A new poll suggests Michigan voters are increasingly open to breaking with the two-party system in the race for governor, but the survey’s origins raise questions about its objectivity.
The Detroit Regional Chamber, a business advocacy group that has donated tens of thousands of dollars to Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan’s campaign, commissioned the survey, which found that 63.4% of voters believe Michigan should elect an independent governor who is not affiliated with either major party.
The results come as Duggan campaigns for governor as an independent, a move that has already shaken up Michigan politics.
“This poll confirms what people across the state already know — the two-party system is broken, and doing the same thing over and over again isn’t delivering results,” Duggan said in a statement Thursday. “Michigan is ready for a leader who can unite people to work together and get things done. They’re ready for an Independent governor. I look forward to being that governor for the state of Michigan, the one who leads with action and puts people over politics.”
The poll asked voters if they agree with this scenario: “Neither party is producing the kind of candidate that can get anything done. We should elect an Independent Governor that is not affiliated with either party that would be forced to work with both sides to get something done — even if it means the political party I usually prefer loses the Governor’s race.”
Of the 600 people surveyed in the telephone poll, 37.2% strongly agreed, 26.2% somewhat agreed, 10.3% somewhat disagreed, and 17.3% strongly disagreed.
The findings could provide a boost for Duggan, who previously depicted himself as a lifelong Democrat. By forgoing the Democratic primary, Duggan will bypass what is expected to be a crowded and competitive field, which includes high-profile candidates like Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson.
Now Duggan is positioning himself as a centrist who can appeal to moderates and disaffected voters across the political spectrum.
In a recent interview on WDET, Duggan said liberals don’t like him.
“The left wing of the Democratic Party has never been supportive of me,” Duggan said.
The three-term mayor also recently took a jab at undocumented immigrants, despite his repeated defense of them in the past, and appeared to downplay the severity of the raids occurring across the country.
“If you are in this country illegally, we should not be shielding you from ICE and federal enforcement, and the city of Detroit does not,” Duggan said. “We’re not a sanctuary city.”
And guess where he made those statements? At the Detroit Regional Chamber’s 2025 Detroit Policy Conference.
“ICE has been in neighborhoods under the Biden administration,” Duggan said. “ICE was arresting illegal immigrants who committed crimes and deported [them]. So the fact that they’re present is not new.”
Immigrant rights groups slammed Duggan for describing undocumented immigrants as “illegal.” The comment also appears to ignore the fact that many of the people getting deported under President Donald Trump have no criminal histories. Although Trump boasted that ICE would remove immigrants with criminal histories, so far the agency has provided very little information about the raids and how many of those picked up had criminal histories.
“It’s disheartening to hear the mayor use such a disparaging word to describe a large portion of the city’s residents, many of whom have contributed to the growth and revitalization of Detroit,” Angela Reyes, executive director of Detroit Hispanic Development Corporation, said. “In a city populated by majority Black and brown people, we would hope that our mayor would not succumb to racist rhetoric and instead stand with the many other mayors who are fighting to defend the people they serve.”
Duggan has built his political career on pragmaticism and economic development, but his tenure as the city’s mayor has been marked with controversy, from tax incentives for wealthy developers to disputes over affordable housing and water shutoffs.
It’s unclear yet whether Duggan can attract enough support outside of Detroit to mount a serious challenge in a statewide race. Can he win?
“People haven’t had a chance to vote for an independent, so we’re going to find out,” Duggan told WDET.
He added, “I have a lot of Republican supporters. I never thought it was a bad thing.”
To be sure, many of Duggan’s big donors are Republicans from the suburbs.
The general election will be held in November 2026.
