Detroit City Council Member Angela Whitfield-Calloway is seeking a second term representing District 2, but first she must survive primary challenges from a state lawmaker and a former council member who lost his seat to Whitfield-Calloway four years prior.
Former District 2 council member Roy McCalister Jr. and State Rep. Helena Scott, D-Detroit, are on the ballot against Whitfield-Calloway in the nonpartisan Aug. 5 primary. The two top vote-earners will face off head-to-head in the November general election.
District 2 spans the Southfield Freeway to Woodward along the city’s north border and extends to neighborhoods south of The Lodge. It includes relatively wealthier and engaged neighborhoods like Palmer Woods, Sherwood Forest, the University District and Bagley.
Residents of the district haven’t been afraid to make a change in leadership; incumbents have been unseated by challengers in the last two elections. Scott said the district is home to politically active residents who aren’t afraid to change course when dissatisfied with their leaders.
The district contains landmarks like the Detroit Golf Course and Palmer Park, the Avenue of Fashion, University of Detroit Mercy, Marygrove Conservancy and the Northwest Activities Center.
The district’s boundaries were changed as part of a regular process based on federal population estimates. There were 100,347 residents living in the previous version of D2 and 93,288 residents in the redrawn district, according to the City Planning Commission.
The east edge of the new district ends at Woodward Avenue, no longer continuing into the Grixdale Farms and State Fair neighborhoods. The district expanded slightly westward to include the Hubbell-Puritan and Belmont neighborhoods, while shedding the Pilgrim Village neighborhood and part of the Bethune neighborhood south of the Lodge Freeway.
District 2’s representative is one of nine members on the council. Seven districts are represented by a single council member and two at-large members represent the city as a whole. The council president is selected by a vote of the full body. McCalister and Scott said they’re not pursuing the position.
BridgeDetroit posed the same questions to each candidate on the ballot. Here is a summary of their responses, in alphabetical order. Whitfield-Calloway declined to respond.
Roy McCalister Jr.
Age: 71
Education: Mackenzie High School, Eastern Michigan University, University of Oklahoma
Occupation: Retired
Neighborhood: Greenwich
McCalister is a lifelong Detroiter who worked in the Detroit Police Department as commanding officer of the homicide section. He performed other roles in internal affairs within DPD and was a special agent in the U.S. Army Criminal Investigative Division.
He joined the council in 2018 after beating Virgil Smith to represent District 2. McCalister was denied reelection by Whitfield-Calloway in 2021, who beat him by 1,900 votes.
McCalister was also president of his neighborhood community association and an adjunct professor at the University of Phoenix. He was director of operations for Disabled American Veterans before running for council in 2017.
While serving in the U.S. Army Reserves, McCalister was deployed to Iraq as an investigator who interviewed members of Saddam Hussein’s former regime. McCalister retired after 23 years, and later retired from DPD as a Detective Lieutenant.
McCalister says he’s service-oriented and prioritizes enhancing quality of life issues in the city, with a focus on building up mental health resources. He said improving education, public safety and infrastructure are top issues.
“District 2 is very diverse; you have people that are living in $1 million homes all the way down to $15,000 homes and barely making it,” McCalister said. “You can’t just expand or focus on one group, you have to focus on each and every community.”
Turning renters into homeowners is vital to revitalizing residential areas and boosting tax revenue for the city, he said. McCalister wants to build up a workforce of residents who can take on good-paying, skilled trades jobs and rebuild neighborhoods, he said, suggesting the city could have saved homes that fell into disrepair if it had a stronger talent pipeline.
Tax abatements should be granted to developers that enhance neighborhoods, he said. McCalister opposes using taxpayer resources to support the redevelopment of the riverfront Renaissance Center, arguing that the impact is concentrated downtown.
“I always say that District 2 is the highest tax-paying and the highest-voting district in the city of Detroit,” McCalister said. “I’m going to have a big voice. If we’re the ones paying taxes and voting, you’re going to listen to what we have to say. If you can’t bring something back to the community, I’m going to vote against it.”
McCalister said he held regular roundtable conversations when he served on the council to seek feedback from residents. He’s undecided on whether the city’s solar neighborhood initiative should be expanded to new areas, saying he needs to do more research.
The Detroit Land Bank Authority should be eliminated, McCalister said, arguing that it has too much control over vacant land.
McCalister’s political ambitions stretch back more than three decades. He ran for a seat on the Charter Revision Commission of 1993 but was disqualified due to being a city employee. He mounted failed campaigns for City Council in 2005 and 2009, before the city adopted council districts and all candidates ran at-large.
McCalister ran for an at-large seat on the council again in 2013 after districts were created but lost to Saunteel Jenkins, who is now running for mayor. McCalister then ran for a seat in the Michigan House of Representatives, but lost in the Democratic primary to Leslie Love.
McCalister declined to say who he wants to be Detroit’s next mayor, but he’s eager to work with the winner as a liaison between the community and the city’s executive leader.
McCalister said he wants to improve community relations with police and secure greater investment in violence prevention programs that support young people who are unhoused or otherwise vulnerable.
According to his campaign website, McCalister would formally integrate community violence intervention groups into the Detroit Police Department. Groups contracted with the city currently operate separately to reduce gun violence in select neighborhoods under the city’s oversight.
State Rep. Helena Scott
Age: 64
Education: Samuel C. Mumford High School, Marygrove College
Occupation: State legislator, D-Detroit
Neighborhood: Palmer Park
Scott represents some of the district’s neighborhoods in the state Legislature. Michigan’s 8th House District also extends north into Ferndale and Pleasant Ridge. She doesn’t consider the Detroit City Council to be a step down from working in the Michigan Legislature, saying local politics matter now more than ever.
“I want to come home and serve my constituents,” Scott said. “All politics is local, and since a lot of things are changing on the federal level, I think we need strong elected officials locally to get things done in our community. I’m uniquely qualified to do that.”
Public safety, affordable housing and fighting neighborhood blight rank among her top priorities. Scott said her platform also includes rental assistance, financial incentives for first-time homebuyers, improving reliability of city services, stronger oversight of city departments, investment in parks and recreation spaces and empowering block clubs.
Scott said she supported safe gun storage legislation and sponsored a law signed last year to hike penalties for illegal dumping. She plans to advocate for funding to boost mental health crisis response teams and community violence interruption initiatives. Scott wants to create more transparency around property assessments to prevent homeowners from falling into tax delinquency and foreclosure.
“I’ll push for faster demolition or rehabilitation of dangerous abandoned properties and hold a lot of these absentee landlords accountable,” Scott said. “(I’ll) work to expand programs to help residents purchase and maintain vacant lots. We have a lot of vacant lots that are really eyesores, that residents want to purchase so they can (make) gardens or parks or side yards. I want to improve basic city services. Residents deserve clean streets, working street lights, and they need to have their trash regularly picked up.”
Tax breaks should only be awarded to developers that bring clear and measurable benefits to the surrounding community, Scott said. Developments funded with public money haven’t benefited the neighborhoods, she said, and the city can’t use public dollars to subsidize private wealth without demanding tangible community benefits.
“What I would ask is: Does the development create good-paying jobs for Detroiters?” Scott said. “Is there a commitment to affordable housing? Will the project strengthen local and small businesses, or will it displace them?”
Detroit needs leaders who have experience and relationships in the Michigan Legislature, Scott said, to advocate for state funding. Scott said it’s essential as the city expects federal cuts and the expiration of pandemic relief funding.
“We can’t rely on government dollars alone as we see those being cut every day,” Scott said. “We have to build strong partnerships with local businesses, nonprofits and philanthropic agencies to create initiatives that benefit Detroiters and without increasing the city’s financial burden. I want to explore innovative revenue streams so we don’t overtax our citizens.”
The Detroit Land Bank Authority can be an effective way to put vacant property in the hands of residents, Scott said, but she has heard numerous complaints from Detroiters about issues with transparency. Scott said the council should push for more oversight and authority over how the land bank sells bundles of properties to ensure land speculators don’t buy up neighborhood lots.
Scott is serving her third term in the Michigan House of Representatives. She was first elected in 2020, beating six candidates in the Democratic primary. She ran unopposed in the 2022 general election and secured a third term in 2024 with 88% of the vote.
She worked as a community liaison for former state Rep. LaTanya Garrett, was a lead organizer for Southeast Michigan Jobs with Justice and a training coordinator for the League of Women Voters of Detroit.
Scott unsuccessfully ran for a state Senate seat in 2016 and then ran for the District 2 council seat in 2017 but lost to McCalister. She’s the sister-in-law of the late former City Council member Brenda Scott, who served from 1994-2022.
Scott’s campaign website promotes her work to secure funding for Detroit home repair and skilled training programs, the Detroit Horse Power Equestrian Center and Greening of Detroit. It also highlights laws she supported to impose criminal penalties and fines for illegal dumping, provide energy assistance funding for low-income residents and lead testing requirements.
Scott serves on several boards, including Horse Power Detroit and Figure Skating in Detroit.
Scott goes by her middle name. Her first name is Harriet, but she will appear on the ballot as Helena Scott.
Incumbent Council Member Angela Whitfield-Calloway
Age: 64
Education: Cooley High School, Spelman College, Detroit College of Law.
Occupation: Adult education instructor, human resources administrator
Neighborhood: Green Acres
In her first term, Whitfield-Calloway has been vocal in council discussions surrounding local business support, transparency in contracting, enhancing Palmer Park, holding landlords accountable and historic preservation, among other things.
Whitfield-Calloway said she was relatively unknown in 2021 when she first ran for office but has since proven her merit.
“I’ve not been a rubber stamp,” she said at a June event hosted by the Election Department. “I’ve been a fighter since day one.”
Whitfield-Calloway’s tenure has shown her skepticism of large tax subsidies without strong community benefits, a demand to award city contracts to Detroit-based businesses and a willingness to diverge from proposals pushed by Mayor Mike Duggan’s administration. She’s been known for tough questioning of city departments and positioned herself as a watchdog on the council.
She chairs the council’s Rules Committee and serves on the Neighborhood and Community Services and Internal Operations committees. Whitfield-Calloway launched and leads a youth and civic engagement task force and a human trafficking task force.
Whitfield-Calloway backed a ban on cannabis business ads near schools, parks and other youth-focused areas. She also codified regulations for electronic scooters.
Whitfield-Calloway has led efforts to put a moratorium on new dollar store openings, helped pass a law requiring Detroit businesses to accept cash and opposes partial demolition of the Renaissance Center. Whitfield-Calloway supported creating a Tenant Bill of Rights to create renter protections, but the proposal hasn’t been adopted.
A study of riverboat taxis was launched at Whitfield-Calloway’s request, and she expressed support for creating water transit options to Belle Isle. She’s pursued partnerships with lawmakers to explore an amusement tax on downtown entertainment.
Whitfield-Calloway has been an outspoken critic of the city’s Solar Neighborhood Initiative, arguing there’s better uses for vacant land than solar energy fields that power city buildings. Whitfield-Calloway says the project would displace housing opportunities and fail to address blight.
She often criticized the city’s demolition efforts, urging the Duggan administration to preserve historic properties. Whitfield-Calloway was strongly opposed to tearing down the Michigan State Fairgrounds Coliseum.
Whitfield‑Calloway voted against the renewal of a contract with ShotSpotter, a controversial gunshot surveillance system. She also voted against tax breaks for Dan Gilbert’s downtown Hudson’s Detroit project and the Future of Health project in New Center.
She’s pursuing regulation of short‑term rental properties to address housing shortages and neighborhood disruptions. Whitfield-Calloway was among a group of council members who proposed a $203 million affordable housing strategy in partnership with Duggan.
Whitfield-Calloway secured nearly $1.3 million in this year’s budget to fund things like the city’s Goal Line program, which provides transportation to after-school programs; add recycling bins to city streets and create a stipend for a citizens’ blight patrol.
A year earlier, Whitfield-Calloway secured $5.8 million for projects like a lead paint protection program, repairs to the historic Merrill Fountain in Palmer Park, the Goal Line program and support for Black-owned farms.
Before serving on the council, Whitfield-Calloway created the city’s first women’s commission. Public records show she previously lived in Farmington Hills and West Bloomfield.
She is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., Gamma Phi Delta Sorority, the NAACP, the National Alumnae Association of Spelman College Detroit Chapter, the National Association of Hearing Officers, and the United Nations Local Chapter.
Whitfield-Calloway loaned her campaign $13,749 in personal funds to run for office in 2021. Her largest donation in that race ($3,500) came from Laborers’ Local Union 1191. City Clerk Janice Winfrey’s campaign committee donated $125 to Whitfield-Calloway in August 2024.
She unseated McCalister in 2021 by winning 55% of the vote.
Calloway all the way ! She works hard for the residents and is not bought and bossed!! She listens to us. She is not a career politician.
Thank you for the summary of each of the candidates!