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Coleman Young II Officially Announces Run For Detroit Mayor's Office

DETROIT (WWJ/AP) — State Sen. Coleman A. Young II says he will run for Detroit's mayor -- a job his father held for 20 years.

Young, a Democrat, made the announcement Friday in Detroit. Incumbent Mayor Mike Duggan already announced he is seeking re-election to a second four-year term.

"I want to put people back to work, just like my father -- the Honorable Coleman Alexander Young -- did," Young II said on Friday. "He is turning over in his grave right now, turning over in his grave."

Coleman A. Young was elected in 1973 as Detroit's first black mayor. He held the office through 1993 when he decided not to seek re-election and died in 1997.

The 34-year-old Coleman A. Young II has been a state representative and was elected in 2010 to the Michigan Senate. He unsuccessfully ran in a 2009 special mayoral primary election to complete the second term of convicted ex-Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.

Young II said Duggan has been too slow in responding to the needs of those in Detroit's neighborhoods -- nearly half of whom, he says, live in poverty.

"I don't care who you are -- young, poor, white, black, graduated from Yale or you fresh out of jail -- I'm here for you and there's always going to be a seat at the table," Young II said. "What I don't understand is why we're always having to choose this either-or. There's enough money for everybody to be able to be put to work."

The filing deadline for the August 2017 primary is April 25.

 

(© Copyright 2017 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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