DETROIT – Working Families Party’s first primary electoral cycle in Michigan is a solid win with endorsed Detroit City Council candidate Denzel McCampbell going to a runoff in the November general election in the 7th District. 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. Both candidates will be on the ballot for the November 4, 2025 general election.

Working Families Party brought together a remarkable mutl-racial coalition to support its endorsed candidates. Along with Detroit Action, Michigan United Action, Michigan Liberation, Mothering Justice Action Fund, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Michigan, SEIU Michigan, and We The People Michigan Action, WFP conducted a people-powered, multi-pronged campaign to reach voters and build demand for a more responsive local government. 

“Working Families Party hit the streets with a message that voters heard and felt – 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?” said Branden Snyder, Michigan State Director of Working Families Party. “The voters have spoken loudly, using their power to elect a working families champion.” 

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. This unprecedented coalition of independent expenditure organizations also worked together to coordinate doors, phones, and community events, reaching thousands of voters.

WFP and partners focused on McCampbell, a former Detroit City Charter Commissioner and a leader of Progress Michigan, in his run for the open seat in District 7. His platform includes ensuring basic living conditions for every city resident, including affordable housing, equitable public transportation, and clean air and water. 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. 

Other highlights of the primary election cycle include:

• 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 flexed their new voter muscles by engaging in relational organizing in District 7 neighborhoods over the summer by contacting new 18-year-old voters. 
• As a part of the WFP Neighborhood Captains program, members of We The People Action, Michigan United Action, and Detroit Action held issue-campaign specific meetings that connected this primary election to a vision of co-governance and policy outcomes. We hope our captains program will become a long-term community-based structure of relational organizing that regularly engages voters in issues that impact them. 
• 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.

“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.”

Coming on the heels of a historic victory for WFP candidate Zohran Mamdani in the New York City mayoral primary, WFP is bringing this energy and excitement to Detroit. Just like in New York, where voters rejected corporate politics in favor of people-centered leadership, voters have a real chance to elect representatives who live and understand their everyday struggles.

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