Mike Duggan, mayor of Michigan’s largest Democratic stronghold, is ditching the Democratic Party to run for governor in 2026 as an Independent.

“It’s clear to me that there are a lot of people in this country who are tired of both parties and tired of the system,” Duggan told the Associated Press. “And so I want to offer people a choice.”

Just a few months ago, Duggan was all-in for Vice President Kamala Harris against President-elect Donald Trump.

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“I’m 100% behind Vice President Kamala Harris,” Duggan said in July. “I am a delegate to the convention and I will be voting for her nomination next month and will be campaigning hard for her. Joe Biden has meant a great deal to this city and we will always be grateful. But Vice President Harris has shared that commitment.”

The 75^th mayor of Detroit, who has served as a Democrat since winning a write-in campaign in 2013, announced last month he will not seek reelection to a fourth term, sparking speculation he planned on running to replace a term limited Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

On Wednesday, the 66-year-old Duggan confirmed the rumors, pitching himself as a problem solver who can unite the state’s fractured politics.

“I’m not running to be the Democrats’ governor or the Republicans’ governor. I’m running to be your governor,” Duggan told the Detroit Free Press. “The political fighting and the nonsense that once held back Detroit is too often what we’re seeing across Michigan today. The current system forces people to choose sides – not find solutions,” he said.

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“It’s time to change that,” he added. “I intend to bring together Democrats, Republicans and Independents – and our young people, far too many of whom have given up on our political system – together to move Michigan forward.”

An Independent bid will allow Duggan to avoid a crowded Democratic primary that could include competition for the nomination from U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist III, and Genesee County Sheriff Chris Swanson.

An October Michigan Information & Research Service poll of potential gubernatorial candidates found Duggan garnered just 3% support from Democrats, well behind Buttigieg at 38% and Benson at 18%.

Duggan announced his campaign on Wednesday with a video that highlighted his “accomplishments” in Detroit since taking the reins in 2014 as the city emerged from bankruptcy.

“We took our neighborhoods from darkness with burned out street lights, and we lit the entire city to the national standard,” he said. “We recruited major new employers to Detroit, built new auto plants, opened hundreds of small businesses, and reduced Detroit’s unemployment rate to it lowest rate in more than 30 years.

“We cut blight across our city, removing thousands of abandoned houses and buildings. And in their place, we built new parks, new streetscapes, a $1 billion in new affordable housing, and an entirely new Detroit riverfront,” he continued.

“The result, for the first time since 1957, Detroit’s population is growing.”

Of course, Detroit remains plagued with problems, with scores of recent reports detailing ongoing issues with violent crime, poverty, unemployment, and education.

A recent analysis of the “Safest Cities in America” that examined 182 U.S. cities across 41 key indicators of safety ranked Detroit nearly dead last, just ahead of last place Memphis.

Another analysis released in June ranked Detroit 146^th out of 148 cities for the percent of the population living in poverty, just ahead of Flint and Gary, Ind. The same study found Detroit’s unemployment rate was the second worst in the nation, following Flint.

Those issues are fueled in part by raging inflation, with Detroit ranked third in the nation among two dozen U.S. metropolitan areas in a study of “cities with the biggest inflation problems.”

Data from a 2024 United for ALICE report shows 171,907 of the city’s 249,518 households do not earn enough to afford a “survival budget” that includes basics like food, rent, child care, and transportation, despite most working full-time.

Those figures equate to 69% of the city’s residents, which includes about 30% living under the federal poverty level.

The crushing poverty is one of many reasons cited by experts for 65.8% of Motor City students missing 10 or more days of school per year. The chronic absenteeism rate, more than double Michigan’s depressing 29.5% rate, ties into embarrassingly low student achievement.

School officials are now working on a plan to pay students to attend after-school literacy classes, as more than half of 8^th graders in the Motor City are two or more years behind.

Yet despite those pressing issues, Duggan is focused instead on leveraging eminent domain to take over neighborhoods and install solar farms he hopes will offset electricity used by the city’s 127 buildings.

The mayor is also working hard to promote the redevelopment of the Renaissance Center, and a $1.6 billion plan by billionaire Dan Gilbert that would require $250 million from Michigan taxpayers.

Regardless, Duggan is convinced the public’s desire for a leader that’s not beholden to either two major political parties could propel him to the governor’s mansion, pointing to Angus King’s tenure as governor of Maine, and more recent shifts by Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, and West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin to Independent.

“The pattern you’ve seen over and over is when the Democratic Party moved too far left or the Republican Party moved too far right you had a candidate step in and say I want to represent the whole state,” Duggan told the AP. “This isn’t something that hasn’t happened before. We’ve studied all of those races.”

In Michigan, the last governor who wasn’t a Republican or Democrat was James Wright Gordon, a member of the Whig party who served one year as governor in 1841.

“If you think the two-party system is serving you well, you can vote for your Republican or Democratic candidate,” Duggan said. “But if you think the only way we can really change the quality of life in Michigan is a different way, I’m going to give people the alternative, an independent who is going to go to Lansing and work with responsible leadership in both parties.”

Duggan will finish out his mayoral term focused on Detroit, then plans to head “to communities across the state that have been forgotten and sit in neighborhood restaurants and farmhouses and city centers and listen to people.”

Duggan added: “And I’m going to start by doing that and not take the approach that some people are unimportant. I’m not going to write anybody off.”