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Former Mayor Karen Weaver on "Off The Record"
Democrat Karen Weaver, the former mayor of Flint, says she’s backing independent gubernatorial candidate Mike Duggan and spoke of concerns about Democratic candidate, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson.
“I think people are looking for a Duggan. I think people are looking for someone that’s not going to put politics over the people,” she said on the TV show Off the Record with host Tim Skubick, which aired Friday night on public television.
“I do think he’s the best candidate,” she added.
Weaver, who was mayor from 2015 to 2019, said she got to know Duggan when they were both mayors and she was dealing with the Flint Water Crisis.
“Everything that was going on with Flint—and Detroit had its own issues as well—but he called me and he said, ‘You know, I see what’s going on, and if there’s anything I can do to help you, let me know.’”
“We were at different events together. I watched him, and I asked him different things about what he thought about this or how he handled that, and he gave me good advice.”
She said this time he called her to support his gubernatorial campaign.
“He told me what he was doing and asked me if I was interested in being part of the team, and I said, ‘Absolutely,’” she said, explaining that she was confident in his capabilities, having seen his work and results, and appreciated the guidance he offered while she was mayor during troubling times in Flint.
She acknowledged that some in the Democratic Party may see her as a traitor, but she said she doesn’t feel like one.
Still A Democrat
“I’m still a Democrat,” she said. “You know, I haven’t changed that. But sometimes I think if we would close our eyes and listen to what they’re saying instead of looking at what letter is behind their name, we might be much further along. Because right now we’re in such a toxic environment, we need to be about the business of the people—and that’s what I see him doing.”
Mike Duggan and Jocelyn Benson
She said two things in particular make her skeptical of Benson’s candidacy.
For one, she’s concerned about a lawsuit filed in January by four Black Michigan Department of State employees alleging racial discrimination, retaliation, and a hostile work environment under Benson’s watch.
The other is election integrity. She alleges there have been issues with voting in Flint, including ballot boxes that weren’t properly sealed.
“We don’t trust the voting process … I’m just going to be honest. We haven’t trusted it for a while,” she said.
“And that was brought to her attention. When we reached out—several of us reached out about that, wrote letters about what was going on—we were told, you know, if we talk about that, we’re pushing a Republican agenda.”
“And I thought, you know, this should be everybody’s agenda—to want to trust the voting process.”
When the show’s host, Skubick, suggested Benson “stiffed” her, Weaver said, “Those are your words, but yes.”
