Authentically Detroit
Authentically Detroit is the leading podcast in the city for candid conversations, exchanging progressive ideas, and centering resident perspectives on current events.
Hosted by Donna Givens Davidson and Orlando P. Bailey.
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Authentically Detroit
Black Detroit Democracy Podcast: Detroit’s 2025 Primary Election Results
The Authentically Detroit Podcast Network in collaboration with Detroit One Million presents: The Black Detroit Democracy Podcast, hosted by Donna Givens Davidson and Sam Robinson!
Together, Donna and Sam illuminate the complexities of Detroit’s unique political landscape and give residents a resource for navigating civic engagement and election season.
On this episode they discuss the shocking results of the 2025 primary election where Mary Sheffield received over 50% of the vote and Solomon Kinloch and Saunteel Jenkins battled for second and third place respectively. These results reveal a shift in Detroit politics with surprising outcomes in several city council races, setting up dramatic contests for the November general election.
For more episodes of the Black Detroit Democracy Podcast, click here.
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Speaker 3:Good journalism costs. Visit DetroitOneMillioncom to the Black Detroit Democracy Podcast. Every week, we open this podcast with a reading of the preamble to the Detroit City Charter, read by the one and only Bryce Detroit. The City Charter is our constitution, which defines our rights and the way government should work. I'm Donna Givens-Davidson, president and CEO of the Eastside Community Network.
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Speaker 4:How are you today, sam? I'm good. Donna, how are you? I'm tired. It's been a long however many months it's been that we've been focused on this Detroit mayor's race. We had a municipal election last night. Well, all day we got the results last night and we got some interesting city council general elections coming up in District 7 and District 5. District 2, also pretty interesting. But, of course, topping it off, mary Sheffield. More votes for Mary Sheffield combined than all the other candidates combined. Excuse me, I think that's pretty surprising. I think in my head I was gearing for above 40%, but her competitors were hoping that she would hover around 35. She is sitting at 50.82% as I'm looking at this at 2.39 pm Wednesday August 6th, the day after the election. Donna, are you surprised?
Speaker 3:Pleasantly. I'm a little surprised. I expected Mary to be strong, but she's stronger than I expected her to be. I'll explain why it's pleasant in a few minutes. But first I want to say to my husband, kevin, happy birthday. It's his 65th birthday and so he spent last night with me watching me watch television and you know I'm all into the computer and I feel very fortunate to be married to somebody who supports me in my obsessive passions around politics and doesn't get mad that I can't really pay that much attention. We're going to celebrate tonight because last night was I told him it's like two holidays in a row. Election days are like holidays to me. I get really excited. I don't know when I'm going to open, you know, sort of like Christmas and you have no idea what the gift is going to be.
Speaker 3:Honestly, I was pleasantly surprised because a couple of things happened yesterday. One I really do think that Mary Sheffield has been underestimated and derided in ways that are not fair to her. I saw an article I don't know why I read it by ML Elric when he was talking about. You know, mary Sheffield has been on city council for 12 years and if she had a problem with all those things. Why hasn't she fixed them? And it reminded me of the rhetoric around Kamala Harris when she was running for president and people kept asking her why is vice president? She had not done things that vice presidents don't have the power to do.
Speaker 3:And I'm like is this what happens to black women, where we're accused of not fixing things that we can't.
Speaker 3:So it was a pleasant surprise to me to not have those narratives went out, because I don't think it's fair. I was disappointed in some ways that I thought maybe we'd have two women running against each other and we'd be guaranteed a woman mayor, a black woman mayor. We've never had that and I wanted to see that. But I believe that if we're going to have a black woman mayor, she's going to have to win a large enough percentage at the primary elections that we can prevail moving forward. And so I thought that she was strong enough to stand on her own and, in my opinion, after 12 years of service on city council and I go into it on a Facebook post given everything that she came into city council experiencing and where we are now and she stood and she stayed in the trenches during that time frame and a lot of people dislike and disagree with me, but I do think that anybody who's done that and has continued to lead and represent may have earned their place at the mayor's office.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I mean, and that seems like it is most likely going to be Mary Sheffield in November. Solomon Kinloch is in second place. He earned about a thousand more votes than Santeel Jenkins. That took 16%. Solomon Kinloch took 17%.
Speaker 4:There was a lot of talk Could Santeel break through? I wasn't expecting that. I was almost surprised that Perkins didn't get around 7% or 8% of the vote. That's kind of my expectation. 7 or 8% of the vote that's kind of my expectation. If Triumph Church has 40,000 members and 20,000 of them live in the city of Detroit, not all of them voted for their pastor. And that's an interesting sort of takeaway for me is that you're looking at about 15,000 votes, had about 15,000 votes, and that you know that was a number that I expected. Mary Sheffield and the ground game, that we saw her work. I mean, she was working really hard knocking on doors with Judge Mathis and Taye Crispy all the way up to the end of the to election day on Tuesday. She was going up on Instagram live and we would see her knock on doors and people would come out of their houses and say, oh, I already voted for you, and so the energy certainly to me felt like Mary was a far and away favorite, but I didn't expect it to be this far.
Speaker 3:I think it probably surprised a lot of people. If you supported her, it was a pleasant surprise. If you didn't support her, it was perhaps the opposite. Because I think that I think people thought, like you said, it would candidates Some of the surprises also. I mean, fred Durhall had no traction. All the you know, tens of thousands of dollars invested in him at the last minute by corporate America or corporate Detroit did not, you know, translate into votes. In fact, I believe that Perkins was ahead of him and he is an elected official who comes from a family of elected officials. And it's interesting also because when people talk about Mary Sheffield they say, well, she's running on her family name. Durhall also has a family name and that family name has not translated to that kind of power. I also think that you don't run for positions like the mayor starting in the election year. You run for positions like the mayor in your work leading up to that.
Speaker 3:And I think that there had been enough work in neighborhoods where people saw some of what she was doing as being visible. I'm not going to go on about it. There are flaws that have also been accompanied in her leadership and I know there were a lot of people who were concerned about some of the donors to her campaign and whether that meant she would be beholden, for example, to Crown Enterprises or to Rock Holding and some of the other folks who contributed to her campaign. And you know, time will tell whether that's the truth. In reality, candidates who are near the top of the electoral you know profile are going to get contributions from people who other people dislike, because billionaires are rarely pure. I don't know that you can become a billionaire.
Speaker 4:And they typically donate to either political parties also.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they have, and I think, though, that she got more from some of them. I mean, look, she had the biggest campaign, war chest.
Speaker 4:She did. I mean she had the most flushed out campaign with. I believe she hired the most individuals of any of the campaigns to assist her in door knocking and email blasts and mailers. And obviously I think one of the biggest things that we see and people hear talk about are the billboards. Those billboards on Jefferson are not cheap. She has a few of those and so when you have everything put together and you don't have a candidate that also had everything put together in the same way, you know Solomon, kinloch and Santil did have TV ads. Mary's was paid for by the SEIU. She didn't have to pay for her own campaign ad.
Speaker 4:Who paid for Kinloch's? The 13th paid for Kinloch's ad and obviously that's a dark mess. Jonathan Kinloch and his relationships with national figures in the DNC.
Speaker 3:I mean, you know, the reality is that I don't think campaign ads. Honestly. I don't think the billboards made a huge difference. I don't think the campaign ads made a huge difference.
Speaker 3:I think that people made their decisions based on their impressions of the candidates. Certainly, information that came out impacted people's votes. I remember, before all of this happened, when I heard Solomon Kinloch was getting into the race, I was really excited because he was an outsider and I thought this is a person who has a mega church and access to a whole bunch of talented people and he's going to bring a different point of view and possibly challenge the entrenched forces in the city of Detroit government. But what I saw coming out when we interviewed him, quite honestly, was a candidate who said he was going to run his church and the city and refused to acknowledge that there was any conflict, and I just didn't see how that was, and one of the comments he made I'm not sure if he made it during the interview or afterwards was well, I have enough members where that shouldn't matter, and I thought, wow, that's kind of arrogant.
Speaker 3:The other thing I saw, though, was a lack of specificity around. You know controls, and then I heard I'm running as the people's mayor, and even from the announcement. You know he had an announcement and nobody was allowed to interview him during the announcement. You know, I think you talked to him.
Speaker 3:You were the fortunate person but he was not making himself accessible for a lot of interviews. And then colleague after colleague, friend after friend participated and hosted community forums and he didn't show up. And this idea, oh, I don't need to be there. These people think that I'm supposed to be there, but I'm going to be here for you. And when I raised questions, some of his supporters said I should go to the church and have him explain to me who is not beholden to corporate America. I mean, that would be ideal, but we also don't want a mayor who does not feel beholden or does not feel like he needs to be accountable to the public to the public and that's a question that I heard a lot of.
Speaker 4:Would he first think of his members or the residents of Detroit? I think he answered a few times that his pastoral duties would minimize and he says if time permits, I would go to church on Sunday and if the conditions are correct, I would preach when I'm at church.
Speaker 3:But then why not step down as pastor, Right I?
Speaker 4:guess for the same reason he says as Raphael Warnock, who visited his church earlier this year but did not endorse his mayoral candidacy. I remember a few months ago now, maybe in March or April, I spoke to one of the executive board members on the church that Raphael Warnock is the pastor.
Speaker 3:Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. Yes.
Speaker 4:This man owns a bookstore in Atlanta. I forget the name of the bookstore but he told me. You know, us Senator is a very different role and job than city mayor, which is a 24-7 around the clock job, versus US Senator. Obviously, you know baked into that job is constant travel and you know the sort of statesmanship role of voting yes or no in Congress is very different than making decisions.
Speaker 3:Of course it is. I mean, he's a CEO, a mayor is a chief executive officer, a pastor is a chief executive officer and there's a built-in conflict, whether or not people want to acknowledge that conflict or not. If I'm a member of his church, as chief executive officer I have more political standing than if I'm not a member of that church where he is chief executive officer. If I make contributions to that church I have more influence, right? Because if money in our political system is speech and they say it is, then the easiest way for me to be heard is to donate to the church. It is then the easiest way for me to be heard is to donate to the church.
Speaker 3:Not being willing to acknowledge or even resolve that conflict concerns me quite honestly, because I don't think that there should be a place where you are taking accountability for the well-being of an institution. I'm saying this as a chief executive officer, right? I can't also be a chief executive officer of another entity that is in competition with me, being a chief executive officer of ECN. Ecn has to be my loyalty. That's where my loyalty has to be, you know, sit. And so if, for example, I'm a chief executive officer of ECN and a chief executive officer of a church and somebody wants a job here, maybe they should join my church and that gets them into here. Right, there's this built-in preferential treatment that, even if people say it doesn't exist, does exist. That's where I saw the issue, yeah.
Speaker 4:I will agree with you that I did not hear a clear answer to that question. It seems really clear to me that what you're saying has complete merit, but, no, I think the UAW push is certainly boosted, renata Miller, but how will this race change going into the general election heading into November, where I do think what you're talking about the feelings that you had early on when Kinloch announced that he was running as an outsider? Will he bring some of that rhetoric back?
Speaker 3:I think the rhetoric is going to be there and I think there's going to be a whole lot of ugliness.
Speaker 4:I think so too yeah.
Speaker 3:I read some of what Wayne County executive Warren Evans had to say and, quite honestly, it was disappointing. I think he says we had our, we have our horse and we're going to ride it. It was something. Whatever it was it.
Speaker 3:You know this is a sitting, you know politician, who has made no bones. I mean, you remember when the 13th congressional district race was being carried out not this last race, but the one before that where he and a bunch of men got together and decided that Adam Ollier was going to be the person that Detroiters supported and said let's not, you know, break ranks. Everybody support this person and it feels very masculine, it feels very exclusing. Why is this your position? I can see taking a more balanced position, but I feel as though, if I were a campaign advisor, I would encourage a more diplomatic response.
Speaker 3:I don't know that people like this kind of show of power that you're seeing at the federal level happening at the city level, where people just say and then the final thing I want to say about this because there's some other races that are really exciting, right, but the final thing I want to say about this is, if I disagree that you should not be pastor and mayor, that doesn't mean I don't love God and it doesn't mean that I am biased against pastors serving in elected roles.
Speaker 3:I just don't think you should do both at the same time, right? So I think that there's this suggestion that we don't want Christianity in there, and all of this, and it makes me kind of worried about other people of other faiths. Does that mean that if I am atheist, if I'm Muslim, if I am Hindu, do my values count? You know so the separation has to exist, not that the person does not have a religious belief system that's strong, or even a history of being a religious leader or a faith leader, but understanding the conflict that people see and not turning it around to. Do you believe in God? As the response is kind of an important thing for me.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I won't disagree with you. I think I'm ready for the Facebook comments to cease on. You know the oh you're this because of this. I mean I watch. Malachi and I were looking at each other in disbelief as we watched Corletta Vaughn pray against Mary Sheffield's enemies. I told Malachi walking out of the church I've never seen anybody pray against someone before. That's interesting.
Speaker 3:So yeah, the religious Tell me about that. What is the context it?
Speaker 4:was. You know they're praying over Mary and it just got fiery. It got. You know, campaign speech got into prayer and you know we heard about, you know, chewing away the strategy of the enemy and rivals and everything. It was just interesting and I think it is interesting as we go forward. Obviously, horace Sheffield, mary's father, is a pastor and Dabo has wielded some influence and I would imagine what is their role under a Mary Sheffield mayorship.
Speaker 3:Mary Sheffield has a father and we know who he is. If you live in Detroit, you know who he is. He wasn't standing on stage with her. Her grandmother was.
Speaker 3:I went to an event and I saw her grandmother before and I saw her speaking of her mother before looking down on heaven, and in her presence she's acknowledged both her mother. This is her mother's and you know she's. Whenever in her presence she's acknowledged both her mother. This is her mother's mother, by the way, not her father's mother, who was standing there on stage. She acknowledged her aunt and then she said something that I thought was really interesting. She said I love you, dad. Nobody will ever turn me against my father, and I thought that's interesting. He's not on stage and she's saying that. So I don't know whether or not there are intimations that she should reject her father, and I don't think that's a fair expectation. But I do think that it's important that people know that there's a firewall between her office and her father, that he is not controlling her, and that's a perception a lot of people have, and because some people distrust him, they also distrust her.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I think evidence of that is Neera Jowark, who, one of the free press reporters, retweeted a video of Mary at a Bernie Sanders rally. I would imagine Horace at the time was strongly supporting Joe Biden. Yeah, yeah, mary is going to get a lot of attacks. The one that is not going to be quite fair is the one against her before being too progressive. She has, you know, I think, in necessity to sort of calm the business community, she has stood alone in votes against the district Detroit most recently I think that was in 2023.
Speaker 4:And has spoken openly about the fact that residents deserve their fair share, that she is pro-business but not at the convenience of not giving residents benefits out of these large scale development projects, and we can point to a number of large development projects that have been promised to come along with residential and and mixed use. You know business ground level. You see the renderings. Um, you know Mary has been open about that. So when you know you, so you're probably going to see some conservative hit pieces against her on that. Malachi and I have both asked her. I think Malachi asked do you label yourself politically? Mary has always said no, I don't see myself as a quote unquote progressive or a moderate or this or that, but I do think her own personal politic differs from her father's in a way that is probably pretty typical of a 38 year old millennial, and however old Horace is.
Speaker 3:I absolutely was going to say that. I mean, listen, most of us wish, sometimes have wished that we could get our children to agree with us on many issues, right? The great thing about millennials and Gen Zers is y'all are unafraid to disagree. That doesn't mean you don't love your parents. It doesn't mean that you don't honor and you have not been influenced by them.
Speaker 3:Mary Sheffield is a very good politician. She became a city council person at 26. She became the city council president at 34, I believe that's unprecedented. Those are strong political skills. And one thing I'll say about really good politicians is they know how to make deals. They know how to sometimes fudge.
Speaker 3:You can't expect them to have the same level of purity as you do in your advocacy role Because they are in a position where they're balancing decision making and I haven't seen. You know people love Coleman Young, but Coleman Young did Polet. Know people love Coleman Young but Coleman Young did Poletown. People love Coleman Young, but Coleman Young brought the incinerator to the East Side and he did many great things. But he also did Poletown and a lot of people who have almost political amnesia that the same person they revere for upholding the rights of Detroit citizens also at times violated those rights.
Speaker 3:And I say that to say there is a role for a politician and there's a role for us, and those are two separate things. My job, as I see it, is to advocate on behalf of my community and to fight for those things that I think are important. Because whoever gets elected I don't care who they are, to whatever position, as soon as they are elected, people who empower people with money, who are against them, are now for them, making offers, offering them money, trying to get them to take jobs and hire the people they want and adopt the positions they want. And if we fall asleep after the election, even if we support somebody, then what we do is we give those people more voice, more. Even if we support somebody, then what we do is we give those people more voice, more opportunity and more power than they should have.
Speaker 3:So we are not once again electing friends. We are electing people who we believe we can have some influence over, who are best aligned with our thinking. But you know what? All of those of us who are part of social justice movements and the real progressive causes, we have to acknowledge the fact that our people are not running for the mayor's office. Now we do have somebody who's running for city council. We do, and oh my goodness, I'm so excited. I was like in Pensanito.
Speaker 4:I want to talk about this. I want to say, too, one thing to cap. My last point Mary will not be afraid to break away from the progressive you know, grassroots folks that are going to elect her. I mean, we just saw it last week where she's voting for you know stricter curfews. That's something that Gabby Santiago Romero stood alone, and Denzel McCampbell if he was on city council, I'm sure he would have joined Gabby in voting against.
Speaker 3:That's why we need a strong city council.
Speaker 4:And so it's interesting. I think a lot of credit is, you know, deserved. She's going to get a lot of credit. I think the people that I've worked with who came from Chicago, Illinois or Atlanta, Georgia, or Kamala Harris's campaign in Michigan, that I've worked with on Mary's campaign that's a black-led firm leading her campaign and certainly her 98.
Speaker 3:Forward.
Speaker 4:Yeah, 98, I was forgetting the name of the firm, 98 Forward. And that's kind of interesting when you think of 12 years of Duggan and what he's been able to do 98 Fort is interesting, right, because it is Marilyn.
Speaker 3:I can't think of her last name Marilyn Horn and George LM Yearhead. George LM Yearhead formed another company I can't think of the name of this company with Bob Berg. Berg-muirhead was the name of it. I guess't think of the name of this company with Bob Berg. Berg Muirhead was the name of it. I guess that's the easy way. Bob Berg was Coleman Young's person voice. He was over his campaigns and so moving forward. These are Coleman Young. This is like a new generation.
Speaker 4:And when you hear Horace say 10 years ago we need a Coleman Young-like, I just I can't help but think you know.
Speaker 3:I mean people have been saying that ever since Coleman Young stepped down right and the good mayors have said I mean even you know Duggan hired a lot of Coleman Young lieutenants. Do you think Mary sees herself?
Speaker 4:Do you think she?
Speaker 3:lays that at all.
Speaker 4:I would tell you. When I was at the Michigan Freedom Fund Betsy DeVos, charlie LaDuff Forum, when Charlie and Mary were going back, I just couldn't help but think Charlie sees Coleman, young and Mary.
Speaker 3:I think a lot of people may see it. She's from the city, she's lived in the city, she represents the city, she's politically astute. But Mary and I don't know how to explain this this is 2025. Coleman Young became mayor in 1974. It was a completely different Detroit. Coleman Young. Supporters were different, the economy was different. He came of age when he was fighting things that you no longer have to fight, or things that we didn't know we had to fight. Mary Sheffield actually, if she is elected, will be coming into power at a time that is somewhat similar, though, because at that time, you had the withdrawal of support from the state, from the federal government. You had the withdrawal of support from a whole lot of corporations, and so he had to figure out how to lead a city that was losing power, losing population, lead a city that was losing power, losing population. Mary Sheffield has to, if she becomes mayor or if Kinloch becomes mayor, whichever one is going to reside over a city where the federal government is actually looking at the city as what he calls a garbage city or something like that. He does not see Detroit as a value constituency, and so she's going to have to figure out how to lead in the face of not just indifference but perhaps hostility.
Speaker 3:When Coleman Young became mayor, jimmy Carter had not yet been elected. Richard Nixon was the president of the United States and, it's safe to say, richard Nixon did not love us. When Jimmy Carter became mayor, after Richard Nixon, jimmy Carter and Coleman Young formed a close alliance. He hired a lot of Coleman Young's top lieutenants and you know he changed the whole thing and then he was a one-term president. And then you had Ronald Reagan. And I remember when Coleman Young famously called Ronald Reagan old prune face, coleman Young famously called Ronald Reagan old prune face. Let's just say Ronald Reagan did not love Detroit. In many ways Detroit lost prestige and some people blamed him for being old prune face. But it's a different world now and the people who were your age and the age of millennials in those days were dealing with different pressures, had different political philosophies than the people who are your age today.
Speaker 3:I think that Mary Sheffield has a more common touch when it comes to connecting with a lot of those people, a lot of younger people. I think that she is more recognizable. I think that she is more connected. She is more recognizable. I think that she is more connected and then you see the kind of marginalization of political elites. There are many, many, many, many people who I love dearly, friends of mine, who did not think Mary was ready for the job. They said she was not mature enough. They cited experience, they cite her temperament and this idea that Santill Jenkins was going to bring more of a classy role. But I think she possibly is a politician for a different era than we%. Just under 17% of the electorate show up this time. But I want to compare that. I wonder how that compares to the primary four years ago. Do you know?
Speaker 4:What's that?
Speaker 3:The primary four years ago. How does the primary turn out this year?
Speaker 4:I had all the numbers opened up and I just exited out I believe we did a little bit worse.
Speaker 3:We did worse than the primary a couple years ago.
Speaker 4:In 2021.
Speaker 3:Oh wow, that's a surprise to me, because I thought that the general election in 2021 was about that number, but you can give me the accurate numbers.
Speaker 4:I'll come back and get that. In the meantime, let's talk about Denzel McCampbell in District 7.
Speaker 3:Yes, I'm so excited.
Speaker 4:I can't believe he won. I mean, I'm not surprised he spent 100 or not spent. He raised $123,000. That was far more than any city council candidate. He's going up against Karen Witsett, who, of course, broke with Democrats in 2024 during the lame duck session. That was the end of democratic control of Lansing.
Speaker 3:She didn't break with it. She shut down the lame duck session.
Speaker 4:She did yes.
Speaker 3:To break is to vote against something and have a dissenting vote. But she did what Texas Democrats have done she boycotted and she stopped them. She left she left, and so that was different right.
Speaker 4:Joe could have uh, arrested her. It shows not to Um district seven uh, 34% to 33%. Regina Ross Um, at this point, regina, you know she's come close and she wasn't close this time. Um, bobby Johnson, she's come close and she wasn't close this time. Bobby Johnson 6%. Regina had 25%. She got 2,400 votes, almost 10,000 votes in the District 7 race. In total, denzel and Karen, I mean that's a compelling race, right. I mean that's almost the shades of what it means to sort of be a Democrat in 2025. Two individuals that have real criticisms of their own party for very different reasons, polar opposite ends on the political spectrum. Karen, I think the best way to describe her would be sort of an independent Democrat or a moderate Republican-leaning.
Speaker 4:Democrat or conservative Democrat, or even a dino what would you call her?
Speaker 3:I mean, you know, I think that you always have these spoilers, sissima, and who's the guy from West Virginia? I can't think of his name. Manchin Manchin. Name Manchin Manchin, joe Manchin, she's a Michigan Manchin, right? Yes?
Speaker 4:she is. She voted against abortion provisions within legislation to codify it.
Speaker 3:But she actively worked to undermine the party and there were a number of things at risk. It wasn't just the party, it was community violence, intervention, it was water affordability. Let's name what she was undermining. She was not just undermining a political party, she was undermining causes that this party was promoting and she was using explanations for the don't hold water. So if somebody just disagrees politically, it may irritate me. What she did caused permanent harm because now you have a new party coming in and the new party coming into the House is not going to adopt any of those things that so many progressives that work so hard to put in front of people.
Speaker 3:And yes, there are legitimate criticisms against Joe Tate, but she was not harming Joe Tate. She harmed community violence intervention, she harmed water affordability and many other causes and I think she should be held accountable for that by voters. I think that sometimes there's this tendency to sort of hold the punches and I think we've got to punch hard. If you believe in those things, if you believe people should have access to water that's affordable, you cannot agree that it was okay for her to stop those bills from passing, based on some political philosophy that did not make sense to most voters, nor did they reflect the will of her people. So for me, if Denzel and Tom McCampbell was not running, I would have supported Regina Ross, even though I don't run in that district. But then you have Denzel, who is more than just a progressive. He's a really good person to me.
Speaker 4:He's a member of the Democratic Socialists of America Detroit branch. Dues-paying member.
Speaker 3:But let's talk about Denzel the human being, Because we're not electing parties, we're electing human beings. Detroit has a nonpartisan election process. Who is Denzel? I think Denzel is a person who has principle, has a great number of ideals, he's measured, he's thoughtful and the reason he was able to raise that money is not because of his association although I'm sure that contributed it's because of his person. I went to a fundraiser and I'm going to go on record and disclose. I gave him money and I don't live in District 7 just because I think we need that kind of leader sitting on city council.
Speaker 4:The Working Families Party says it knocked over 9,000 doors on behalf of Denzel McCampbell. Certainly Democratic Socialists of America, across America, helped fund his campaign committee to $123,000. That was the most of any council candidate. Karen Whitsett last week told me that of the conversations that her staff had while phone banking, 61% of them told me that they were going to vote for her. So I was pretty confident that that Karen would make it through to the primary. Um, I did have concerns that, perhaps because of the media coverage surrounding her that you know it could be Regina and Denzel. But she has built those relationships in district seven and I guess, uh, let me ask you, why is it that you know, in a District 7 that is so Democratic? When I ask Karen, why don't you just become a Republican? She says because my district isn't going for that. Why is it that she sort of continues to get the support that she does?
Speaker 3:Because people vote for names that they know. They vote for people they know People may like her personally. People are not aware of the policies. In a lot of instances People don't read the news. A lot of people do disagree with the Democratic Party and being against the Democratic Party is a popular thing. I think more significant.
Speaker 3:While being a Democrat also While being a Democrat. But it's okay because that's what people like. A lot of people say. You know, I'm mad at Democrats and I'm mad at Democrats in a lot of instances. But I'm not mad at Democrats because they don't behave more like Republicans. I'm mad at Democrats because they don't behave more like people who stand for justice.
Speaker 3:I think for me, let's get away from political labels, right? A Democrat can mean just about anything right now. Republicans mean one thing, right MAGA right now. But Democrats cover a lot of things. I think you kind of pointed that out. I think, for me, what does a person stand for and how will they represent the community? I think more surprising than Karen Witt said, who is a two-term state legislator coming in second in her own precinct, is the fact that Denzel McCampbell, who's never been elected to anything, came in first. He started out the race. I watched it all evening. It started out, he had a big advantage and all of a sudden he had a big disadvantage and I was really dismayed. And slowly, slowly, slowly he closed the gap and at the last minute he overtook her and it was a real pleasant surprise to me to see him prevail like that.
Speaker 4:I was surprised to see him get the nod above Regina Ross for the endorsement for the Black Slate. Candia Milton is the president of that organization. He told me, with the Black Slate being a grassroots-born political action group that dates back to the 1950s, a person in community the way that Mr McCampbell has been in community is really a throwback. He's taken the modern-day practices and applied it to grassroots organizing without abandoning the traditional organizing efforts. Since the 1950s, community outreach has been central to who we are and McCampbell represents that. Mccampbell told me last night that his campaign centered neighborhoods and the well-being of every family. He said that every resident deserves a city council member and city government who will show up day in and day out for them and fight for their interests and needs. Whitsett told me my record speaks for itself and who I put first. She said God and community.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah. So when you start with God-.
Speaker 4:It's going to be quite the race when you start with God I'm so excited.
Speaker 3:Well, I'm really hoping he wins. I'm probably not as neutral as you are when you start with God. I just think, like I said, denzel is beyond the political party. He is a good person and I think that the reason he was endorsed by just about everybody who made endorsements is because of who he is and we need to recognize that because there's very few people.
Speaker 4:The 13th endorsed Regina.
Speaker 3:Oh, okay, regina and Kinloch, but he got endorsements from almost everybody, and the reason he got those endorsements is because of his person. And you know, when Coleman Young became mayor of Detroit going back to, if we want to go back to the throwback, it was never because he was a Democrat, it was always because of what he stood for, what he did, and I think that is what Candia Milton was referring to when he talked about supporting. Is that that old fashioned? I care about the people in my neighborhood politics and I'm going to put them first. I think candidates who embrace that are going to win in this election cycle, because I think people want to feel represented, and so what a win for a person who is humble, who is caring and who does the hard work. When the working family party was out there knocking doors, he was right there with them, knocking with them. Again, I went to one of his campaign events. We have a couple other council races though, so let's talk about those we do.
Speaker 4:Yeah, District 5 is going to be really interesting. Renata Miller is a UAW-backed candidate. She really went hard on the streets. Her ground game was far and above every other candidate she has a vocal group of opposers. I think we're going to learn more about that in the next few weeks. Her role as the historic Indian Village Association president has been under scrutiny by her neighbors.
Speaker 3:Oh, wow.
Speaker 4:Yeah, who say that they're going to take her to court over actions that she did as president. I've spoken to Renata about this. I think once the sort of court episode plays out, we're going to be able to find out a little bit more. There was a person in the neighborhood that was running an Airbnb illegally out of their garage and she felt it was appropriate to use funds for the Neighborhood Association to eliminate that. So she feels To eliminate what? To eliminate the person that was running the Airbnb out of their garage, to stop him.
Speaker 3:Well, I mean, I think that we have to look at public policy. I don't know enough about that fight. It would be very interesting to hear from somebody without knowing more.
Speaker 4:Oh, we're going to find out more. We are going to find out more.
Speaker 3:I don't know that Indian Village is a community that has enough residents to really lead that. So I think that the real question is you're going to be choosing between Renata Miller and Willie Burton, who has his own level of controversy.
Speaker 4:He does.
Speaker 3:Neither of them are without controversy.
Speaker 4:Right, Willie Burton is the fiery board of police commissioner who I think a lot of people feel like he has really good ideas and they agree with his policy positions. But I've heard from some of his supporters who feel like Willie has let them down in terms of the way he's gone about some of the Board of Police Commissioner issues that we should all be covering more. That I'm certainly not.
Speaker 3:I mean, we can all agree that somebody has the right stance. But the question is again when we're electing people into political roles, how effective are they at moving a political process or belief system forward? Are you going to shed more heat than light?
Speaker 4:And he has not been very successful in carrying on the anti-surveillance message throughout the city of Detroit or the police department. Obviously, green light is still touted as this. Major success and I think that's one of the things that Willie Burton is very passionate about is surveillance and sort of the opposition to the advancement of police technology.
Speaker 3:And also he has criticized a number of things on the Board of Police Commission. What I remember is them muzzling him. Yes, what I remember is a lot of accusations going back and forth. And we do need a city council that is willing to stand up and be fiery and make demands on the mayor, whoever the mayor is Right, because the mayor is the executive. Make demands on the mayor whoever the mayor is right, because the mayor is the executive. And that's why we have two branches of government elected to lead the city, in addition to our judiciary that's elected separately. Right. That's why you have a mayor and a council, because you do need that tension.
Speaker 3:I don't like it when everybody gets along, because I think that you're supposed to have this balance of power, and under Coleman Young he had that City council, was not in his pocket and I think it kept him more honest than it would have, because the mayor has power, and when they say power corrupts absolute, power corrupts absolutely. However, I don't know if Willie Burton is the person for it. I've met Renata Miller one time when she was campaigning, not at my house, I was at my daughter's house and I was leaving. My grandson had just been born and she stopped and we talked for a while and she shared her perspectives and so let's say she ventured far outside of her neighborhood. She was, you know, on the West side, and I thought that she was a nice person. I've met Esther Hoggabook. I think she's a nice person. I've met Esther Hoggabook. I think she's a nice person. I know personally George Adams and I think he's a nice person. But the contest right now is between and I've met Willie Burton and he seemed nice enough- he is nice.
Speaker 4:I like Willie, I like him.
Speaker 3:Yeah, he's a nice guy, I like him.
Speaker 4:He's no less nice than any of the other people that you just named.
Speaker 3:But I'm not certain and I need evidence that he can lead, and I live in the 5th District, so I need evidence that he can actually lead with his voice, and his voice can be influential. Some people are just better in the community fighting and we have to understand what our gifts are, and I don't know if that's his gift.
Speaker 4:I will tell you that Willie is a fighter, renata is also a fighter. You that um willie is a fighter, we're not is also a fighter. I I believe that renata has in her um and I saw it through her ability to campaign. I mean, she had the most yard signs, she knocked on the most doors, she made the most phone calls um esther hogabook. A lot of people thought that she was quoting and this is somebody else's quote, not me, the adult in the room. If you square her with Tijana Jackson, the much younger I think, tijana is 31 or 32. Both of them women earning above 15% in that race. Let me go back to the results and see exactly. I think Tijana received a few hundred less votes than Esther Hagebuch. Yeah, so Esther received 2,364. Tijana received 2,075 votes. If one of those candidates does not exist in this race, you may be looking at a Tijana Jackson or Esther Hagebuch in the primary there with Renata Miller.
Speaker 3:What do you mean if one of these candidates does not exist?
Speaker 4:I'm just like if one of these candidates doesn't exist. I do think, based on the conversations that I had with voters who were considering who they're going to vote for, I think they interestingly had sort of an overlap in their for I think they interestingly had sort of an overlap in their voters.
Speaker 3:I see what you're saying, that they canceled each other out to some extent. I see what you're saying.
Speaker 4:It's very interesting they weren't very similar. I guess Both are smart, Both are women.
Speaker 3:One is a lot younger than the other.
Speaker 4:Yes, Arden Park neighborhood association president, that's Tijana Jackson. Esther Hogbook works currently at HUD Right.
Speaker 3:And Esther is closer to my age. Renata is definitely either millennial or Gen Z.
Speaker 4:Yeah, she's millennial, yeah.
Speaker 3:So you have a big age gap there. I think they're both. Like I said, there's nice people here. I think for me it is who can move an agenda forward. What do you stand for? But you know, listen, we have strong candidates in District 5. I'm disappointed, perhaps, that some of the others did not move forward. Let's talk about some of the other council races.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I mean we got District 2 to talk about over there with Helena Scott just laying an egg. I was honestly not surprised because when I would talk to Helena about it I was left like do you really even want this?
Speaker 3:Well, I mean you have a sitting city council person, angela Whitfield Calloway, who is another person who you know kind of is a very outspoken person.
Speaker 4:And people like it. And I told that to Helena once and she was like do they Sam? And I'm like, yeah, they like her. She goes viral on my Twitter every time I tweet her out.
Speaker 3:And then you have Roy McAllister, who was preceded her, and she unseated Roy McAllister, and so Helena was running in a district where you had an incumbent and a just prior incumbent and she was beat out by both of them.
Speaker 4:And it's so interesting, this district too, where you have 16,000 total votes. I think that's the highest voting precinct.
Speaker 3:Almost 17,000, yeah.
Speaker 4:Excuse me, the highest voting council district.
Speaker 3:Well, you know why.
Speaker 4:Well, it's probably the wealthiest and highest taxpaying council district. Yes, palmer Woods, those are in Sherwood Forest and.
Speaker 3:University District and Bagley Community. I mean, you have a pretty prestigious community that you are representing and so the interesting thing to me about Angela Whitfield Calloway is that she's probably more progressive than Roy, she's one of the most progressive members on city council.
Speaker 4:And yet she's, you know, and I will say her progressivism, if you could even call it. That is not you know the sort of what did you guys just say limousine liberal before we walked in. It's not, you know, very progressive like Elizabeth Warren. It's not even progressive in the Zoran way, it's more. It's like Detroit progressive. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Detroit is a conservative city. Can we talk about the fact that Detroit is majority black city, majority democratic city? But it is religious, conservative, controlled, and so we are not going to be pro women's rights, we're not going to be going too far in reproductive freedoms, we're not going to be going too far in LGBTQ freedoms or environmental justice. We are for. The things that Detroiters get really excited about is economic inclusion. So it's like economic inclusion, sometimes affordable housing. She's actually gone strong against micro studios and studio apartments and said we need more family housing.
Speaker 4:The solar farms issue too. I mean she will oppose contracts with out of town businesses and ask why don't we have a Detroit business taking on this city contract you know whether it's that or opposing Bedrock's plan to redevelop the Renaissance Center. She often will stand in Duggan's way on issues, no matter if she's standing alone. She often does.
Speaker 3:And unafraid to stand alone. So people say she's, you know, they marginalize her voice.
Speaker 4:She's probably the. You know. Her and Mary are some of the loudest voices on council still advocating for restitution over the $600 million in tax overassessment. She is still somebody that says what can we do? And tax over-assessment she is still somebody that says what can we do. She asks her colleagues and will constantly remind folks at city council that if this were to happen in any other community, they would probably get some institution.
Speaker 3:I'm going to say this I met her for the first time when I was at the Mackinac Policy Conference and learned then that she follows me on Facebook and she likes all of my radical ideas I'm sure ideas. So she's Detroit progressive, but she also actually identifies with a lot of the values that I have espoused, and that was a big surprise to me. She introduced me to her daughter and said oh, this is Donna and Sydney is also.
Speaker 4:I mean, that is a person that is a true progressive right. I mean Sydney is a Gen Z. Her daughter has a role on Detroit's reparations task force, but I think as we move into the general election with Mary, Sheffield.
Speaker 3:We were trying to get her on this show, weren't we? Yeah, we were.
Speaker 4:Yeah, come on down Sidney. You're still very welcome to come on, and she wanted to come on with her daughter.
Speaker 3:So I think we can get them both too to me, because what it speaks to me to is something that's very near and dear to me is a mother who actually listens to her children, because none of us.
Speaker 3:I mean, I don't know how old she is, but I would say that she's within 10 years of myself, plus or minus. I don't track that, but people who are plus or minus my age in this general group of 50 and up right are plus or minus my age in this general group of 50 and up right, people who are part of this age group. We were raised in a different world and that's what I mean about Mary Sheffield and the politics of Santil Jenkins is that we were raised in a different world and our politics were different. The extent to which I'm more like my millennial children means that I had to shift with them because I had old style politics and old style political beliefs, because that's what we were birthed into, and I think that it's perhaps possible that Angela Whitfield Calloway has also shifted with her daughter. She's listened and learned, and the fact that she includes her in her administration and travels with her speaks volumes to me of her as a potential leader. I don't know that Roy McAllister has that same willingness to hear from younger generations.
Speaker 4:I will say that he is a listener, okay.
Speaker 3:I don't know him.
Speaker 4:I spoke to McAllister at length at the Michigan Democratic Convention. I also spoke to him up on Livernois for an Avenue of Fashion event. I've spoke to him up on Livernois for an Avenue of Fashion event. I've spoken to him recently at a candidate forum I believe that Bridge Detroit hosted, and he is a big champion of mental health investment. He feels like that's his top issue. Every time you talk to him he's championing something that he is doing related to men's mental health particularly. That's his issue that he's passionate about.
Speaker 4:There's a lot of people that really like Roy, but we'll see going into November what it looks like after the 4th of November. We're going to do this all over again and this is going to be so exciting Because I really don't. I'll be honest with you guys. I don't know. I think it's a toss-up between Willie Burton and Renata Miller and five, I think it's a toss-up between Denzel McCampbell and Karen Witsett. In seven and two is the race that I have spoken to the least amount of voters in, race that I have spoken to the least amount of voters in, and so I got to do a little bit more work to find out.
Speaker 3:In district two, yeah, I think that'll be interesting. I think also at large. I mean at large is sort of like it was anticlimactic right.
Speaker 4:It was. You know. We figured that Marion Coleman would come out obviously the top four in this race.
Speaker 3:Move on to the general election, but the gap between them and everybody else is very large.
Speaker 4:Yes, I mean. James Harris received 10,000 votes 10,647. That's good for 7%. Janae Ayers received 20,000 votes. She doubled James Harris's number. James Harris I believe this is the first time that he is appearing on a ballot and so if I'm James Harris, I think I had a pretty good turnout. Shaquire Lynn Hawkins has been around the city. People know her. Gary Hunter everyone knows her.
Speaker 3:She ran for 13th and she was forced to step down from the city's law department.
Speaker 4:Yes.
Speaker 3:When she ran for 13th in the last cycle.
Speaker 4:LaVon Adams. So if I'm James Harris, I'm really proud to have gone to the general election, no matter how much I lose by on November 4, because that's certainly what I would expect, I think, with Coleman Young and with Mary Waters.
Speaker 3:it speaks to the power of incumbency.
Speaker 4:And it speaks to the power of seniors in Detroit. Mary goes hard on getting seniors downtown, comfortable living situations and affordable housing. She agrees with those seniors. When I go to these polling locations at the United Methodist Church while the Tigers are having a game at Comerica Park and they tell me you know, they're trying to push us out of downtown. It's so interesting because in the downtown Detroit that's the one percent of the city. Right, you see the new detroit. The people that moved here in 2021 from st claire shores or from lansing or from kalamazoo. They're 30 years old and they'll work for the city and they live right across the street from the building where this woman, mary perry, who's a long-time poll worker, election worker uh, the people that were in the precinct when I walked in voting and also working alongside miss perry, credited her in getting them out to the polls and talking about how much downtown has changed from when they moved downtown 20 years ago. And it was all subsidized and rent stabilized, housing targeted towards seniors and section eight.
Speaker 4:And now, you know, because of rising rents, they're being pushed out gentrification you see, yes, and you see it playing out at these polling locations where I'm talking to. You know this young couple who you know. I'm sure their parents own a house, or maybe even a cabin up north and they're downtown right next to Mary Perry and her friends both voting. It's just interesting to me, the microcosm of the changing Detroit, seeing each other passing by each other at the polling locations. And Mary.
Speaker 4:Perry, kind of snickering and being like, yeah, those are the people, as she's talking about the judgment, and perhaps these people in there agree with Mary Perry kind of snickering and being like, yeah, those are the people, as she's talking about the gentrification, and perhaps these people in there agree with Mary Perry that, yes, we need to. As a gentrifier downtown Detroit, working for the city, a liberal Democrat these two individuals I won't name them, but one said that they voted for Todd Perkins. The other said they voted for Santil Jenkins. As they walk out, mary Perry is like yeah, that's them. Who, jenkins? As they walk out, you know Mary Perry's like yeah that's them.
Speaker 3:Who did Mary Perry vote?
Speaker 4:for I didn't ask her. She wasn't saying she wouldn't tell me. I think I did ask her. She wouldn't say.
Speaker 3:We were. I took some interns on a tour of the East Side earlier this week and so one of them lived in the area in the Hans Whitlands area, we'll say and so we're touring over there, and we just happened to go down Fisher Street and that might be the most interesting tour I've done in a while. We actually looked at the little village area, the church that Tony Curis has redeveloped, Fisher. Street. Look at that new housing. Have you been down, fisher? Yeah, oh yeah at that new housing.
Speaker 4:Have you been down, fisher? Yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 3:Recently.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 3:It's amazing to me how quickly it's transformed all of this new single-family housing probably the most single-family housing anywhere in Detroit except for Corktown and the housing is very similar to Corktown housing.
Speaker 3:It looks like you have shipping container homes, you have the single family homes and the prices are really high.
Speaker 3:So as we're driving down the street, I'm noticing something A couple of Mary Sheffield signs and then a couple of Kenlock signs and so I took my husband through there last night so we could look around and I saw this white couple senior citizens sitting on the porch and I was like, wow, they look wealthy, they're sitting on the porch of this new home.
Speaker 3:This is not something you would normally see in a block like this in the city of Detroit, and I wonder to what extent some of the Solomon Kinloch votes were actually votes in protest to what they see as gentrification and the erasure of their history, Because now, instead of it being called East Village, now you're hearing terms like Little Village, describing a community that is a historic community, and right on one of the blocks you see this project or this investment that we funded at ECN through a fellowship program for a couple senior citizens in the community who are leaders in the community where there's a big sign that says East Village Neighborhood Association and yet the moniker that's now being passed around is Little Village.
Speaker 3:So I see that as another example of conflicting politics and the impact of gentrification in a community. And the final thing I want to say about that is Detroit gentrification is not necessarily like gentrification in other cities in the same right, Because a lot of the people, or some of the people moving onto Fisher Street are indeed black people with more wealth. Because you have black people, sometimes displacing black people, then you have a masking of gentrification.
Speaker 4:And what I mean. It's social economic segregation.
Speaker 4:It is I mean, it's just like it plays out in Michigan, in Detroit, but in Michigan, right, all of the state, in every city. You see what I just you know, it's just people sticking to. And now you know, when I went to high school, the other high school, the opposite high school in Midland, was completely economically segregated. It was upper middle class, wealthy people going to one high school and then the quote unquote, you know middle class, which was still upper middle class in Midland, and then you'd have some low income people at the opposite high school, some low-income people at the opposite high school. It plays out in every bus ride that I went to, across the Saginaw Valley League to go to a sporting event. You'd see, just, I mean you see it.
Speaker 3:We have social economic segregation in our state and a lot of times it's racial.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 3:But a lot of times in urban centers.
Speaker 4:We have racial segregation in our state also.
Speaker 3:We do, but a lot of times in urban centers we have racial segregation. In our state also, we do, but a lot of times you have black elites and white elites displacing poor folks and so it's masking. There was a report done about gentrification. They said well, gentrification isn't happening in Detroit because you don't see white people replacing black people in the same large numbers, because that's how they define it, and I just think it's important that we look differently, because there's a lot of communities with black elites which are still operating separately and apart from poor folks in our community. The other thing I wanted to say, and I want to return briefly to the Renata Miller conversation right, yeah, and Indian Village and the Airbnb.
Speaker 3:Airbnbs are one of the worst signals of gentrification. Yeah, and one of the worst. You know. Let's see perpetrators of gentrification in our nation right now, where entire communities are made unaffordable because it's so much more profitable to rent by the day and have those short-term rentals. So it would be interesting to learn more about that. Let's follow that and figure out what that means and whether or not we see that. What is her rationale for this? Is it to target some people unfairly or is it to really try to hold back some of the negative things that we see happening. I know in the Boston Edison community there's also been a big fight about Airbnbs, With people not wanting Airbnbs to disrupt the quality of life, say, in their community, and other people thinking it's profitable. Those are sort of class wars that are playing out like not in my backyard.
Speaker 4:Yes.
Speaker 3:And those have nothing to do with equity around housing. But some people who are fighting Airbnbs in our city are fighting housing inequities. Yes, I think it's fair to recognize that.
Speaker 4:Yeah, going back to the at-large, mary Waters and Coleman Young are likely going to stay on city council. We are going to see at least two new council members, perhaps three, even though Roy was on council before he's new to this council. I'm really interested in how the relationship with you know fast forward we are getting ahead of ourselves here. Relationship with you know fast forward we are getting ahead of ourselves here to a Mary Sheffield administration. How council will interact with the mayor's office.
Speaker 3:Of course Duggan champions the fact that he has never vetoed a single item from city council in his 12 years as mayor. I think that is more a credit to his competence running a political machine than it is to anything else, and I mean quite honestly. I hope city council is free and able to disagree with whoever is elected mayor. The role of city council is not to rubber stamp and agree and make things easy for the mayor. The role of city council is to represent people in the city against some of the interests that encroach on our freedoms, and so I have been clear. I think that Mary Sheffield is the best person for the job. I don't jump inside of campaigns because I also have been clear. I see my role as representing the people in the community that I serve against political forces that also and not against, but representing them in the face of political forces that are also balancing the interest of moneyed interest in some people who I consider to be undesirable. And so city council can also and should play a significant role in that.
Speaker 3:Hats off to those city council members like Joanne Watts, Mary Mahaffey and others who have Irma Henderson who have played such an outsized role, and there's many others. Kwame Kenyatta has also played a role. We've had others, but that's what city council is supposed to do. I don't mean fight, I don't we. We don't need any more situations where Monica Conyers is accusing Ken Coleman of being Shrek. I don't know, you're probably too young to remember that. When she called him Shrek at the city council table, it made headlines, and so anybody who was around at that time. It was a memorable moment. We don't necessarily need name calling and put downs at that level, but we do need some really intense discussions about what's best for our community. I think that's what voters want. I think that's what residents want and, quite honestly, I think a more engaged and challenging city government will get more people involved in elections and help restore democracy and the faith in democracy from people who just assume that they have no power and nobody speaks for them. What do you think?
Speaker 4:Well, I hope so. I think that again, we see with D7 and Denzel, when you stand for something, it's a lot better than standing for nothing. Yeah, it's always going to work out that way and I would challenge candidates or perhaps would be candidates who are listening to this stand for something, pick a, pick a topic, pick a thing and and stand up for it and obsess about it. Go to every single event that is related to it. Talk to every single player, not just locally, but regionally, statewide and nationally, of that topic and try to make a difference. I did that with trying to get my peers to vote and I will tell you that I made it. I got I don't know I can't give you the exact numbers, obviously Exit polls. Can you ask? You know, did you come and vote? Because Sam Robinson told you it's obviously you, but I will tell you that you know the big reactions on our videos and on this podcast where you know you guys will send me the clips and really appreciate the conversations between Donna and I and our guests. I've tried and I will continue trying.
Speaker 4:In November, janice, under one of our videos, thanked. She said oh great, and when you go into the elections department they try to tell you that you can't record or film. I had to be like I promise I'm just going to show people how easy it is to vote, but I took it upon myself to do that. So open challenge these candidates take it upon yourselves to figure something out that fires people up. If you're Haley Stevens, it's talking about how much you love America and hot dogs. If you're Abdul El-Sayed, it's Medicare for all. I'm not sure what it is for Mallory.
Speaker 3:But listen, I want to say something. I have to leave in a minute and go celebrate my husband for his 65th birthday, but I came here because this is so important. But I want to say how exciting it was to see Orlando Bailey on WDIV last night, standing tall, actually speaking facts a younger, millennial sitting against Sheila Cockrell and he evidently he just was more factual, he was more persuasive and impressive, and I thought, oh, my goodness, look at this. Wdiv is actually allowing somebody to speak on behalf of people who are not being spoken of. And then I learned this morning, although you didn't tell us beforehand, that you were on Fox too.
Speaker 4:Yes, malachi and I were on Fox too. I was on with Aaron Johnson and then Rup Raj a little bit later, but I was at the studio from like 9.40 to like 11.30 last night. We were there for a minute and I appreciate Rup Raj a lot. I mean he is a really good guy being in that studio.
Speaker 3:it's so interesting because you just feel like you're inside the belly of a beast so I just feel incredibly privileged to co-host two podcasts one with a Gen Zer like yourself, who is on Fox 2, really speaking up and being unafraid to be a spokesperson, and a person who you don't really choose sides as much as I wish you did. I never will, you're way too neutral for me, but you're also unafraid to speak truth to power.
Speaker 4:I'll tell you that I sacrifice my own opinion because I don't want to be a person that is influencing people to decide, because I'm not an endorser, nor do I ever want to be somebody that a candidate or a politician can say well, sam's on my side.
Speaker 3:I never want that you are a journalist in the purest sense and I respect that. But I mean still, even in the purest sense of your journalism. You still are a voice of your generation, and so it's a privilege to co-host a podcast with you and with Orlando, who is also a journalist who does not is not nearly as opinionated as me Very few people are but also on Authentically Detroit. So thank you for agreeing to be part of Black Detroit Democracy Podcast. Last night was a proud night for our podcast, because our voices then end up on TV stations across the city.
Speaker 4:Across the state, across the state, across the whole state. Both of those are statewide things. So you are my media sons, right yes, yes, exactly, and I just want to say again thank you guys for getting out there and voting. There is another election, so please don't forget to vote in that one also, but it's going to be a really, really interesting and exciting couple months. The conversation surrounding Mary and Kinloch and, of course, karen Whitsett and Denzel McCampbell, renata Miller, willie Burton and Roy McAllister and Angela Whitfield Calloway.
Speaker 3:All right, well, thank you for listening. Thank you for voting. If you didn't vote, better luck next time. Show up at the polls. If your candidate won, congratulations. If your candidate didn't Remember, you are not electing friends, you are electing political elected officials and regardless of who wins, it is your job as a resident, as a citizen, as somebody who cares about causes no-transcript.
