Detroit City Council President Mary Sheffield Might Run For Mayor

DETROIT — While Detroit City Council President Mary Sheffield is exploring a run for Detroit Mayor in 2025, she tells Patch her focus is to continue serving the residents of Detroit as City Council President.

"Over the last 10 years, I have devoted my life in service to the residents of Detroit," Sheffield told Patch Tuesday. "While I have accomplished so much during my tenure on Council, I am constantly trying to find ways to do even more knowing the needs of Detroiters are still great."

Sheffield said she filed a mayor campaign committee "solely for the purpose of exploring a potential run and because I have been advised it is the only legal method of doing so under the confines of the Michigan campaign finance statute."

The committee, called "Mary Sheffield for Detroit's Future" allows her to raise money for a potential 2025 bid for mayor of Detroit.

Nick Rathod, a veteran of President Barack Obama's White House who also managed former U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke's failed 2022 campaign for governor of Texas, is helping Sheffield with her campaign, she said.

Sheffield said Rathod will "help me navigate this initial exploratory process."

"With that said, I remain committed to fulfilling my duties as Detroit's City Council President and I have NOT made a decision on the future of my service to our great city," Sheffield said.

Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan has said he won't decide until 2024 whether he'll seek a fourth term in 2025. He was recently elected to a third term in 2021.

"I’m sure this will just be the first of many," Duggan spokesman John Roach said Monday about Sheffield's formation of a mayoral campaign committee. "Mayor of Detroit is a really good job and will attract a lot of candidates."

Sheffield was first elected to the Detroit City Council in 2013, representing the city's 5th District, which now includes areas like Midtown, Downtown, Indian Village, Boston Edison and New Center. She has not faced serious opposition since, including 2021 when she ran unopposed. She was then elected president of city council after winning re-election in 2021.

As council president, Sheffield has voiced support for granting reparations for Black Detroiters and looking into ways to refund Detroiters who paid more property taxes than they should have. She also showed support to providing free legal aid to low-income Detroiters facing evictions.

Sheffield was the only councilmember to vote against a massive $1.5 billion development in downtown's District Detroit, arguing the massive projects have not helped the city's battle against poverty, loss of population and the loss of Black businesses.