Detroit City Council member at-large Mary Waters is running for Congress in Michigan’s 13th District, which is currently represented by Democrat U.S. Rep. Shri Thanedar.
Waters name appears on the Wayne County Clerk’s unofficial list of candidates for the 13th District. The list was obtained by the Michigan Chronicle on Tuesday, the filing deadline for candidates.
Black Democrats have been trying to take the seat back from Thanedar, an Indian American businessman, since his self funded campaign won a crowded Democratic primary election in 2022.
Thanedar spent more than $10 million in his 2018 campaign for governor, before serving a single term in the Michigan Legislature before being elected to Congress.
Thanedar won reelection in the August 2024 Democratic primary taking 54% of the vote, defeating Waters, who took 34% of the vote.
Waters campaign in 2024 was endorsed by former Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, who is running for governor as an independent.
“It’s not the best news for young Donavan that’s for sure,” political strategist Greg Bowens told MI Chronicle. “Mary’s a tough campaigner with high name recognition. It doesn’t cost her anything to run. It would be hard to beat Shri on a good day. He presents himself as a true blue Democrat. He did the articles of impeachment against cabinet secretaries, he’s a veracious mailer telling voters what he’s doing. I get calls asking to join his town hall’s on a regular basis too. He’s at every 13th District meeting, he’s doing the job.”
Financial records revealed a fund connected to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) spent more than $2 million to attack Waters in the final weeks of the race.
The 13th Congressional District is among the poorest in the nation.
Another challenger, state Rep. Donavan McKinney, who launched his campaign last April, pointed to the lack of investment in the area, arguing Thanedar has “more in common with Donald Trump and Elon Musk than people like us.”
“It will be nearly impossible with more than one candidate splitting the black vote and without a real reason to boot him out,” Bowens said. “It seems to me that over the years, the importance for folks of Detroit having Black representation has become less and less so, sadly.
It’s been tough for those outside of Detroit, as well, Bowens said.
“We haven’t been able to elect a Black person to Congress outstate, from Saginaw to Muskegon.”
Thanedar snapped Detroit’s 70-year streak of being represented in Congress by Black leadership. He won the Black vote in Detroit’s 13th congressional District Democratic primary in 2022, defeating Black candidates Portia Roberson and state Sen. Adam Hollier.
McKinney’s campaign is backed by U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib and the Michigan Working Families Party.
“Senator Sanders has long been a progressive champion for working class Americans and I am honored to receive his endorsement,” McKinney said of Sanders’ endorsement last year. “His political courage and his commitment to doing the right thing — even when it’s unpopular, even when it’s hard, even if he’s alone — are a true inspiration to me, as is his commitment to fighting for a more just, more equal America.”
