One of the nation’s highest-profile civil rights attorneys blessed City Council President Mary Sheffield’s candidacy for mayor this week, naming her “the real deal” who embodies the next generation of Black leadership.
Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, once called “Black America’s attorney general,” is known for representing families victimized by police violence like Trayvon Martin, Breonna Taylor, Michael Brown, George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and others. Crump also represented families exposed to lead-contaminated water in Flint. He stopped in Detroit on Tuesday to stump for Sheffield, who said Crump is a family friend who has followed her career from afar.
“I’m in a different city every day this week,” Crump said. “I’m coming to Detroit because I believe our children deserve a better world, a better America … I wanted to be documented supporting the future, that I was not looking back, we were looking forward for the real deal, Mary Sheffield, to be elected mayor of Detroit.”
Sheffield hosted a reception for 60 to 70 supporters at the Bridge Center Library, named for her late aunt LaVonne Marie Sheffield. Attendees were urged to support the campaign by volunteering at Sheffield’s new campaign office at 2460 E. Jefferson, hosting events and donating. Her campaign aims to connect with 85,000 residents, which is more than the total number of primary voters in 2017 and 2021.
Sheffield promoted her work to establish a reparations task force, free legal aid for tenants facing eviction and property tax assessment reforms. Sheffield has previously acknowledged the reparations group had “a rough start,” but has called for a long-term strategy to create programs for Black residents. Other priorities include building the middle class, creating access to affordable housing, neighborhood revitalization and economic growth.
“I have a lot of reforms that I want to make as relates to education,” Sheffield said. “We should have an after-school program for every child at every school throughout the city of Detroit. I want to focus on absenteeism. I’m starting to dig into some changes with transportation as well.”
Sheffield said Southeast Michigan leaders acknowledge the need for better public transportation to link regional economies, transport workers and attract young residents, but haven’t taken the next step.
“I’m hearing (a desire for) rail from the airport to Detroit, from Ann Arbor to Detroit – we want reliability and frequency,” Sheffield said. “We want more bus stops, more bus service and (Detroiters) want it to be more reliable. But as far as one thing I hear, it’s rail.”
Sheffield said she’s been looking at best practices from around the country, citing Atlanta’s regional transit system as a model to study. Sheffield said Atlanta, where she held a fundraiser in November, has other lessons Detroit can learn from.
“Atlanta is a prime example of thriving from an economic standpoint, from an inclusion standpoint, for Black businesses,” Sheffield said. “They have a model we can replicate. We’re having conversations with all urban cities to see what we can implement here in Detroit.”
The council president was the first among seven candidates who filed to run for mayor in 2025. Candidates have until April to collect petition signatures to make the ballot. A primary will be held in August, with the top two vote-earners advancing to a head-to-head matchup in November.
Other candidates who filed to run for mayor, as of Feb. 5, include:
- Businessman Jonathan Barlow
- Detroit City Council Member Fred Durhal III
- Businessman Joel Haashiim
- Former nonprofit leader and council member Saunteel Jenkins
- Attorney Todd R. Perkins
- Michigan House Speaker Joe Tate
Sheffield, 37, was the youngest council member in Detroit history when first elected in 2014. Surrogates said she’s the most qualified candidate in a race that includes opponents with experience on the council and the state legislature, and running nonprofits and businesses.
Sheffield said she’s building a movement of millennials and members of Gen Z that she first engaged through her sponsored events like Occupy the Corner and high school concerts.
“Young people like authenticity, they follow realness,” Sheffield said. “They don’t want fake stuff. You have to engage with them, not just during election time, but all throughout the year, and consistently show up and listen. I’ve been doing that for 12 years. Every high school I go to, we have a conversation and connect them with resources. I am making sure they feel they have a voice in the campaign and empower them to be leaders.”
Crump and other attorneys like Rev. Daniel Reid, Melvie Berkery, Michael Fortner, Allison Folmar, Elliott Hall, Delicia Coleman and Sheffield’s young niece spoke in front of a projector that shuffled through photos of Sheffield working in her capacity as council president. Crump said Sheffield can meet a challenging moment in the country’s history, as the Trump administration seeks to dismantle diversity, equity and inclusion programs and change how Black history is taught in public schools.
Crump said Sheffield is “cut from the same cloth of our ancestors” like Angela Davis, Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman and Martin Luther King Jr. He said Sheffield will equip children with the knowledge and support to defend themselves from the prison industrial complex, voter suppression, denied access to health care and environmental pollution.
“She is going to help make sure our children are well armed with intellect, with strategic thinking, with diplomacy, with knowledge,” Crump said. “We are in a war right now in America, whether you realize it or not. Mary understands that we will win this war against the enemies of equality as long as we make sure that our children are more intelligent than those who will seek to oppress them.”
Sheffield has an early fundraising lead, collecting large donations from political committees connected to billionaire Dan Gilbert and attorney Marc Deldin, the Michigan Regional Council of Carpenters, Central Transport President Matthew Moroun and his wife, and several members of the Yellen family, which owns Belfor Properties.
The latest campaign finance disclosure shows Sheffield had $467,852 in cash at the start of this year.
When asked whether she views herself as the front-runner, Sheffield said Tuesday she’s staying focused on building up her campaign and meeting stakeholders instead of thinking about her opponents. She’s begun having conversations with residents, who have flagged regional transportation and education as important issues.
Rev. Horace Sheffield III, executive director of the Detroit Association of Black Organizations, told the crowd that his daughter’s campaign is about standing up for long-term residents who stayed in Detroit “when folk didn’t want to come.”