheffield joined a majority of the City Council in 2023 that voted to approve an immediate 7% salary increase and to establish 3.5% salary raises for the following three years. It raised her salary to $111,647 by 2025. 

Walking the line on crime

Kall said Kinloch attempted to walk a fine line between describing a poor narrative of life in the city while making the case for electing someone outside the political system and inspiring hope. 

Kall wrote a book about President Donald Trump’s debate approach during the 2016 campaign. Kall said Trump was effective in diagnosing a negative state of the country in his campaigns and noted Kinloch’s openness to having aid from the National Guard to address crime in Detroit.

Kinloch suggested violent crime is worse in Detroit than the official data shows, arguing that “anytime you have a department that’s grading their own tests, you’re going to have a problem with the fudging of the answers and the fudging of the numbers.” 

Kinloch said he would welcome resources from the federal government “not in a martial law fashion” to protect “soft spots” in the city. After the debate, Kinloch clarified to reporters that he doesn’t support the National Guard “patrolling the streets of Detroit,” invoking the history of the 1967 uprising. 

“When you start talking about large venues and large crowds and large gatherings, particularly some of the violence we’ve seen in recent times, we can always partner with law enforcement agencies in order to assist in that,” Kinloch told reporters. “But not to police and patrol our communities.” 

Sheffield said she’s “strongly opposed” to any National Guard presence in Detroit. She welcomed federal resources to address “underlying social issues” of gun violence, but said she would ensure troops do not come to Detroit. 

“I do not believe that militarizing our neighborhoods is the solution,” Sheffield said. “What we must do is become a national model of how to drive crime down in Detroit.” 

Sheffield holds tough

Sheffield touted her experience on the City Council since 2014, being the youngest-elected council member at the age of 26. She highlighted work to allocate funding to home repair and neighborhood beautification efforts, incentivizing the development of affordable housing and supporting new public safety initiatives.

“This is a critical moment in Detroit’s recovery where we can move forward with progress, or we can gamble with our future with inexperienced leadership,” she said.

Kall said she landed some blows, asserting Kinloch hasn’t been working to improve the city until a political opportunity opened up. Kall noted that Sheffield referenced growing up on Seven Mile and Livernois, and included local references to show her bona fides as a Detroiter. 

“Given that she likely expected some attacks, she seemed to have comebacks,” Kall said. “I don’t think there was a point where she was on the ropes.” 

Sheffield said Kinloch showed a “sense of entitlement” by not attending candidate forums hosted by community groups. She noted that Kinloch lived in Oakland Township before renting an apartment in Detroit so he could run for mayor. 

“I understand, pastor, that it takes about an hour and a half to get from Oakland Township to Detroit to know what’s happening on the ground here,” Sheffield said. “While you’ve been building up Southfield, you could have been helping build up Detroit.” 

Kinloch characterized Sheffield as suspicious and untrustworthy, saying her “inner circle is populated with cronyism” and people who’ve been found guilty of bribing city officials. Sheffield retorted that the pastor “should never throw stones from a glass house” since he bought his home and another property from Triumph Church. 

Toward the end of the debate, the candidates argued over who was being more negative. Sheffield said Kinloch must not “practice what you preach” while Kinloch claimed he has a file of opposition research that he could have used to smear Sheffield.

“We are opponents and we’re in opposition, but we’re not enemies,” Kinloch said. “We have both done great things, and we can do great things together, if you wasn’t so adversarial about it.” 

Sheffield concluded that Kinloch offered “misinformation, divisiveness and no specifics,” while Kinloch said the city is at a crossroads and cannot maintain the status quo or go backward to bankruptcy and corruption.

After the debate, Kinloch said he anticipated the debate would be contentious because he claimed Sheffield’s supporters “have been throwing rocks and hiding their hands.” He wanted residents to see that he would fight for them. 

Sheffield said the debate offered a clear contrast between someone who is getting things done and someone who is talking about challenges and pointing fingers. Sheffield said the main barrier to creating deeper change on poverty and crime has been access to funding, but said she pushed lawmakers to allocate dollars for the city’s Community Violence Intervention program. 

“Most of my policies on council have been around social issues: Water affordability, foreclosure prevention, homelessness and housing,” Sheffield said. “These are the issues I believe will help address the issue of poverty and help build our middle class and raise the incomes of Detroit.”