Former Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan ended his independent campaign for Michigan governor Thursday. He had been running outside both parties for roughly a year and a half. The bet was that a third lane existed in a state tired of the usual fight.
The announcement came in a letter to supporters posted Thursday morning. Duggan wrote that he no longer felt good about his chances because the political winds had shifted since he announced his candidacy in December 2024. The Detroit News first reported the exit. WXYZ 7 News Detroit and Metro Detroit News circulated the full letter by midday.
The campaign was one of the more unusual statewide bids in recent Michigan memory. A former Democrat. A three-term Detroit mayor. Running as an Independent against a field of established Republican and Democratic names. Duggan pointed to a national mood that had hardened against his pitch, citing unified Democratic anger over the war in Iran and gas above five dollars a gallon. Internal polling, he wrote, had him down double digits.
For Detroit, the news lands differently than it does in Lansing. Duggan led the city for twelve years. That stretch covered the bankruptcy exit, the streetlight rebuild, the long argument over demolitions, and the slow return of investment to neighborhoods that had spent a generation waiting. The name has been on a Detroit ballot since 2013. Thursday's letter is the first time in over a decade it won't be on a major one ahead.
Duggan wrote that he had been holding town halls across Michigan, week after week, with Democrats, Republicans, and Independents in the same rooms. He framed the campaign as an attempt to pull the state out of what he called toxic party politics. He credited a base of Michigan donors and union endorsements for keeping the operation upright through the spring.
The numbers, by his own account, did not move his way. He cited a recent Chamber poll showing his campaign double digits behind the Democratic candidate, and said being down in May alone would not have stopped him. The harder problem was money. National independent fundraising networks, he wrote, were still too underdeveloped to compete with established party pipelines, and he expected to be strongly outspent by both major parties this fall.
Duggan said he got into the race to change Michigan's politics, not to play spoiler. He pointed to recent polling that showed more than a million voters in the state looking for a candidate serious about reducing partisan conflict. He asked the candidates remaining on the ballot to court those voters directly.
The August primary moves on without him. The Democratic field includes Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, Genesee County Sheriff Chris Swanson, and Kim Thomas. The Republican field includes Rep. John James, former Attorney General Mike Cox, businessman Perry Johnson, and State Sen. Aric Nesbitt.
The former mayor is a private citizen again. Detroit will keep arguing about what those twelve years meant.
