The Metro: Mary Sheffield makes her case for Detroit mayor
Robyn Vincent, Sam Corey, Nadia Ziyad, The Metro July 16, 2025Subscribe to The Metro on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

Detroit City Council President Mary Sheffield joins The Metro live at WDET Studios, July 16, 2025.
Since entering the Detroit mayoral race in December, City Council President Mary Sheffield has become a frontrunner in the race.
According to recent polling, she’s leading the charge in front of Rev. Solomon Kinloch Jr. and former Detroit Police Chief James Craig.
As the daughter of Rev. Horace Sheffield III — the leader of the Detroit Association of Black Organizations — and the granddaughter of Detroit labor leader Horace Sheffield Jr., Sheffield has been steeped in politics and the Black church for her entire life. She was also the youngest person elected to Detroit City Council when she was just 26 years old.
Today, the millennial candidate is very social media savvy, often using TikTok and Instagram to connect with city residents. She’s also gained favor from many young people, including big-name Detroit rappers like Sada Baby and Skilla Baby — who both appeared at her annual “Occupy the Corner” events.
But behind Sheffield’s popularity, what does she stand for? She joined The Metro on Wednesday to talk more about the priorities of her campaign and what she’d bring to the table as Detroit’s next mayor.
Use the media player above to hear the full conversation.
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Authors
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Robyn Vincent is the co-host of The Metro on WDET. She is an award-winning journalist, a lifelong listener of WDET, and a graduate of Wayne State University, where she studied journalism. Before returning home to Detroit, she was a reporter, producer, editor, and executive producer for NPR stations in the Mountain West, including her favorite Western station, KUNC. She received a national fellowship from Investigative Reporters and Editors for her investigative work that probed the unchecked power of sheriffs in Colorado. She was also the editor-in-chief of an alternative weekly newspaper in Wyoming, leading the paper to win its first national award for a series she directed tracing one reporter’s experience living and working with Syrian refugees.
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Sam Corey is a producer for 101.9 WDET, which includes finding and preparing interesting stories for the daily news, arts and culture program, The Metro. Sam joined WDET after a year and a half at The Union, a small newspaper in California, and stints at a variety of local Michigan outlets, including WUOM and the Metro Times. He is a graduate of the University of Michigan and the University of Chicago.
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