A conservative Dearborn mayoral candidate who has made “faith, family, and freedom” the centerpiece of his campaign has struggled to pay his own bills, even as he poured more than $50,000 into his race for mayor.
Nagi Almudhegi, a 51-year-old Trump supporter, faces multiple lawsuits over unpaid debts and a recent foreclosure scare on his home, court and tax records show.
LVNV Funding won a civil judgment of $26,811 against him in April for unpaid credit card debt after he failed to pay $26,575 he owed, court records show. A writ of garnishment was issued in August 2025 after non-payment. That same month, Portfolio Recovery Associates sued him in another debt case that remains open.
In 2009, the City of Wooster, Ohio sued Almudhegi for unpaid taxes. And records show he accumulated more than $3,400 in penalties for late property-tax payments on a Toledo business property.
This summer, Almudhegi’s 894-square-foot home was in foreclosure for delinquent taxes, but it’s now current on taxes, according to county records.
Despite those financial troubles, Almudhegi contributed more than $50,000 to his own mayoral campaign in October, a move that raises questions about how he can afford to self-fund while defaulting on past bills.
Almudhegi, who immigrated from Yemen at age 6 and graduated from the University of Michigan with a degree in chemical engineering, casts himself as a unifier who will restore “common sense” leadership to Dearborn. But his record tells a different story.
At a 2022 rally outside Dearborn’s Henry Ford Centennial Library, Almudhegi joined protesters demanding the removal of LGBTQ-themed books from public school libraries. He told the crowd that opponents had labeled him and others “religious extremists” but said those who support the books “have to have some mental derangement … to support this kind of stuff.”
He led the audience in chants of “Hell no!” and praised one of the protest’s organizers, declaring, “Right now, Dearborn is in the middle of a great awakening, and it’s long overdue.”
That campaign succeeded in having six books removed and restricted students’ access to the district’s online library system.
Although Dearborn’s crime rate has dropped, Almudhegi insists it’s out of control. His fearmongering rhetoric is similar to the right-wing culture-war politics that helped Donald Trump flip Dearborn red for the first time in two decades. In November, Trump became the first Republican to win Dearborn since George W. Bush in 2000, receiving 42.5% of the vote compared with 36% for Kamala Harris. Green Party candidate Jill Stein received 18.37% of the vote. Harris struggled in Dearborn after Mayor Abdullah Hammoud withheld his endorsement over the Biden administration’s backing of Israel’s war on Gaza.
Almudhegi launched his campaign in February at the Fairlane Club, walking onstage to Trump-rally anthem “God Bless the USA” with GOP figures like Tudor Dixon and Hamtramck Mayor Amer Ghalib in attendance.
He has accused incumbent Hammoud of being “divisive” and “out of touch,” blasting the city’s Democratic leadership for focusing on inclusion initiatives. Hammoud, who is seeking a second term, has defended LGBTQ rights and pointed to falling crime rates and city investments in infrastructure.
Progressive groups have seized on Almudhegi’s record of intolerance as evidence he is unfit to lead one of Michigan’s most diverse cities. The Progressive Michigan Political Action Fund urged voters to back Hammoud, calling him “the most progressive choice in this race.”
Metro Times couldn’t reach Almudhegi for comment.