Flint residents interested in shaping the future direction of the city have their chance this week: nominating petitions for Flint Mayor and City Council are available from the city clerk’s office as of January 5.
This year, all nine council seats as well as the mayor’s office are up for grabs. Residents interested in running for either office must be a registered voter in the city of Flint for at least one year prior to the April 21, 2026, filing deadline.
City council candidates must collect at least 75 signatures from registered voters in the ward they’re running to represent and be a resident of that ward. The map of Flint’s nine ward boundaries is available online.
Candidates for mayor must submit petitions with signatures from at least 600 registered voters within the city of Flint.
Petitions can be picked up at the City of Flint Clerk’s office on the second floor of City Hall, 1101 S. Saginaw Street, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday-Friday. Signed petitions must be dropped off prior to the April 21 filing deadline.
It should be noted that petitions MUST be picked up and dropped off at the city clerk’s office, not at the Genesee County Clerk/Register of Deeds office. Domonique Clemens, Genesee County Clerk and Register of Deeds, stated on Facebook there has already been confusion over this.
“We have already gotten a lot of questions about this: Nominating petitions for Flint City elections will be available next week at the Flint City Clerk’s office … *NOT* with the County Clerk & Register of Deeds!,” he wrote.
Any questions about running for mayor or city council should be directed to the city clerk’s office at (810) 766- 7413.
Once petitions are submitted and validated, candidates for each seat will compete in a primary election on August 4. If there are more than two candidates for each seat, the top two vote getters for each in the primary will move on to the general election on November 3. All of the seats are nonpartisan.
With several months before candidates are verified and emerged, it is unclear how contested each seat will be. However, this week, a prominent candidate for mayor announced he will not seek that office. Delrico Loyd, a former Flint City Council member and currently the Chair of the Genesee County Board of Commissioners, had been rumored to be exploring a run at mayor since last year. However, he posted this week on Facebook that he won’t be pursuing that position.
“While I firmly believe I could make a meaningful difference and represent an elevated standard of leadership, I have come to peace with the conviction that now is not the right time,” Loyd wrote in a statement on Facebook.
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