Look at all the Republicans and Dems who donated to Duggan

Republicans and Democrats are starting to get nervous about Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan’s gubernatorial candidacy, and for good reason.

Republicans and Democrats alike are donating to him.

I wrote a couple of weeks ago about how he’s outraising the field at this point, scoring donations from a lot of instate business professionals as opposed to relying on a national email list operated by a national contractor.

Now, maybe these same people — at some point — will write checks to the 2026 Democratic or Republican nominees. Perhaps these business leaders are hedging their bets, as executives often do.

We’re still 15 months away from the general election, so anything is possible. 

But at this point, Republicans are claiming Duggan is a Democrat disguised as an independent. Democrats claim Duggan is a Republican bankrolled by Trump loyalists.

However, the numbers don’t show either. The money shows that there’s bipartisan curiosity.

Former Michigan Republican Party Chair Ron Weiser and former Michigan Democratic Party Chair Melvin “Butch” Hollowell have given to Duggan. Five former Democratic lawmakers and two Republican lawmakers did so, too. 

Former Sen. Buzz Thomas,  former Sen. Marshall Bullock and former Reps. Brian Banks, Lisa Howze and Keith Stallworth all represented Detroit in the state Capitol. They all donated to Duggan. Former Republican Rep. Kurt Heise and former Republican Rep.-turned Democratic Wayne County Commissioner Gary Woronchak donated, too.

At least six key members of former Republican Gov. Rick Snyder’s cabinet and inner circle gave to Duggan: former Chief of Staff Dennis Muchmore, former MEDC head Steve Hilfinger, former key adviser Richard Baird, former Treasurer Nick Khouri, former Community Health Director Jim Haveman and former Michigan Agency for Energy Director Valerie Brader.

Former state Superintendent Mike Flanagan gave, too, but the Board of Education appointed him, and he served under both Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm and Snyder.

Former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang and former Democratic-nominated Justice Conrad Mallett Jr. gave, too.

We had two current Democratic members of the University of Michigan Board of Regents — Mark Bernstein and Denise Ilitch — and two former Republican members of the U-M Board — Weiser and Andrea Newman — who gave to Duggan.

Democratic Michigan State University Trustee Rebecca Bahar-Cook gave to Duggan, along with former MSU Trustee Dem Colleen McNamara. They join former Republican MSU trustees Jeff Sakwa and Patrick O’Keefe and Snyder-appointed former MSU Trustee Nancy Schlichting, who didn’t disclose her party affiliation. Wayne State University Governors Anil Kumar and Bryan Barnhill II, both nominated by the Democratic Party, gave to him.

In terms of reliably Republican donors giving to the mayor, there were Weiser, JC Huizenga, six members of the Nicholson family of PVS Chemical fame and Roger Penske.

Former Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer gave $2,500 to the mayor, as did Patrick Devlin, the secretary and treasurer for the Greater Detroit Building Trades Council, and former Democratic Party Treasurer David Mittleman.

Here’s my count: If you combine all of the known Republican Duggan contributors into one bucket and the known Democratic contributors into a second bucket, you’ll get roughly $50,000 in each one. However, the numbers double on the Republican side if you factor in the traditional Republican contributors like the Karamaros family.

Likewise, the overall numbers don’t show Duggan as necessarily attracting more Republicans than Democrats or vice versa. Even the polling we’ve seen up to this point from the Glengariff Group, in particular, shows Duggan is taking away support almost equally from Republicans and Democrats.

It’s something that Glengariff pollster Richard Czuba said: “In my 43 years of polling … I’ve never seen this before.”

Czuba added that Duggan still has a long road to go. He’s hardly known outside of Metro Detroit. He’s still running Michigan’s largest city.

That’s hard on the partisans. The way they see it, whoever successfully paints Duggan as a tool for “the other guy” wins.

If neither can do that, maybe neither wins.

(Kyle Melinn is the editor of the Capitol news service MIRS. You can email him at melinnky@gmail.com.)