A number of cities across the country will elect a Black mayor this year and Detroit is one of them.
America’s two largest cities are currently represented by Black mayors: Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, who was elected in 2022 in a decisive victory over billionaire Rick Caruso, and New York City mayor Eric Adams.
Adams, the incumbent, is expected to be defeated later this fall by Democratic Socialist assemblyman Zohran Mamdani in the November general election after Mamdani’s stunning upset victory in the Democratic primary over former Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
Just two years ago, Black mayors were leading the four largest American cities, when Bass, Adams, Chicago’s former Mayor Lori Lightfoot and former Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, who passed away earlier this year in March. Chicago elected another Black mayor to replace Lightfoot, Brandon Johnson, in 2023. His victory was propelled by support from Chicago teachers unions. He defeated former public schools CEO Paul Vallas.
All four of those cities are “majority minority” cities where Latinos, not Black residents, make up the largest non-white ethnic group. The Hispanic population in the U.S. passed 62 million in 2020, accounting for 19% of all Americans. It’s the country’s second largest racial group, behind White Americans but ahead of Black Americans, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. U.S. born Latinos make up the majority of those in the U.S.
The country’s Black population is also growing. The Black population of the United States is growing. In 2023, an estimated 48.3 million people self-identified as Black, making up 14.4% of the country’s population. This marks a 33% increase since 2000, when there were 36.2 million Black people living in the U.S.
Detroit’s outgoing Mayor Mike Duggan became the city’s first white mayor in several decades after his election in 2013. Despite hiring minorities to key positions within his administration, a number of critics haven’t let go of the fact that Duggan, a white man, is mayor of the nation’s largest majority Black city.
Detroit’s population is made up of 76.8% African American residents. All of the city’s nine mayoral candidates are Black.
Duggan’s relationship with former President Joe Biden is widely believed to be the reason the city received nearly $1 billion in pandemic relief funding. While former police chief James Craig, a Republican, has claimed a connection to President Donald Trump’s administration, seven of the nine mayoral candidates running to replace Duggan — now an independent — are Democrats.
Democratic Black mayors from across the country are currently vying for federal resources to improve their cities. Detroit will add another mayor to that list when they’re sworn in next year.
The African American Mayor’s Association (AAMA) wrote a letter after Trump’s State of the Union address earlier this year outlining the ways Trump’s federal government and Democratic led cities can work together.
“Our mayors need partners in Washington who understand our work and our challenges, and we look forward to working with the administration,” said AAMA president and Montgomery, AL Mayor Steven L. Reed. “There are so many vital ways we can work together: whether with federal law enforcement agencies partnering with our local law enforcement, or working with organizations like the Department of Housing and Urban Development tackling the nation’s housing crisis, or with the Department of Transportation on finalizing the implementation of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and other major bipartisan measures like the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. We want this Administration to consider the African American Mayors Association and our member mayors as partners for the Administration’s urban and rural agenda and every federal policy area affecting municipalities.”
Reed, LaToya Cantrell of New Orleans, Andre Dickens of Atlanta spoke at a recent Michigan Chronicle Pancakes and Politics about what it means to govern while Black with limited support from a Republican-controlled state government.
“You can attack the governor and feel good about it,” Reed said. “But he can block 50 things that you never see.”
Dickens is Atlanta’s seventh straight Black mayor.
Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles announced this week that she will officially file for re-election on Wednesday, seeking her fifth term ahead of the election this fall. Cleveland, OH, is also likely to reelect a Black mayor later this year.
Justin Bibb is running for reelection in Cleveland. The primary for the office was canceled because Bibb and serial candidate LaVerne Gore were the only candidates to turn in enough signatures.
In Baltimore, Mayor Brandon Scott ran for re-election and won in the general election in November, 2024.
The city of Jackson, Mississippi, held a general election for mayor on June 3, 2025, which saw Mississippi state Senator John Horhn elected as the new Mayor of Jackson, Mississippi, defeating five other candidates in the general election. Horhn won with 67.2% of the vote, succeeding Chokwe Antar Lumumba, who was mayor of Jackson from 2017 to this year.
In Oakland, Barbara Lee defeated Loren Taylor and seven other candidates in the April 15 special general election for mayor of Oakland. Incumbent Kevin Jenkins chose not to run for reelection after being appointed by the Oakland City Council to serve as interim mayor after voters recalled former Mayor Shen Thao last year.
Lee ran on unifying the city around public safety, housing, government accountability and economic development and highlighted her record in Congress and as a state legislator. Lee said she focused on “local issues in terms of bringing home billions of dollars to make sure that my community benefits from my work on the national and state level.”
Other cities like Minneapolis, with white mayoral incumbents, are facing challenges from Black candidates. Rev. Chaplain of the Minnesota Senate, DeWayne Davis, state Sen. Omar Fatah, Jazz Hampton and Brenda Short are challenging white Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey.
Frey, a young progressive, received criticism from Black Lives Matter protestors in 2020 after George Floyd was murdered in Minneapolis.
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