DETROIT — Garlin Gilchrist, Michigan’s lieutenant governor, is not only the first Black person to hold that office in state history; at 6-foot-9 he is the tallest. And though he plays an occasional game of hoops, he wasn’t a basketball player before politics, but a software engineer.

Now, however, the 43-year-old Detroit Democrat is trying to engineer something that’s never been done. He officially entered the race for governor this month, saying that while “we’ve seen our share of hard times, Michigan has always been a place where people who worked hard and who took care of each other could make something better.”

But what are his chances?

While Michigan has never had an African-American governor, that’s not unusual nationally. Since reconstruction, only three states have elected Black governors, all Democrats. Only one is currently in office: Wes Moore, the very popular governor of Maryland, the most ethnically diverse state in the union.

The only other elected Black governors were Virginia’s Douglas Wilder, elected to a single four-year term in 1989, and Massachusetts’ Deval Patrick, who served two terms, 2007-2015.

Additionally, David Paterson became governor of New York in 2008, finishing the last three years of Eliot Spitzer’s term when he resigned after a sensational sex scandal.

That’s been it. In recent years, voters have been increasingly willing to elect African-American congressmen and senators; there are five Black U.S. senators and 61 congressmen, plus four congressmen who are multiracial.

The vast majority of African-American voters are Democrats, but neither Ohio nor Michigan Democrats have ever nominated a Black candidate for governor.

Each state once nominated an African-American Republican, Michigan in 1986 and Ohio in 2006. Both Ohio’s Ken Blackwell and Michigan’s Bill Lucas lost badly in what were essentially hopeless races from the start.

But the race in Michigan next year is expected to be extremely competitive. While Wolverine state voters tend to rotate the party in power every eight years, there also tends to be a backlash against the party in the White House, which may hurt the Republicans.

However, Mr. Gilchrist has the same big problem that has afflicted every lieutenant governor and sitting vice president who has ever tried to win the top job.

They are essentially unable to separate themselves from the records of their administrations, and somehow, they inherit the bad without getting credit for the good.

As a result, they almost always lose. Ask Kamala Harris or Al Gore, for example. In Michigan, Lt. Gov. Dick Posthumus lost in 2006; Brian Calley couldn’t even win the 2018 primary.

Not since 1960 has a lieutenant governor, war hero John Swainson, won the top job, and he lasted only two years.

Additionally, unlike most politicians at that level, Mr. Gilchrist has never been elected to anything on his own.

Though he is a Detroit native, he moved to Washington state to work for Microsoft after earning an engineering degree in 2004. He then worked for the liberal group MoveOn.org before returning to Detroit to be director of innovation and emerging technology for the city.

His only attempt to win elective office came in 2017, when he took on city clerk Janice Winfrey. She won by barely 1 percent, amid speculation about election fraud.

The next year, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer tapped him to be her running mate. The ticket won easily, and even more easily four years later. Karen Dumas, a communications consultant, podcaster, and columnist in Detroit, said that not having a past record as an elected official is not necessarily a negative. However, it also means he doesn’t have a tried and tested base of support. “I know that people know and like Garlin,” said Ms. Dumas, a longtime observer of Detroit politics who was communications director for former mayor Dave Bing.

But she wonders if the lieutenant governor thinks that getting elected as part of a ticket is the same thing as winning office on your own. Mr. Gilchrist is certain to face a tough primary battle next year against someone who has won statewide office twice on her own, Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson.

And should he win the primary, he will not only face a Republican, but Detroit’s most famous politician, Mayor Mike Duggan, who is running for governor as an independent.

Regardless, it is too soon to tell how things will unfold. There’s another intriguing possibility: U.S. Rep. John James of Macomb County, the only African-American Republican Michigan has ever sent to Congress, is expected to run for governor as well.

If he does, he is likely to be the frontrunner, and if both he and Mr. Gilchrist were to be nominated, the state would have a governor’s race where both major party nominees happen to be Black.

If that doesn’t draw national attention, I’d be stunned.

Jack Lessenberry is a former national editor for The Blade. Contact him at omblade@aol.com.

First Published March 20, 2025, 4:00 a.m.