Mayor Dennis W. Archer Sr. proudly served the city of Detroit as its 67th mayor and just the second Black mayor of the nation’s largest Black city. Although he faced sizeable challenges when he stepped into office in 1994, he earned national recognition and international respect for his successes in office, helping to change the city’s image and the direction in terms of economic mobility, education, crime, and other factors that go into creating opportunities for residents.
Prior to his time as Detroit’s mayor, in 1985, Gov. James Blanchard appointed Archer as an associate justice of the Michigan Supreme Court. He was elected to an eight-year term the following year. In his final year on the bench in 1990, Archer was named the most respected judge in Michigan by Michigan Lawyers Weekly.
He has served as a lawyer and a private businessman for the majority of his life, but he’s also a family man, a philanthropist, an author, and a civic leader.
Ahead of the 2024 presidential election, Mayor Archer sat down with the Michigan Chronicle to discuss the election, Project 2025, the state of politics today versus in the early 1990s, his time in office, and why this election will have lasting implications for generations to come.
Scanning the 2024 political landscape, Mayor Archer said there’s a “night and day” difference between what the landscape is today versus when he was in office.
“I have voted as long as I’ve been able to vote, and in every presidential election since I was able to cast my vote. I’ve never seen a presidential election like this one. I’m troubled by what the former president is offering to people, and I’m troubled by the way he has seemingly been able to somehow captivate a number of people to endorse his thoughts in terms of what he’d like to do if he were reelected,” Mayor Archer said.
“What we read about in all the national papers…is a discussion about how the former president has apparently attracted a large group or a significant group of African Americans and African American males to support his candidacy. And what amazes me about that is that, for whatever reason, people feel that they want to support the former president. I don’t think they’ve looked at and fully understand that if he gets elected and implements what is called Project 2025, how it’s going to impact the very people that he says it will benefit. And the people that are supporting him don’t seem to have an understanding of the impact that it will have on their children, their grandchildren, or themselves.”
Specifically, Mayor Archer pointed out within Project 2025 its plans to gut Medicare and insurance caps on prescription drugs; funding for daycare and the early childhood education program Head Start; dismantle the Department of Education, and strip women of their rights to fair and equal healthcare.
“Right now, there are 835,000 children who are educated through Head Start. They just want to take it out. They wanted to get rid of housing and the kinds of things that you can benefit from today from the federal government – get rid of that and let the federal employees go because the feeling is to go the route of letting them make decisions as opposed to Congress dealing with issues,” he said.
“Congress came up with creating different entities within the federal government. Those entities reported to Congress and were funded by Congress to get to work. Departments of Education and Housing, for instance. The creators of Project 2025 wanted to make sure that people were not left in those departments who would disagree or be disagreeable about these departments being cast aside – no funding for public housing or public education – to make sure nobody was sneaking to do it behind the background because their concern was these federal agencies are doing the kinds of things that Congress ought to be doing. And so we don’t need all these people, but we’re going to hire people that we want to be in there to make sure they’re not going to go back and do the same thing again that goes against the Project 2025 agenda.”
On the flip side of the coin, Mayor Archer said Vice President and presidential hopeful Kamala Harris presents a change of pace and a breath of fresh air from Republican nominee Donald Trump.
Mayor Archer pointed to Harris’ proposed agenda for small businesses, Black men, and families with newborn children as reasons why she’s a candidate for the people.
“What Vice President Kamala Harris wants to do is to give families with a newborn child $6,000 at a year, help the family get clothing, diapers, other kinds of things that they might need, and let that be part of helping them bring their child into the world. She wants to help small businesses be successful because they’re the lifeblood of our communities and these businesses are hiring more people,” he said. “What she believes and what she would like to see is having two governments coming together with a mutual respect.”
In addition to the stark contrast between the two presidential candidates, Mayor Archer talked about how important local elections are. He said that he’s encouraging people to get to the ballot box to make their voices heard and to ensure that their most valuable interests are represented locally.
With several state House seats, school board races, prosecutor races, and a Michigan Senate seat at stake, Mayor Archer said these should be additional drivers of increased turnout for the Nov. 5 election.
“We are a great country, and we can be better, but we don’t need Project 2025 to make that happen. I believe what you’ll find in the foreword of it is that there were 140 people who had in the past been part of the Trump administration. It caters to the super-wealthy. The wealthy can afford what they want. In any event, some of them, they’ve learned the right way, they’ve worked hard, but you don’t take advantage of other people with lesser means so that you can lift yourself up. That’s not fair. That’s not the America that we know,” he said.
“Things are changing. We need to strengthen the best of America and now’s the time to do it. Don’t fall victim to Project 2025 because if they’re allowed to make that happen, America will not be the same and we will not have the same respect that we enjoy today in the world today.”