All eyes are on Tuesday’s special primary election in Michigan’s 35th. With Democrats barely holding a majority in the state Senate, the person who fills this seat will have the power to shape what Gov. Gretchen Whitmer can achieve in her final months in office.
New reporting has revealed that fundraising committees tied to powerful Michigan Senate Democrats have poured nearly $70,000 into the race — not to oppose a Republican candidate, but to undermine a Democrat. Notably, a progressive Black Democrat running a skillful campaign. Dr. Pamela Pugh has the most community endorsements in the race, and has raised the most money. And still, powerful Dems have collaborated to back a more moderate candidate of their choosing to run against her.
This is part of a pattern. We’re just over a month into 2026, and two promising Democratic candidates for statewide office have already left the race. Lt. Governor Garlin Gilchrist II ended his gubernatorial campaign to run for Secretary of State, and Deputy Secretary of State Aghogho Edevbie exited the race for Secretary of State soon after.
Both candidates were highly qualified. Both candidates were progressive leaders with a credible path to victory. And both candidates were Black.
That’s a critical detail in a state where Black voters make up 14% of the electorate, yet only four Black people have ever held statewide office.
For many candidates, terminating a campaign is a normal part of the political process that is often driven by poor polling or a clear path to defeat during the primaries. But that is not what happened here. In this case, both candidates exited before the campaign truly began, without testing their message, their support, or their path to victory.
These races were not a foregone conclusion. Gilchrist had already raised well over a million dollars by the end of 2025. Edevbie had secured over 70 endorsements. Party leadership could have ensured that these viable, progressive candidates had the material and structural support necessary to continue their campaigns — especially for Gilchrist, who served alongside Michigan’s beloved Whitmer, helping usher our state into its most progressive era. They chose not to. That decision deserves an explanation.
Is there a ceiling on what progressive Black candidates can hope to achieve in this state? It pains me to say that there might be.
Michigan Democratic Party leadership has consistently demonstrated a willingness to sacrifice Black representation in higher office for political expediency. They seem to believe that their pattern of undermining Black leadership will help them win — and that it will go unnoticed. They’re wrong on both fronts.
As a longtime political strategist whose organization’s GOTV efforts reached thousands of Detroit voters last year, believe me when I say: Black voters notice.
We noticed in 2021, when Democrats backed a redistricting plan that left Black voters statewide with diminished representation. We noticed in 2022, when fewer Black State Senators won their races. We noticed when Republicans, that same year, ran five Black candidates for higher office. We noticed in 2024 when the Dem Trifecta, made possible by the 2021 redistricting plan, failed to deliver for working class families and ended their lame duck session in chaos.
The consequences extend further, with the electorate now facing fragmentation as former Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan advances an “independent” campaign, bankrolled by corporate interests such as DTE and other corporations that have consistently harmed Michigan’s working people.
By clearing the gubernatorial field before voters ever had a chance to weigh in — and ultimately bestowing the nomination on a party favorite — leaders have left Black voters, and really all voters, without the opportunity to choose their preferred candidate in the primary. The result is a splintered vote that threatens to undermine hard-won Democratic gains and erase the progress made by the very people who delivered those victories.
When our sitting Deputy Secretary of State calls on us to reject “the cynical assumption that the people of Michigan are too racist to elect someone with a unique name to higher office,” we know what that means. It means that someone, or multiple people, with power, made that cynical — and frankly, foolish — assumption. Now, Democratic voters across the state have fewer qualified candidates to choose from.
Here’s our message to the Democratic Party: The less puppeteering you do, the better.
In 2020, Black voters delivered the margin of victory needed to put Biden and Harris in office. Still, the Democratic party too often acts as if the Black vote only matters on Election Day, rather than a day-to-day priority. This is not how we build power. If Democrats want to win in Michigan in 2026, 2028, and beyond, they need to do better by Black candidates and voters.
James Johnson is political director at Detroit Action.