Mike Duggan


Michael Edward Duggan is an American businessman and politician of the Democratic Party, currently serving as the 75th mayor of Detroit, Michigan. When first elected in 2013 he received national attention, in part for being the first white mayor of the majority-black city since Roman Gribbs in the early 1970s, when Detroit's population still had a white majority. Duggan won a second term in the 2017 election. Prior to becoming mayor he held a number of other political offices, including from 1987 to 2001 as deputy County Executive of Wayne County in which Detroit is located. He has received an approval rating of over 68%, the highest rating of any mayor of Detroit.

Early life and education

Duggan was born in Detroit on July 15, 1958, to Patrick J. Duggan and Joan Colosimo. His paternal grandfather was from County Kilkenny, Ireland moving to Detroit at the age of 18, and his paternal grandmother was the child of Irish and German immigrants. Duggan spent his first six years at a home on Stansbury Street on the city's west side before moving to nearby Livonia in 1963. He graduated from Detroit Catholic Central High School, and then received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Michigan in 1980, followed by a Juris Doctor degree from its law school in 1983.

Career

As a Democrat, Duggan has served as an appointed and an elected official in Wayne County, Michigan, beginning in 1986 as Wayne County's assistant corporation counsel. He was deputy County Executive from 1987 to 2001 under Edward H. McNamara, and was elected prosecutor in 2000.
Beginning in 2004, Duggan was president and CEO of the Detroit Medical Center. He was in this position when the formerly nonprofit DMC was sold to publicly traded Vanguard Health Systems in 2010.

Mayor of Detroit

In 2012 Duggan resigned his position at the DMC and moved from the suburb of Livonia to the city of Detroit, intending to run for the office of mayor the following year. However, he failed to qualify for the ballot because he filed less than a year after establishing residency in the city; if he had waited two more weeks to file—which still would have met the filing deadline—he would have qualified.
Instead he mounted a write-in campaign, and received 52% of the vote in the August primary election. Under Detroit's two-round system, the two highest vote-getters run against one another in the general election, which meant that Duggan ran against second-place finisher Benny Napoleon, who had won 29% of the vote. Duggan ran with the campaign slogan, "Every neighborhood has a future", on a platform of financial turnaround, crime reduction, and economic development. He received 55% of the vote in the general election in November, becoming the first white mayor of the now-majority-black city since Roman Gribbs, who served from 1970 to 1974.
In the 2017 Detroit mayoral election, Duggan was re-elected in a landslide, taking 72% of the vote to challenger Coleman Young II's 27%. He has received an approval rating of over 68%, the highest rating of any Mayor of Detroit.

Personal life

Duggan was married to Mary Loretto "Lori" Maher.
In May 2019, Duggan and Maher released a joint statement confirming that they planned to end their marriage. The divorce was finalized on September 17, 2019.