Hamtramck mayoral hopefuls clash in race to lead troubled ethnic enclave
Hamtramck — Voters in Hamtramck choosing between an immigrant from Bangladesh and an immigrant from Yemen in the upcoming mayoral election are seeing a residency issue play out in the controversy-ridden Detroit enclave.
Muhith Mahmood, a City Council member, and Adam Alharbi, an engineer who is running for elected office for the first time, are running to succeed Mayor Amer Ghalib, whose nomination to be U.S. ambassador to Kuwait has been delayed by further scrutiny into his background.
"It's a competition between someone who has lived here since he was a kid and someone who doesn't live here," said Alharbi, a Yemeni ally of Ghalib who is referencing allegations that his competitor resides in the Oakland County community of Troy. "It's between someone with real, solid goals for the future of Hamtramck and someone who's using just political goal points to advance."
Instead, Mahmood, from Bangladesh, sees the race as one between a working-class humanitarian and a political opportunist who's too preoccupied to manage the city effectively. Meanwhile, Yemen-native Alharbi paints it as a matchup between a businessman who's built a successful life in Hamtramck and someone who resides in another city altogether.
https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/elections/wayne-county/2025/10/13/hamtramck-mayoral-hopefuls-clash-in-race-to-lead-troubled-ethnic-enclave/86336060007/