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Mary Sheffield and Saunteel Jenkins
Saunteel Jenkins, who ran unsuccessfully for Detroit mayor in the August primary and exchanged barbs with opponent Council President Mary Sheffield during the race, is endorsing Sheffield in the general election.
The Sheffield campaign issued a press release saying the official announcement would come Wednesday at 10 a.m. at Cody High School on Cathedral Street in Detroit.
Sheffield won 51 percent of the vote in the primary and is squaring off against Rev. Solomon Kinloch Jr., who got 17 percent. Jenkins came in third with 16 percent.
During a WDIV-sponsored debate in June, Jenkins said: "If you want a mayor who shows up on Instagram but doesn’t show up for meetings, then follow Mary."
In February, Sheffield took a shot at Jenkins, accusing her of abandoning the city council during the bankruptcy to head up a nonprofit, The Heat and Warmth Fund (THAW).
Jenkins "did not receive the votes to become the (city council) president. One month later, she left the city at the worst of times during the bankruptcy and left to go work as a CEO,” Sheffield said. “You were in the middle of a bankruptcy, going through the worst of times.”
Jenkins shot back, saying the exit Sheffield described was 11 months later than Sheffield suggested, according to reporter Sam Robinson.
“In November of 2014, a recruiter called me about a job which I turned down twice. The third time she called me I said, ‘Let’s talk about this,’” Jenkins said. “At that point, almost a year into the second term—not a month—we were coming out of bankruptcy and we had a plan of adjustment. We had a financial review committee that was coming on board and the map for the next 10 years in the city’s history had already been laid out.”
It's unclear what, if any, Jenkins’ political plans are. If she were to run for Congress, this move could open the door for an endorsement from Sheffield.
Sheffield has been promoting the idea of being Detroit's first Black woman mayor.
In an campaign commercial, she says none of them look like me.
