City of Detroit/Flickr
Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan speaks at the Detroit Regional Chamber’s 2025 Detroit Policy Conference in January.
Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan picked up a major endorsement Thursday in his independent bid for Michigan governor, but it should come to no surprise to anyone who has been paying attention.
The Detroit Regional Chamber’s political action committee unanimously endorsed Duggan more than 15 months before the 2026 election, an unusually early decision that follows months of the group’s favorable polling about the mayor’s prospects.
The Detroit Regional Chamber, a powerful business group with close ties to Duggan, has not only donated tens of thousands of dollars to his political campaign, but also gave Duggan substantial stage time at the group’s annual policy conference on Mackinac Island in May.
In February, the chamber released a poll that suggested nearly two-thirds of voters wanted an independent governor, a favorable result for Duggan after he left the Democratic Party and ran without a party affiliation.
Later polls sponsored by the Chamber continued to highlight Duggan’s strengths, including his bipartisan appeal, his popularity in metro Detroit, and voter dissatisfaction with traditional political parties. One survey, which did not mention Duggan, suggested the polarization of the two political parties is hurting the state’s economy. Another poll indicated Duggan was picking up bipartisan support, but the results showed his name recognition dropped sharply outside of metro Detroit.
Duggan previously served on the Chamber’s board of directors and was given prominent speaking time at its annual Mackinac Policy Conference. At a Detroit Regional Chamber conference in January, Duggan drew criticism for controversial remarks about undocumented immigrants and U.S. Customs and Enforcement.
“If you are in this country illegally, we should not be shielding you from ICE and federal enforcement, and the city of Detroit does not,” Duggan said at the time. “We’re not a sanctuary city.”
Each time a poll was released, most local media dutifully reported the results without showing the longtime relationship between the Chamber and Duggan. Metro Times didn’t take the bait and questioned the Chamber’s ties to the mayor and its motives for conducting a survey.
In its endorsement, the Chamber praised Duggan’s leadership style, describing him as a result-driven, pragmatic executive who balanced Detroit’s budget and oversaw popular growth for the first time in decades.
“Mayor Duggan’s tenure in Detroit has been a case study in effective, consistent leadership,” Honigman Chairman and Chief Executive Officer David Foltyn, who serves as chairman of the Chamber PAC, said in a statement. “He has demonstrated a unique ability to bring stakeholders together to solve generational challenges. The business community has full confidence that he will bring that same steady hand and relentless focus on results to Lansing, creating the stable, pro-growth environment Michigan needs to compete on a global scale.”
Chamber President Sandy Baruah cited political polarization as a reason for endorsing Duggan, saying voters are tired of “political infighting.”
“They are clamoring for results-driven leadership, which is exactly what Mike has brought to every leadership position he’s held,” Baruah said.
Duggan drew criticism for appearing to embrace Elon Musk’s call for a new political party, replying to the billionaire’s X post with, “Now you’ve got my attention.”After public backlash and questions from Metro Times, Duggan’s team later distanced him from the world’s wealthiest man, saying there had been no contact and that Musk’s third-party approach would create more chaos in Lansing, despite Duggan’s positive response to the tech mogul’s tweet.
Duggan faces a crowded field that includes Democrats like Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist, and Genesee County Sheriff Chris Swanson. Republican candidates include former Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox, U.S. Rep. John James, state Senate Minority Leader Aric Nesbitt of Porter Township, and former state House Speaker Tom Leonard.
In the 2018 and 2022 gubernatorial elections, the Detroit Regional Chamber endorsed Democrat Gretchen Whitmer, who won both races. The chamber endorsed Republican Rick Snyder for governor in 2014, even as the Flint water crisis was beginning to poison residents with lead and other contaminants.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
