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A third-party monkey wrench in a battleground gubernatorial race found concerned Democrats eyeing a former mayor turned secretary to further his résumé as Governor Pete.

Despite one of the most draconian records during COVID, Michiganders rehired Gov. Gretchen Whitmer for a second term in 2022, only to deliver a contrarian result in 2024, handing victories to President-elect Donald Trump and Democratic Sen.-elect Elissa Slotkin.

Now, as Whitmer is term-limited and favored for a go at the White House and long-time Democrat Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan has launched an Independent bid to lead the Great Lake State, efforts to enlist Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to run are well underway.

The Associated Press reported, “Though Buttigieg has publicly and privately stated that he won’t make any decisions about his future until after the Biden administration ends on Jan. 20, he has already fielded calls from Michigan Democrats urging him to enter the 2026 race to replace Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who is term-limited.”

Buttigieg moved from his home state of Indiana, where he was mayor of South Bend before joining the Biden administration, to his partner Chasten’s home state of Michigan after his own failed attempt to relocate to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in 2020.

He told reporters at an event south of Detroit last week, where he was unable to answer a question about the Lions’ upcoming schedule, “I haven’t made any decisions about, big decisions about my future. And I know that we’ve got six more weeks and we’re going to sprint through the tape.”

Similarly, the secretary told USA Today in an interview, “I love this job, but it is very 24/7, so I’m ready to catch my breath. I’m ready to spend more time with our kids.”

However, he did not rule out the possibility during an appearance on “The Breakfast Club.”

As had been reported, in the state where Vice President Kamala Harris was unable to overcome protest votes from Hamas sympathizers and Trump had made inroads with urban communities, Duggan made a pitch to represent all Michiganders instead of one side or the other.

“The current system forces people to choose sides that find solutions. I want to see if I can change that,” he said in an announcement. “I went to Lansing and built relationships with Democrats and Republicans. We took our neighborhoods out of the darkness of burned-out streetlights and we lit the entire city to the national standard…and reduced Detroit’s unemployment rate to its lowest rate in more than 30 years.”

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson (D) criticized Duggan in an interview with “Off The Record” where she said, “In moments like this, we don’t flee from the party, but we stay and fix it.”

“We need the firefighters, putting out fires, not running away from things that we see may be on fire,” she continued as her name is also being considered for a run, along with Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist and Genessee Country Sheriff Chris Swanson.

While 2022 Republican gubernatorial nominee Tudor Dixon’s name was bandied about with businessmen Kevin Rinke and Perry Johnson as potential candidates for 2026, social media commentary couldn’t help but mock the secretary’s desire to “catch [his] breath” as the opportunity to fail upward was presented.

Kevin Haggerty
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