Detroit City Council candidate Denzel McCampbell received the most votes of any District 7 candidates on Tuesday.
In a race with Regina Ross, who in 2021 came dozens of votes from defeating outgoing member Fred Durhal III, and another who’s a sitting state legislator, McCampbell won thanks to a massive door knocking and phone bank effort, supporters say.
His victory may be the biggest surprise of Detroit’s municipal primary.
The campaign knocked over 15,000 doors, making more than 30,000 phone calls and mobilizing over 200 volunteers in support through the August Election. McCampbell says his campaign is aiming to triple these numbers ahead of the November Election.
“Every resident deserves a city council member and city government who will show up day in and day out for them, and fight for their interests and needs,” McCampbell said in a statement Thursday. “I look forward to continuing to build momentum in the next 90 days as we turn to the November General. For now, thank you to my neighbors in District 7 for your belief in our campaign!”
McCampbell trailed Whitsett for most of the night Tuesday as votes were coming in from precincts across the city’s west side in District 7. By morning, McCampbell edged Whitsett by 56 votes.
Branden Snyder, Michigan State Director of Working Families Party, said the group hit the streets with a message that resonated with voters: “Do you want a city government that works for developers and the wealthiest Detroiters? Or do we need working class elected representatives who understand us and will fight for us?”
“The voters have spoken loudly, using their power to elect a working families champion,” Snyder said.
Working Families Party brought together a justice focused coalition to support its endorsed candidates, including Detroit Action, Michigan United Action, Michigan Liberation, Mothering Justice Action Fund, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Michigan, SEIU Michigan, and We The People Michigan Action.
Since February, DSA ran a fully volunteer effort aimed at recruiting supporters and turning out voters in Detroit for McCampbell.
Jess Newman was one of the volunteers for McCampbell’s campaign.
“With this tight of a margin, the unique role we’ve been playing in the last several cycles is key to a candidate like Denzel getting over the finish line,” Newman said. “Early support is everything. Out there in the parking lots in winter to get signatures to get him on the ballot. Turning out week after week to knock doors. Town halls about transit with MOSES, cuts to Medicaid and its effect on Detroit. We made 23,000 phone calls and were out there covering every single poll on election day.”
Newman, who worked for Bernie Sanders’ campaign, the early support was critical to McCampbell’s campaign.
“We have gotten a lot of people scared,” Newman said. “I very firmly believe socialism is what beats facism. Voters want people they can believe in.”
The independent, dues based organization was able to give the level of support it did to his campaign, which raised $123,000 without corporate PACs, the most of any council candidate this cycle.
“The campaign DNA is built on the model of the Zorhan Mamdani win in New York, where a candidate can run on a Democratic Socialist platform and engage wide corners of the electorate,” Snyder said.
McCampbell would join Santiago-Romero as the second Democratic Socialist on Detroit City Council.
“Detroit Action is committed to supporting the candidates who will best serve the needs of working class Detroiters,” said Scott Holiday, Executive Director of Detroit Action. “Denzel McCampbell and Gabriela Santiago-Romero have both shown, through platform and action, that they will lead Detroit into a future that centers the growth and well-being of its most vulnerable citizens. Not only have they built meaningful relationships with voters across their respective districts, but they’ve engaged Detroiters on the issues that matter most: housing, community, and neighborhood investment.”
Their platform includes ensuring basic living conditions for every city resident, including affordable housing, equitable public transportation, and clean air and water.
“Together with WFP-endorsed candidate Gabriela Santiago-Romero, he can be a bold leader on the Detroit City Council to make housing accessible and affordable, protect Detroit’s immigrant residents, create climate resiliency, and advocate for investing in communities as the centerpiece of the City’s budget priorities,” a Working Families Party spokesperson said.
Working Families Party staff, member groups and members joined the Metro-Detroit Democratic Socialists of America in anchoring weekly community canvasses, knocking more than 9,000 doors, engaging in more than 120 volunteer shifts, and making over 10,000 phone calls and texts, covering District 7 several times over.
“A separate independent expenditure effort included a Working Families Party IE sending two rounds of Denzel McCampbell mailers to likely primary voters, while the larger IE effort delivered McCampbell ads to over 16,000 Facebook and Instagram users and 21,000 impressions in English and Spanish for Santiago-Romero,” the organization said. “This unprecedented coalition of independent expenditure organizations also worked together to coordinate doors, phones, and community events, reaching thousands of voters.”
Coalition partners went all out to boost McCampbell, a former Detroit City Charter Commissioner and director of Progress Michigan, in his run for the open seat in District 7.
The formerly incarcerated members of Michigan Liberation canvassed District 7 and connected with voters on issues of affordability, access to mental healthcare, and public safety. Detroit Action and 482Forward Action’s high school committees contacted 18-year-old voters in District 7 neighborhoods. Leaders at Emgage, 482Forward Action, Detroit Action, and the newly formed organizing group Arab Americans for Progress (AAP) engaged often forgotten Bengali, Yemeni, and Iraqi voters and community groups to inform them about the race and the stakes for their neighborhoods.
“He is running against State Rep. Karen Whitsett, who currently represents the 4th House District and whose tenure has been marked by her votes against paid family leave, increasing the minimum wage during the 2024 lame duck session, and public school funding, while failing to protect women’s reproductive rights,” the group said.
Whitsett is well-liked by her supporters, and touts the money she’s brought back to the district as the reason why she deserves to be elected to Detroit City Council.
“I’ll bring the work I do there back to the city and to my residents,” she told Michigan Chronicle in an interview Tuesday night.
Whitsett says she’s never met McCampbell, or seen him at the community events she frequents.
Whitsett told Michigan Chronicle that of the conversations her staff had while phone banking, 61% said they are voting for her.
Democratic groups have largely opposed her candidacy to city council. She blamed Democrats for not doing enough while holding control of all three branches of state government for two years.
She broke with her party on abortion, voting against key provisions in legislation to codify reproductive rights into state law, angering her Democratic colleagues. She went to the White House to champion alternative COVID-19 treatments. Criticized former President Joe Biden on Fox News and refused to show up to work with former House Speaker Joe Tate during last winter’s lame duck session.
Whitsett has said her decision making is motivated by her constituents, who she says have not been turned off by her independent streak.
“My records speaks for itself and who I put first,” Whitsett told Michigan Chronicle. “God and community.”
