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Coleman A. Young II: "When you hear the call of the people ..." (Photo: Facebook)
Former state Sen. Coleman A. Young II, who ran for mayor in 2017, has pulled petitions to run for a Detroit City Council at-large seat.
Young told Deadline Detroit Tuesday that he picked up the qualifying petitions Detroit Department of Elections last week and has begun collecting voter signatures to qualify for an Aug. 3 primary ballot line.
He said he's "definitely looking into" formally announcing that he's a candidate soon. "I'm not quite ready to do that," he said. Young can't wait too long — signatures from at least 500 registrered voters must be filed by April 20, and candidates typically submit many more to ensure enough are valid.
A recent poll conducted by Target-Insyght and comissioned by the Black Caucus of the Michigan Democratic Party showed that Young was the most popular among voters of six potential candidates for a council-at large seat. The poll, first reported by Deadline Detroit, showed 25 percent of voters favor Young, followed by Councilman André Spivey with 18 percent and Councilwoman Janeé Ayers with 13 percent.
When asked if the poll impacted his decision to pull petitions, Young said he'd been interested in runnning for a long time, but "when you hear the call of the people, that's a hard thing to resist."
All of the council seats are up for election Nov. 2. There are two at-large seats, one which is held by Ayers and the other Council President Brenda Jones, who has previoulsy indicated she will not seek another term.
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