Peters Wins 14th District Congressional Race
DETROIT (WWJ) - Gary Peters pulled off a win over Hansen Clarke Tuesday night in the Democratic Primary for Michigan's newly redrawn 14th Congressional District.
Peters admitted the victory is bittersweet, having to knock out another Democratic incumbent due to redistricting after Michigan lost a Congressional seat because of population loss.
Pundits say Peters is the second white Congressman to win in a majority African-American district. Peters fought off Clarke's claims that the Bloomfield Township resident couldn't adequately represent a district that now includes Detroit.
Peters told his supporters Tuesday evening at his camp in Greek Town that while the district is diverse, people should be focused on "what we all want."
"We can't be thinking about our differences. We need to be thinking about what we have in common. And as I walked across those streets and walked around those communities, it is all the same, everybody wants to have a good paying job and the opportunity to be successful in their job... People want to be able to send their children to school and get a proper education, people have the right to live in a safe neighborhood," he told the cheering crowd.
Peters said he's been spending a lot of time in Detroit as part of that campaign, and he plans for that to continue.
"I represented half this district already in Congress as a State Senator, but Detroit is new, and that means when I wasn't in Washington D.C., I was in the city of Detroit nearly every single day for the last 11 months," he said. "There will not be a greater Detroit region if we don't have a strong and vibrant city of Detroit right in the middle of that region."
Peters thanked his supporters throughout the night as poll results came in.
"We knocked on tens of thousands of doors, talked to tens of thousands of people, wore out pairs of shoes and what was the result? We were able to win this election because of your work," he said.
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