Detroit City Council President Mary Sheffield made history Tuesday night, Nov. 4, becoming the first woman ever elected mayor in the city and concluding a campaign cycle she led from start to finish.

The Associated Press and CNN called the race for Sheffield, who defeated Triumph Church Pastor Solomon Kinloch Jr. with 77% of the vote to Kinloch’s 23% with 429 of 430 precincts reporting early Wednesday morning.

Sheffield, 38, celebrated Tuesday night with hundreds of friends, family and supporters at a glitzy event at the MGM Grand Detroit. Kinloch’s team watched the results from the Garden Theater.

“I am told it was the largest margin (of victory) in the history of the city of Detroit,” Sheffield said to a group of reporters before taking the stage at her election party. “I feel like today was a mandate by our city,” she said, going on to add, “Everyone is going to have a seat at the table with this administration.”

Later, from the stage at the MGM Detroit ballroom, she told the packed crowd: “Tonight our city adds another chapter to its great history. Throughout Detroit’s 324-year history, 75 mayors have led this city. Not one has been a woman. But tonight, Detroit, we know that changes. And you changed it Detroit!”

The crowd erupted in applause and chants of “Mary.”

• Detroit mayoral election results

The 12-year city council veteran began her bid for mayor approximately two years ago, forming the first candidate committee in the race to succeed Mayor Mike Duggan, who opted to run for governor as an independent rather than seek a fourth term.

Sheffield cruised to victory in the nine-way August primary, collecting 51% of the vote to Kinloch’s 17%. She eventually received endorsements from Duggan and the Detroit Regional Chamber, and raised nearly $3 million to Kinloch’s approximately $800,000.

Despite being the business community’s favored candidate, Sheffield has developed a reputation as a fighter for the city’s poor and working-class people during her time on council, with an achievements list that includes key ordinances to improve housing stability and working conditions for those employed by city contractors or certain industries.

After thanking staff, supporters, and family gathered behind her on stage — including her father, the Rev. Horace Sheffield III — the mayor-elect said she would carry on the legacy of her grandfather, who was beloved locally for his role in the labor and civil rights movements.

“Nearly 60 years ago, my grandfather, Horace Sheffield Jr., stood on the front lines during the Walk to Freedom demanding jobs, dignity, and justice for every Detroiter,” Sheffield said, referencing a landmark civil rights march in the city. “Now almost six decades later, his granddaughter stands right here — ready, equipped and prepared to continue that fight for all Detroiters.”

Sheffield went on to add: “I’ve heard you loud and clear Detroit, throughout this campaign, ‘Don’t forget about the neighborhoods,’ and I tell you we won’t. Together, we will invest in every corner of our city.”

People in the shoulder-to-shoulder crowd muttered their approval as Sheffield spoke. Pierre Harbarin, 69, a native Detroiter who spent several decades in California, put his hand over his chest and exclaimed, “She’s a saint!”

“Everything on her website is modern urbanism: Community development, participatory government from the bottom-up, neighborhood renewal, business and economic growth,” he told the Free Press. “It’s what we need. She will make it a global city, a truly international city — the world will come back.”

As he shared his optimism, Sheffield was ticking off an ambitious list of promises.

“Every resident will have access to transit that they can count on. … We’ll guarantee safe and affordable housing for every Detroiter … and (reclaim) Detroit as among the world’s greatest cities.”

Well wishes came from beyond the crowd.

Current Mayor Duggan congratulated Sheffield, saying she “ran an outstanding campaign and will do a great job running the city of Detroit. Our city’s progress is in very good hands and I know she and her team will make sure it not only continues, but expands.”

Michigan Democratic Party chair Curtis Hertel released a statement saying that, with the city having made history by electing a female mayor, “thousands of children in Detroit can now see themselves reflected in the city’s leadership in a way they never might have imagined before.”

“With Mayor Sheffield, Detroiters have a passionate public servant fighting for them and their families, especially in the face of Republicans from Lansing to D.C. attacking them at every turn,” Hertel said. Detroit “is lucky to have her.”

Kinloch accepted defeat around 9 p.m. from the stage at the Garden Theater, where he stood with his wife, Robin Kinloch, and son.

“To the city of Detroit, I love you and ain’t nothing you can do about it,” Kinloch said. “Despite all the poli-tricks and politics, if this campaign don’t do nothing else, I want it to accomplish at least one thing — to make sure that you understand that you cannot afford, at this crossroad, to sit on the sideline. This city is in trouble and we need you to stand up and step up more than ever before.”

Kinloch had not called Sheffield to concede by the time she spoke to reporters at her event, she said.

The mostly low-key campaigns heated up in mid-October during a televised debate in which the candidates traded barbs over who was more qualified to lead the city. In the final week before the election, with Sheffield dogged by questions over a prior romantic relationship with a city contractor confirmed by her office, Kinloch warned voters from the pulpit of his church that his opponent would represent another stain on a city that “just came from that dark cloud and history of corruption,” adding, “if y’all let that woman become the next mayor, she goin’ in under federal investigation.”

Sheffield, in turn, called Kinloch “desperate.”

Sheffield’s office confirmed the council member had a relationship with contractor and Gayanga CEO Brian McKinney in 2019, in response to a Michigan Enjoyer article published Oct. 29. That year, Sheffield voted to approve $4.4 million in demolition contracts for McKinney’s company, according to a Free Press analysis of City Council records.

Sheffield’s office said she sought guidance about whether to disclose the relationship from the city’s ethics department. In a redacted opinion responding to an April 2019 inquiry, the department said disclosure was not required, as the city’s ethics ordinance only covers relationships that are financial, familial, spousal or domestic partnerships.

McKinney’s company was recently suspended from the city’s demolition program for allegedly filling sites with contaminated dirt obtained from the redevelopment of Northland Mall.

Kinloch also faced reputational challenges in his mayoral bid. Shortly before the August primary, reports emerged that he had pleaded guilty to assault in 1993 after allegedly beating his then-wife in the head with the handle of a butcher knife and then throwing it at her. Kinloch acknowledged the incident and said he had grown and learned from it, using it in his ministry to help counsel others in similar situations.

Still, both Sheffield and Kinloch reflected positively on their respective campaigns Tuesday night.

Asked by the Free Press whether she had any low moments, Sheffield said no.

“This has been a learning experience,” she said during her media briefing. “I have grown tremendously as a leader. … So there was really no down points. Everything was shaping and molding me into the leader I am today.”

Kinloch meanwhile told his crowd of supporters that he has no regrets. His bid for mayor has only reinforced his commitment to the city, he said, vowing to continue to push for quality childhood education, affordable housing and neighborhood investment.

“That’s a fight that does not end. The election may be over, but the movement is still going on,” Kinloch said with emphasis, drawing a big applause. “For 27 years, I fought for you as the senior pastor of Triumph Church, and I want you to know that that fire just got reignited because for the rest of my days, I’m going to keep on fighting for the citizens of the great city of Detroit.

Kinloch and Sheffield both ran robust campaigns that involved reaching voters through neighborhood canvassing, visits to churches and senior homes, along with billboards and countless ads. Both also got boosts from outside organizations, some of which are not required to disclose their donors, in the form of mailers or billboards.

Mayor-elect Sheffield will enter City Hall at a time of projected fiscal upheaval, as nearly $1 billion of pandemic relief funds dry up and President Donald Trump threatens cuts to social service programs the city relies on to aid residents.

“This machinery is about to get broken by the federal government,” Rip Rapson, CEO of the Kresge Foundation, a major donor to Detroit initiatives, warned in a Free Press article on the fiscal headwinds facing the next mayor. “The federal government is about to leave the building completely. And I think we don’t fully understand just how complex and challenging that’s going to be.”

Sheffield has said she is not blind to the challenges ahead and expects to build an efficient leadership team and hire a Chief Growth Officer to identify ways to diversify city revenues. She has said she still hopes to cut property taxes for residents, build 44,000 new affordable housing units, improve city services and give residents better access to city hall.

She and Kinloch had both vowed to tackle poverty and crime, but their approaches and the scale of their plans differed. Kinloch said he would build 10,000 new affordable housing units, for example. He also said he would tackle crime by allowing residents to police their own communities and lean more heavily on federal law enforcement. During the televised debate, he suggested a “fudging of the numbers” that show Detroit crime at a historic low and appeared to say he would welcome the National Guard to the city, before later saying his comment was misconstrued.

Sheffield’s public safety plan includes continuing to fight for additional funding for Community Violence Intervention programs, which are credited in part for the city’s decline in crime, and the creation of a gun violence prevention office.

Earlier Tuesday, Sheffield cast her ballot at the Horatio Williams Building on Rivard, in Detroit’s Lafayette Park neighborhood. Smiling, she slowly made her way into the building through thick cluster of well-wishers and campaign staffers chanting her name.

“Horace, let me go cast this vote for your daughter!” one man yelled to Sheffield’s father, the Rev. Horace Sheffield III.

Addressing reporters and supporters after voting, Mary Sheffield said she spent the morning with family, and was there with her 8-year-old cousin, her father and her 88-year-old grandmother.

“I am just honored to be in a position to lead our city,” she said.

Horace Sheffield III said his daughter’s candidacy is a culmination of everything their ancestors fought for.

“We went to the cemetery where our ancestors are buried today … who worked in the foundries and in the factories. This is a culmination of that inspiration.”

Mary Sheffield also was accompanied by Michael Eric Dyson, the author, longtime public radio host and now a professor at Vanderbilt University, who also is a native Detroiter. Dyson said he encouraged Sheffield to run.

“I could see she was a shining example, not just of Black womanhood, but a proud Democratic leader, who could lead our city forward … with youthful vitality,” he said.

Darryl Woods Sr., chair of the Detroit Board of Police Commissioners, said he was an early Sheffield supporter. He recounted her visit to the scene of a young woman’s tragic jump from a riverfront high-rise in September 2023.

Sheffield spent hours at the scene, he said.

“She wept so bad that it broke my heart. I’ll never forget that,” Woods said. “She was there to comfort the people, to be there with the people. I haven’t seen other candidates out there in the magnitude that she’s been out there. And that’s why I support her.”

Sheffield was introduced on stage Tuesday by her chief of staff, Brian White, who also recalled a moving moment of vulnerability from the council member.

He shared how a hard-fought effort — “one of the biggest votes of her career” — ended in disappointment and said he considered resigning, until “I saw Mary toil over her vote and sob, literally sob uncontrollably …  because she didn’t want to disappoint those that put her in office,” he said.

“From that day on, she never did,” he said. “Throughout these 12 years, I’ve witnessed a transformation. Right before my eyes she was morphing into one of the — if not the most — confident, fierce, committed, effective members of city council I’ve seen in my lifetime. “