It’s the dawn of a new chapter in Detroit.
Residents have spoken through the electoral process, casting votes to decide the city’s leadership for the next four years. Mayor-elect Mary Sheffield made history, rising from the City Council to become Detroit’s first women executive in 75 mayors. Membership of the City Council will remain largely intact, with only two changes.
Here are a few key insights from Tuesday’s electoral contests:
Detroiters turned out
The Detroit Elections Department reported 115,518 votes were cast in Tuesday’s elections, hitting a 22% turnout rate. Voters reversed a recent trend of declining turnout in city elections, but the numbers underscore a significant drop-off from national elections.
Citywide turnout was 25% in 2013 before dipping to 22% in 2017 and dropping again to 18.6% in 2021. The number of ballots cast also declined from 135,943 to 93,727 across the three elections. The City Clerk reported 21,791 more votes were recorded on Tuesday compared to the 2021 city election.
It’s a far cry from the 2005 race between then-Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and Freman Hendrix. Though Detroit had roughly 30,000 more residents back then, turnout was 37%.
Sheffield secured more votes than Mayor Mike Duggan in each of his past campaigns.
Duggan entered office in 2013 with 55% of the vote. He was reelected in 2017 with 72% of the vote and again in 2021 with 75%. Sheffield earned 77% of the vote in Tuesday’s election.
Sheffield secured 88,229 total votes. That’s more votes than Duggan earned during his three races: He secured 74,254 votes in 2013, then 72,439 votes in 2017 and 69,353 in 2021.
More than half of all votes were cast before Election Day. A day before the election, the clerk reported 61,475 voters turned in absentee ballots or voted at in-person early voting sites. City data shows 54,043 people voted on Election Day.
It was a good day for incumbents
All City Council members who ran for re-election were victorious on Tuesday, fending off challengers who sought to replace them.
The results suggest voters are generally satisfied with the performance of the City Council and affirmed an October poll by The Glengariff Group that found 67% of 500 likely voters approved of the job being done by the council.
Nine seats were up for grabs, but only two council districts will have new leaders. Sheffield and Council Member Fred Durhal vacated their seats to run for mayor. Renata Miller beat Police Commissioner Willie Burton 56% to 43% and secured the District 5 seat, while Denzel McCampbell beat state Rep. Karen Whitsett 59% to 40% in District 7.
Incumbent Council Members Mary Waters and Coleman Young II were re-elected in a four-way race for two at-large seats. Waters secured 36% of the vote and Young finished second with 33%, beating former council member Janeé Ayers (20%) and James Harris (11%). Waters earned 70,983 total votes in the city-wide race.
District 2 Council Member Angela Whitfield-Calloway beat challenger Roy McCalister Jr. 66% to 33%. Whitfield-Calloway earned more votes (14,751) than any other council member who faced a challenger, excluding the at-large race.
In District 3, Council Member Scott Benson was re-elected with 69% of the vote over Cranstana Anderson (30%).
District 6 Council Member Gabriela Santiago-Romero beat state Rep. Tyrone Carter with 63% to his 36%.
Council President Pro Tem James Tate Jr. and Council Member Latisha Johnson ran unopposed in Districts 1 and 4, respectively.
Democratic Socialists gain foothold on City Council
Detroit voters elected two members of the Democratic Socialists of America to the City Council.
Santiago-Romero and McCampbell aligned their campaigns in Districts 6 and 7 around similar themes of holding corporations accountable and centering the needs of working voters. They were both endorsed by the Working Families Party, which mobilized voter outreach efforts and paid mail campaigns. The group also endorsed Johnson, the District 4 incumbent who ran unopposed.
The Working Families Party notably backed New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani. Tuesday’s election was the first real test of the new Working Families Party Michigan chapter, which was founded last year. State Director Branden Snyder said the goal is to build a bench of multi-racial candidates who will put community needs over corporate interests.
“Corporate powers are most strong here in Metro Detroit, and most strong in the Detroit caucus of the legislature and in our city council,” Snyder said. “In order for us to win and be able to have the type of statewide political power (we need), we’ve actually got to win here in Metro Detroit first.”
Carter acknowledged he and Santiago-Romero have a very different perspective on corporations Tuesday night at a polling location near his longtime home in Southwest Detroit. Carter said elected leaders “can’t shut out corporations” like Marathon and DTE Energy that are community stakeholders and employers.
Santiago-Romero and McCampbell rejected donations from corporate political committees.
BridgeDetroit encountered Santiago-Romero on Election Day talking to voters outside Munger Elementary-Middle School about rising housing costs in the city. She supported taxing stadiums to generate recurring funds for affordable housing developments.
Santiago-Romero said she’s making plans to meet with McCampbell and start strategizing their approach to the 2026 council session. Santiago-Romero said she wants to mentor McCampbell and “make sure he’s ready to go on day one” with a solid staff behind him. She said her predecessor Raquel Castañeda-López set her up for success when Santiago-Romero replaced her in 2021.
“No one tells you how to do this work, and Raquel really helped me,” Santiago-Romero said Tuesday. “You need to serve people, you need to answer the phone, you need to produce and respond. If you don’t know how to do that, you have to learn, and if you’re not gonna learn to do that, you’re going to struggle until you figure it out.”
Sheffield transition team begins taking shape
Hours after Sheffield donned a pair of Cartier Buffs and celebrated her victory with supporters, reporters received details about her plans to assemble a transition team.
The “Rise Higher Detroit” effort will be led by Melvin Butch Hollowell, managing partner of The Miller Law Firm Detroit and former Detroit corporation counsel. Duggan said Wednesday that he expects Hollowell “will do a great job.” He said the transition team will include a mix of experienced civic leaders and newer voices who helped elect Sheffield.
“I’m thinking the city’s going to be in good hands,” he said.
It starts with a citywide survey and public events to gather feedback on the priorities of residents. Transition committees made up of policy experts, civic leaders and community advocates will be convened to interpret the findings and craft a 100-day action plan.
A jobs board was posted to a new website to attract qualified candidates for the incoming Sheffield administration.
Which write-in candidates won?
Some races did not have any candidates listed on the ballot but voters could still support write-in candidates who registered with the City Clerk. It’s not immediately clear who won.
No candidates made the ballot for Community Advisory Council and Board of Police Commissioners races in several districts.
Write-in candidates were the only option in races for Community Advisory Council in Districts 4, 5 and 7, and Police Commissioner races in District 1, 3 and 5. Results posted by the Detroit Election Department do not list vote totals for each write-in candidate.
Daniel Baxter, chief of operations for Detroit’s Department of Elections, said Wayne County will announce results for write-in candidates during the process of certifying the election.
The Wayne County Board of Canvassers met Wednesday to authorize a canvass of the Nov. 4 election. State law requires the canvas take place within 14 days of the election. The board must announce its determination to certify results within 20 days of the election.