Detroit Mayor Duggan will run for Michigan governor in 2026 as independent

Mayor-elect Mike Duggan speaks at his election night celebration in Detroit Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2013. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, a longtime Democrat, says he will run for Michigan governor as an independent in 2026.

“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 said in an interview Tuesday. “And so I want to offer people a choice.”

Duggan, 66, is credited by many for leading Detroit after it emerged from bankruptcy to become a thriving, more vibrant city. He formally announced his intentions in a video released Wednesday morning but discussed his future before that with The Associated Press. He hopes to succeed popular Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who is term-limited under Michigan law.

The mayor’s decision comes in the midst of a reckoning for Democrats in Michigan, one of a handful of swing states that helped propel former President Donald Trump to victory in November. The Democratic Party, which only two years previously had claimed a majority in both houses of the Legislature for the first time in decades, suffered setbacks at the ballot box that left state Democrats scrambling for explanations and a path forward.

Still, few would have anticipated the mayor of the state’s largest city and biggest Democratic stronghold abandoning his party altogether.