In a Democratic stronghold, a GOP edge: The only candidate on the ballot

Republican Gavriel ‘Gabi’ Grossbard is the only candidate on the ballot in the race for Southfield City Clerk
After the incumbent withdrew, Michigan Democrats are backing a write-in candidate for the election clerk post
The party has raised alarms over Grossbard’s efforts to overturn 2020 election results

LANSING — Voters in the Democratic stronghold of Southfield will see just one election clerk candidate on the ballot next week: A Republican who got trounced when he ran for the same office two years ago.

Gavriel “Gabi” Grossbard has become an unlikely favorite in the race to run future city elections after Clerk Janet Jackson ended her re-election campaign in April because of unpaid fines that likely would have forced her disqualification.

Jackson, a Democrat, had coasted to victory over Grossbard in 2023, winning nearly 75% of the local vote.

Democrats are now sounding alarms over this year’s race, arguing Grossbard is unfit for the election clerk role because he was part of a lawsuit seeking to overturn President Donald Trump’s 2020 loss by invaliding votes, among other things.

Calling Grosbard a “MAGA extremist” and “conspiracy theorist,” the Michigan Democratic Party is backing clerk’s office employee Wynett Guy, asking voters to write in her name even though she’s not on the ballot.

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Winning write-in campaigns is not impossible — Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan did it in 2013 — but he is “the exception to the rule,” said Dave Dulio, a political science professor at Oakland University.

The Southfield clerk election is technically a non-partisan race, so Democratic voters won’t be able to simply vote for their party’s nominee.

A successful write-in campaign is “more difficult the further down the ballot you go,” Dulio told Bridge Michigan. In Southfield’s odd-year election, “many voters may not know there’s a clerk’s race, or who’s running” he said, realities that make the race an uphill climb for Guy and fellow write-in candidate Coretta Houge, a Southfield city council member.

Whoever wins the Nov. 4 election for the four-year term will be responsible for overseeing local elections and public records in the city, a large and predominantly Black metro Detroit suburb with roughly 76,600 residents.

Michigan Democrats have launched an aggressive campaign to support Guy, explain the write-in process to voters and warn against Grossbard, who was a named plaintiff in a 2020 lawsuit that sought to invalidate 1.2 million votes from three counties that backed Biden that year.

A sign to write-in Wynett Guy. — The Michigan Democratic Party is throwing its weight behind write-in candidate Wynett Guy for Southfield city clerk after the incumbent clerk was forced to drop out over campaign finance issues — leaving just one candidate, Republican Gabi Grossbard, on the ballot. (Lauren Gibbons/Bridge Michigan)

“I would question his ability to run a fair election based on what he has said about previous elections,” Michigan Democratic Party Chair Curtis Hertel told Bridge Michigan early Tuesday.

Grossbard did not respond to requests for comment on this story. His campaign manager, Pea Gee, called him a “very shy person” who was busy “observing all his Jewish holidays” in October.

“He’s all about doing the work and doing the job,” Gee said. “He’s not concerned about being quoted in the media. He’s concerned about providing that level of customer service to an office that is put there to serve the people.”

How we got here

Grossbard is an insurance agent and self-proclaimed “pro-Israel American” conservative, according to social media comments he made during a failed 2020 bid for Congress.

Born in Israel, he served in the Israeli Defense Forces before immigrating to the United States in 1998, he told the Detroit Jewish News.

After losing a bid for Southfield City Clerk in 2023, Grossbard ended up as the only candidate on the ballot this year after Jackson dropped out in April, just 48 hours before the candidate filing deadline.

Jackson told Bridge she withdrew after realizing she had $735 in unpaid campaign fines, which she had not disclosed on an affidavit of identity, an omission that would have likely disqualified her. Records show she had been fined and referred to Attorney General Dana Nessel’s office in January for failing to file a required campaign finance disclosure report.

Guy subsequently attempted to collect 200 valid voter signatures required to make the ballot, but she only had two days to do so and fell short after some of her signatures were challenged by Grossbard and invalidated.

It’s shocking “the level of incompetence that the long-suffering voters of Southfield are having to endure,” Michigan Republican Party Chair Jim Runestad told Bridge.

In 2022, then-Southfield Clerk Sharika Hawkins resigned amid allegations she improperly handled 193 absentee ballots in the 2018 midterm election and then attempted to cover it up. She later reached a plea deal, paying a $10,000 fine in exchange for no jail time.

“There has been an unbelievable series of ongoing events in that clerk’s office, and they need somebody who is going to do a great job,” Runestad added, “and (Grossbard) certainly will do that.”

Election integrity

For the Grossbard campaign, the latest drama is evidence the “clerk’s office is in crisis,” Gee said. Grossbard will work “to make the clerk’s office more transparent” and “restore election integrity,” she told Bridge.

Democrats are skeptical of that claim.

Grossbard’s 2020 lawsuit sought to toss out votes from Wayne, Ingham and Washtenaw counties — three of the state’s biggest Democratic strongholds.

At the time, the NAACP argued the complaint was an “all-out attack on votes cast by Black voters” in Wayne County, “home to the City of Detroit and by far the largest concentration of Black voters in the state.”

Grossbard and other plaintiffs voluntarily dismissed their suit five days after it was filed.

Facebook posts which have now either been deleted or hidden also appear to imply Grossbard traveled to Washington D.C. on Jan. 6, 2021, though his participation level in any events of that day is unclear.

“I think that the Michigan Democratic Party is trying to create a fearmongering campaign against my candidate,” Gee told Bridge.

She said voters should focus on his campaign platform for clerk: He’s advocated for greater transparency in city government and more streamlined online services, among other things.

“I feel like if you have to assassinate someone’s character, then you don’t have a platform,” Gee said, noting the Michigan Democratic Party did not raise the issues when he ran for the same post two years ago.

Runestad also took issue with the characterizations and said he’s not surprised the state Democratic Party got involved in the race.

“They’re going to try to pull everything out of the hat to besmirch and smear this gentleman, who would be only concerned about running a very competent operation there in Southfield.”

Write-in hopes

Despite the difficulty of winning write-in campaigns, Michigan Democrats are “cautiously optimistic” that Guy can win and that “the work we’re doing will be fruitful,” said Hertel, the state party chairman.

Guy did not respond to interview requests. She’s worked in the Southfield City Clerk’s office managing city records and elections since September 2024, according to her LinkedIn profile. She previously served as an information systems technician in the US Navy before moving into various government jobs.

If elected, she’s pledged to “create a more efficient, accessible and transparent city clerk’s office.”

“I’m not here because I need another paycheck … I’m here because this is what my heart desires to do for the city,” Guy said during a Sept. 12 candidate forum hosted by the League of Women Voters.

Houge — a Southfield City Council member with a health care background — said her priorities would include further developing voter education programs in the city while ensuring timely, accurate and fair elections.

Grossbard did not participate.

In addition to the state party, former US Rep. Brenda Lawrence has also endorsed Guy. Houge says she has the support of Southfield Mayor Kenson J. Siver and city council colleagues.

“That tells you right there that they stand behind me to be able to come in on day one and run the office of the clerk because of my knowledge of city operations,” Houge said during the candidate forum.

In the meantime, the Michigan Democratic Party is focused on educating voters on how write-ins work: A voter must physically write out their preferred candidate’s name and fill in the bubble next to their name.

“I’ve knocked doors in Southfield the last three weekends, and I can tell you that people are very aware of Wynett’s campaign,” Hertel said, “And, they’re very aware of Gabi Grossbard’s record.”