Business
Detroit elects first female mayor as City Council President Mary Sheffield defeats megachurch pastor
City Council President Mary Sheffield will be Detroit’s newest mayor and the first woman to lead the city.
Sheffield defeated popular megachurch pastor the Rev. Solomon Kinloch in Tuesday’s general election.
She will take office in January and succeed three-term Mayor Mike Duggan who announced last year that he would not seek reelection. Duggan is running for Michigan governor as an independent to replace term-limited Democrat Gretchen Whitmer.
Sheffield thanked voters in her victory speech Tuesday night, addressing those who voted for her and those who didn’t.
“I am here to listen to you, to fight for you and to serve you,” she said. “Because, at the end of the day, we all want the same thing, a Detroit that works for everyone.”
Sheffield will inherit a city that continues to improve following Detroit’s 2014 exit from the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history. Duggan was elected in 2013 and took office in January 2014. Under his watch, Detroit has dramatically improved city services, including shorter police response times, public lighting and blight elimination.
Detroit has had 12 consecutive years of balanced budgets and the city has been showing historically low violent crime numbers.
Its population also has grown following decades of losses. Earlier this year, the U.S. Census estimated Detroit’s population at 645,705 — a gain of 12,487 residents since a May 2024 estimate, according to the city.
Detroit’s population reached 1.8 million people in the 1950s.
Sheffield and Kinloch, both Democrats, advanced to Tuesday’s election after finishing with the most votes in the city’s nonpartisan August primary.
Sheffield, 38, first was elected to the City Council in 2013 at age 26 and has been council president since 2022.
Sheffieldhas said that focusing on educating Detroit’s children, and continuing to improve public safety and life in the neighborhoods will be among her priorities if elected mayor.
“My commitment, Detroit, is to build on the foundation that has been laid working with Mayor Duggan and our council … by expanding opportunities, strengthening our neighborhoods and making sure that Detroit’s progress reaches every block and every family of this city,” Sheffield said alongside Duggan at a September campaign event.
Duggan endorsed Sheffield.
“Our city’s progress is in very good hands and I know she and her team will make sure it not only continues, but expands,” he said in a statement following her victory.
Kinloch conceded the election in a short speech to his supporters Tuesday night. He reiterated what he said throughout the campaign that all of Detroit has to share in the city’s revival.
“You can’t make all of the investments downtown,” Kinloch said. “It has to reach the whole town.”
Kinloch also said he hopes the campaign shows people they need to stay involved in their city government and repeated his campaign themes of pushing for more action on affordable housing, crime and support for neighborhoods across Detroit.
“This city’s in trouble and we need you to stand up and step up more now than ever before,” he urged supporters.
