Mayor Mike Duggan
Mayor Duggan makes his announcement
Mike Duggan's political aspirations have focused on being mayor of Detroit. He's dismissed speculation about any bid for governor.
But president? Nobody has floated that out-there notion until now.
Editor and publisher Ron Fournier of Crain's Detroit Business writes about Duggan, who on Saturday announced his re-election bid for mayor:
n January 2014, I wrote a column for The Atlantic titled, "President Trump? Stranger Things Might Happen." While I didn't exactly predict Donald Trump's election, I did foresee the rise of the angry, anti-establishment populism he rode to the White House.
So forgive this cheeky prediction: If Mayor Mike Duggan wins re-election and continues his pattern of incremental but important progress in Detroit, he could be a contender for the presidency.
Don't laugh. The same factors that fed Trump's ascent could aid a pudgy pragmatist from Detroit:
Voters don't want to elevate anybody from Washington, D.C., a city gripped by two-party extremism and gridlock.
- Voters favor change agents and outsiders over status quo candidates.
- Voters are tired of politicians who over-promise and under-deliver.
- But I'm getting ahead of myself. Duggan has to win re-election and convert Detroit's nascent recovery into something broader and bolder — and then develop national ambitions. He doesn't seem to have them now.
People like me obsess over his political future. Duggan is obsessed with Detroit.
