Detroit’s 2017 Election: A Review of the Primary and Look Ahead [RESULTS, MAPS]
Who won and how to find out more about Detroit’s primary winners.
For the first time since Detroit exited bankruptcy, city residents are choosing their leaders. The top two finishers from the August primary from the mayor’s, clerk’s and council member district races go on to November’s general election along with the top four vote-winners from the at-large city council candidates, who will vie for two seats.
The night’s biggest news? Mayor Mike Duggan and state Sen. Coleman Young II advance to the November election.
Council Member George Cushingberry, Jr., finished third to Roy McCalister, Jr. and former state Sen. Virgil Smith, ensuring residents in Detroit’s District 2 will have a new representative on the City Council.
In the city clerk’s race, incumbent Janice Winfrey will face newcomer Garlin Gilchrist II, who resigned from Duggan’s administration to run.
On Wednesday’s Detroit Today program, host Sandra Svoboda talks about the results and what they mean with three local journalists: WDET’s Pat Batcheller, the Detroit Free Press’s Nancy Kaffer and the Michigan’s Chronicle’s Keith Owens.
“I do believe Duggan’s going to be mayor, and this is pretty much what we expected,” says Owens. “As far as Senator Young is going, I think that his rhetoric is good. The problem is that the people, the vein that he’s tapped into, they’re willing to scream and shout but they’re not willing to vote.”
Though surprised by the large margin by which Duggan won his votes, Kaffer agrees with Owens’ general sentiment. Still, she says that it may not have been as simple as just getting up and going to vote for some Detroiters.
“We also have to think about the structural barriers to voting,” Kaffer says. “The areas of the city that are mostly likely to have heavy voter turn-out are also the areas … that have higher levels of education. And there’s a direct correlation between education and voter turnout in no small part because the more advanced your education is, the more secure your job is, the more you’re able to say ‘I’m going to be an hour late because I’m voting,’… If you’re working a minimum wage job, you don’t have that luxury. There’s a lot of stuff we can do to make it easier for people to vote as a state… Internet voting, no-reason absentee voting, same-day registration, all that stuff would make it easier for people to vote. We don’t do that stuff.”
To hear the full conversation, click the audio player above.
CITY COUNCIL DISTRICT RACES
OTHER RACES
Click on the candidate’s name to see their videos, collected by Citizen Detroit. Winners in bold.
MAYOR
| Votes | Percent | |
| Articia Bomer | 201 | <1% |
| Angelo Brown | 228 | <1% |
| Edward Dean | 433 | <1% |
| Mike Duggan (i) | 43,535 | 67% |
| Curtis Greene | 307 | <1% |
| Donna Pitts | 528 | <1% |
| DeNetta Simpson | 424 | <1% |
| Coleman Young II | 17,180 | 26% |
“I was surprised by the margin,” says Nancy Kaffer. “I mean I think we all knew that Duggan and Senator Young would advance and I think we all figured that the mayor would have a pretty big win, but that’s a 40-point win. That’s a lot, and I think Senator Young was very optimistic, but that’s going to be really all but impossible to overcome.”
CITY CLERK
| Votes | Percent | |
| Ronald Creswell | 1,209 | 1% |
| Garlin Gilchrist II | 12,307 | 19% |
| Cynthia Johnson | 4,642 | 7% |
| Faustine Onwuneme | 904 | 1% |
| Heaster Wheeler | 8,284 | 13% |
| D. Etta Wilcoxon | 3,067 | 4% |
| Janice Winfrey | 32,196 | 51% |
Regarding the now upcoming race between Janice Winfrey and Garlin Gilchrist II, Keith Owens says “I’m very much looking forward to that race… I think more people expected Heaster Wheeler to be the one… and it was very, very close. Garlin Gilchrist has his experience as a community organizer behind him [so] it could tighten up significantly towards the end. I think it will be a good race.”
CITY COUNCIL AT-LARGE
| Votes | Percent | |
| Janee’ Ayers (i) | 25,763 | 25% |
| Brenda Jones (i) | 46,133 | 45% |
| Beverly Kindle-Walker | 6,597 | 6% |
| Alisa McKinney | 6,188 | 6% |
| Mary Waters | 17,197 | 16% |
“The incumbents won pretty comfortably in each district,” says Pat Bachelor. Kaffer sheds some light on why that might be.
“Among the fourteen percent or so of the Detroiters who voted yesterday,” she says, “they’re satisfied with the leadership that’s in place. We’re returning all but one incumbent through to advance to the general election, most of them with pretty comfortable win spreads there.”
CITY COUNCIL DISTRICT 1
| Votes | Percent | |
| De’Andre Nelson | 1,333 | 11% |
| Tamara Smith | 1,897 | 16% |
| James Tate (i) | 7,855 | 70% |
CITY COUNCIL DISTRICT 2
| Votes | Percent | |
| Linda Bernard | 1,195 | 9% |
| George Cushingberry (i) | 2,501 | 19% |
| Tyra Dear-Williams | 672 | 5% |
| Roy McCalister Jr. | 3,162 | 24% |
| Helena Scott | 2,271 | 17% |
| Virgil Smith | 2,812 | 22% |
“Pretty much everyone got in,” says Keith Owens, “which I think was surprising except for of course George Cushingberry… Though I knew there was some dissatisfaction in that district, I did think that he was going to be among the top two… and that’s significant; he’s been in the game for a long, long time.”
CITY COUNCIL DISTRICT 3
| Votes | Percent | |
| Cedric Banks | 431 | 6% |
| Russ Bellant | 1,178 | 18% |
| Scott Benson (i) | 3,469 | 55% |
| Dennis Green | 605 | 9% |
| Adam Mundy | 491 | 7% |
CITY COUNCIL DISTRICT 4
| Votes | Percent | |
| Ane Bomani | 352 | 4% |
| Jackie Grant | 817 | 11% |
| Latish Johnson | 1,815 | 24% |
| Andre Spivey (i) | 4,264 | 58% |
CITY COUNCIL DISTRICT 5
No primary election held
CITY COUNCIL DISTRICT 6
| Votes | Percent | |
| Tyrone Carter | 1,907 | 33% |
| Raquel Castaneda-Lopez (i) | 3,373 | 59% |
| Felicita Lugo | 411 | 7% |
CITY COUNCIL DISTRICT 7
| Votes | Percent | |
| Gabe Leland (i) | 4,553 | 59% |
| Regina Ross | 1,899 | 24% |
| JoAnna Underwood | 1,217 | 15% |
