Durhal talks mayor’s race, lame duck inaction ahead of expected announcement

City council member and former State Rep. Fred Durhal III says the city's 2025 election will set the tone for the future of Detroit.

Mayoral hopefuls are preparing to campaign among a packed field of candidates in the race to become the 76th mayor of Detroit.

City Council member Fred Durhal III, who could announce a bid for mayor later this month, spoke to reporters following city council’s first meeting of the year about what he calls the first real mayor’s race in over 10 years.

Durhal spent four years in Lansing from 2015-2019 before working as a community liaison at the state’s housing development authority. In 2021, Durhal was elected to city council’s 7th District, which lost neighborhoods including Russell Woods, Nardin Park and Desoto Ellsworth, where he grew up, after city council redistricting last year.

His father, Rep. Fred Durhal Jr., ran for mayor in 2013.

Durhal, in his first interview since Democrats in Lansing failed to pass key issues affecting Detroiters, blamed Democratic leadership for inaction before losing their state government trifecta. A notable casualty being a water affordability package that would have created a program for low-income residents unable to pay their bills.

“There were some key proposals that as municipal elected officials, we wanted to see get done,” Durhal said inside the Erma Henderson Auditorium Tuesday.