Charles Pugh makes history with big win in Detroit

DETROIT — “Haaaaaaaaay!!”

That was the election night rebel yell that Shae Seaward let loose, arms in the air, after her candidate was announced the top vote-getter in Tuesday’s city council election.

Pugh: “I'm the president of the Detroit City Council who just happens to be gay." (Photos by David Alire Garcia/Michigan Messenger)

Her candidate: Charles Pugh, former FOX2 television journalist, and now the president-elect of the Detroit City Council.

The 88,704 votes he won — nearly 10 percent of the vote overall — locked up that distinction after a hard-fought campaign, and with it the added distinction of becoming the first openly gay council president in the city’s history.

As an African American, Pugh is a trailblazer on national level.

“That’s big. I think that’s huge,” Wayne State political scientist Ronald Brown said late Tuesday night: “It means that what voters want in the city is better quality of life and the old push-button issues may still be there, but they’re not nearly as potent.”

At Pugh’s victory celebration at Renaissance Center’s Seldom Blues jazz restaurant overlooking the Detroit River, state Rep. David Nathan (D-Detroit) pointed to Pugh’s resume as the candidate’s major asset.

“I don’t think we voted for Charles Pugh because he was gay,” Nathan said. “I think Charles brings a unique perspective to the city council, especially his connection to the media. Far too often we have been subjected to negative media reports.”

In an interview with Michigan Messenger, Pugh explained how a mix of old and new campaign strategies shaped his campaign.

It was a lot of hard work. We were knocking on doors. We did the old fashioned way of campaigning, knocking on doors, shaking hands, going to all these candidate forums, the debates. But we also we tried some new stuff. Facebook was our friend. Everyday I was on Facebook with a different message. I have 17,000 Facebook fans. I know that some of our margin of victory is from Facebook supporters, who followed me, who listened, who asked me questions.

Asked what he made of the history he had just made, Pugh said Detroiters sent “a strong and clear message” with their votes.

There has been a fear in the past by people in the LGBT community to stay in the closet for safety sake. So they won’t be fired, kicked out of the family, kicked out of the church. But this is a strong and clear message that that’s not required. That you can be who you are and be accepted into Detroit’s family if you step up with class and dignity and a willingness to help make our city a better place.

As for those who may have felt that his sexual orientation would be a liability in the campaign, Pugh didn’t see it that way.

For those people who thought it would be an issue, they were short sighted. They did not see that Detroiters already knew my sexuality and were willing to accept it and say, “You know what? You’re welcome here. We love you. Now let’s get to work to fix our collective problems.”

Seated at the bar, campaign manager Jillian Semaan, said she never doubted that Pugh would finish first. But she was already focused on the future.

“I think that he’s going to do really big things on the city council,” Semaan said. “And beyond.”

Shortly after midnight, as revelers continued to dance, Seaward, a Pugh campaign fundraiser and event coordinator, cast Pugh’s history-making election win into a more reserved — and perhaps revealing — light.

“You know what? Charles doesn’t put his sexual orientation in anybody’s face,” she said. “So I really don’t think it’s a big deal.”