Case closed, Ayers returns with City Council challenge
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Former City Council member Janeé Ayers, pictured in 2020. Photo: Courtesy of the City of Detroit via Flickr
Janeé Ayers is mounting a comeback, four years after an FBI raid and losing her City Council seat.
Why it matters: With a cleared name, Ayers is running again for a City Council at-large seat, looking to continue the work she started before it was cut short, she tells Axios.
Catch up quick: Ayers joined City Council in 2015 to fill a vacated seat, coming from a background that included being a vice president of a union coalition and working in the recreation department. She was elected in 2016 and again in 2017.
- In late August 2021, as part of a sprawling public corruption investigation that led to the conviction of former council member Andre Spivey, the FBI searched City Hall and Ayers' home, as well as council member Scott Benson's home.
- The investigation was closed this January, with no charges filed against Ayers or Benson.
Driving the news: After launching her campaign, Ayers is looking to return to her policy focuses, including fiscal responsibility and the rights of citizens returning from incarceration.
- She's challenging two incumbents, Mary Waters and Coleman Young II.
- They're considered tough campaigners — though Ayers received more votes than them in the 2021 primary before the raid.
What she's saying: Ayers says she's addressing what happened hands-on, letting people know the case is closed and saying her past work speaks for itself.
- "It was very jarring, but I'm still thankful for the experience at the end of it, because it made me stronger, it made me wiser, I see things completely differently," she says. "Like Detroit, I've been counted out, I've been talked about, I've been drug through the mud, and still we rise."
Ayers shared what it was like to experience a home FBI search warrant.
- It was a traumatic event, she says, that left her filled with terror whenever someone came to her door. She had to learn to work through it and let the investigation play out.
- "Was it humiliating for me? Absolutely, because I knew I did not do anything wrong," she adds. "But they had to do the process."
State of play: In her campaign, Ayers says she's ready to sustain the city's growth with less federal funding under President Trump, amid budget pressures like pension debt payments.
- She also wants to streamline city processes for small businesses and address housing that's designated affordable but that Detroiters still can't afford.
Zoom out: Young, Waters and Ayers are running alongside other candidates including fire chief James Harris and former congressional candidate Shakira Hawkins.
- Ayers was a good council member and has a beneficial labor background, political consultant and PR professional Greg Bowens tells Axios, but he expects the incumbents will prevail, with their reach, deep community roots and no big gaffs during their tenures.
What's next: After the last couple years spent as a supervisor in the city's recreation department and doing hospitality consulting, Ayers is back to knocking on doors. She's reintroducing herself and her message.
- "Our tagline has always been 'Ayers cares,'" she says. "I still care, and I don't have to have a title to do it and I've been doing the work. The work doesn't stop."