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DETROIT (AP) — 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.

Duggan said he felt he could govern more effectively as an independent.

“You have a (state) legislature that’s almost evenly divided that makes the stakes of each issue become magnified,” he said. “It has gotten harder and harder to address things as the partisan climate has gotten more toxic.”

Duggan also could be looking to avoid what is shaping up as a crowded Democratic primary field. Among the potential contenders are Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist III and Genesee County Sheriff Chris Swanson.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who relocated to Michigan in 2022, has also sparked speculation about a potential Democratic gubernatorial bid. When asked by the AP on Nov. 3 about a potential candidacy, Buttigieg left the door open.

On the Republican side, prospective candidates include Michigan Senate Minority Leader Aric Nesbitt, former state Attorney General Mike Cox, former state Rep. Tom Leonard and U.S. Rep. John James. Tudor Dixon, the Republican gubernatorial nominee in 2022, is also considering another run.

Michigan Democratic Party Chair Lavora Barnes said in a statement that the potential Democratic primary field for governor is “incredibly strong” and that the party looks forward to ensuring it holds onto the office. Gov. Whitmer’s office declined to comment Wednesday.

“This changes the dynamic of the campaigns for governor,” said Adolph Mongo, a Detroit-based political commentator and former political consultant. “There have been rumblings from folks that we need a third party, a real one.”

“This is a gutsy move. This is a good move,” Mongo continued. “It hurts the Democratic Party. There’s no question that he is going to take a ton of Democrats with him. It’s also going to free up those moderate Republican who are not buying MAGA.”

Democrat Mark Bernstein, a regent at the University of Michigan, also says running as an independent will allow Duggan “to lead free from partisan entanglements that have paralyzed Lansing for a long time.”

“Voters do not care about political parties. They care about results and Mayor Duggan gets results,” Bernstein said.

“I do believe that many voters, like me, feel homeless, right now,” Bernstein continued. “Many Republicans feel estranged from the Republican Party and many Democrats feel alienated by the Democratic Party.”

Republican and former Michigan Lt. Gov. Brian Calley said on X that Duggan checks the boxes of being a “credible, independent candidate with the ability to raise money.”

“But there are huge advantages of having a political party behind you,” Calley wrote. “And being a target of the left and the right will be intense. 2026 is already very interesting.”

A Duggan run as an independent, while it further fractures a state Democratic Party still reeling from Trump’s win in November, could win over voters looking outside the party for answers.

There is precedent. Then-U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema from Arizona made the move in 2022 to independent. West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin did the same last spring. Several states have elected independent governors since 1990, Duggan noted, including Angus King in Maine, now a U.S. senator.

But an independent has never served as Michigan governor and third-party candidates typically don’t fare well in elections for the state’s top seat. Libertarian Party candidate Mary Buzuma received a scant 0.9% of the vote in 2022.

Duggan must collect between 12,000 and 60,000 signatures from registered Michigan voters, ensuring at least 100 signatures from registered voters in at least seven of the state’s 13 congressional districts.

“If you think the two-party system is serving you well, you can vote for your Republican or Democratic candidate,” Duggan said. “But if you think the only way we can really change the quality of life in Michigan is a different way, I’m going to give people the alternative, an independent who is going to go to Lansing and work with responsible leadership in both parties.”

Last month, Duggan announced that the coming year would be his last as Detroit’s mayor. His current term ends in January 2026. Duggan said he then plans to ”go to communities across the state that have been forgotten and sit in neighborhood restaurants and farmhouses and city centers and listen to people.”

Duggan spent about eight years as chief executive of the Detroit Medical Center. He served three years as Wayne County prosecutor and 14 years as deputy county executive.

He was the top vote-getter in Detroit’s 2013 mayoral primary despite running a write-in campaign due to a ballot challenge. Duggan, who is white, was elected in November 2013 to lead mostly Black Detroit which that summer was taken into the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history by a state-appointed manager.

Long-term debt of $18 billion or more and hundreds of millions of dollars in annual budget deficits left Detroit broke and nearly broken. Crime was high and neighborhood blight was rampant. Unemployment and poverty rates were among the nation’s highest.

Taking office in January 2014, Duggan ran the city but initially had no control over spending. By that December, Detroit had emerged from bankruptcy with about $7 billion in debt erased or restructured.

Over the past decade, Detroit routinely has had balanced city budgets and surpluses. Violent crime is down and neighborhoods mostly are cleaner. Detroit’s population even increased slightly in 2023. It was the first uptick since the 1950s when 1.8 million people called the city home.

Most are securing CBP One appointments to get access into the U.S. at ports of entry such as San Ysidro’s PedWest.

According to attorney Curtis Morrison, who represents hundreds of Russian asylum seekers, the Biden Administration has been denying Russians an opportunity to seek asylum while detaining and deporting them.

“Immigration and Customs Enforcement has made a decision to blanket detain all migrants who are Russian asylum seekers.”

Morrison says this violates a policy called the 2009 Parole Directive.

“They are being subjected to a blanket policy that they are applying to Russian asylum seekers even if there’s nothing Russian about them, they may not even be from Russia, but from a country next to Russia or maybe even speak Russian.”

Morrison added that his clients, and many other Russian nationals, are victims of discrimination.

It’s not what the law is, this is a blanket policy they are applying to people based on their country of origin despite following proper procedures for entering the United States, seeking asylum, and not posing a flight and public safety, or national security risk.”

According to Morrison, most of the Russians are ending up at the Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego or a similar facility in Louisiana.

“You can go to the Border in Tijuana and see who is coming across, you can see they are not all Russians, but when you go to detention facilities, especially in Louisiana, you see the majority of detainees are Russian.”

Morrison says that number is in excess of 50 percent.

“They’re not coming here to cause the U.S. harm, this policy doesn’t make sense and it’s unlawful.”

Since many Russian asylum seekers have left their country as a way to avoid the war with Ukraine, being sent back would be perilous, according to Morrison.

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“They don’t like what Putin is doing and here they show up at our border because they’re trying to escape the same thing we say is wrong so why are we detaining them?”

Morrison expects to be in court early next month for a hearing that will have huge implications for his clients and other migrants who may not be Russian.

“The Biden administration is removing them very quickly back to Russia, they do not want to be forced to participate in an invasion of Ukraine,” he said. “If we lose this, the Trump administration will have new tools at their disposal to mistreat migrants based on their nationality.”