By: Mike Koury | Southfield Sun | Published August 7, 2025
SOUTHFIELD — Southfield held its mayoral primary on Aug. 5, and the candidates who got the two highest vote totals will be moving on to the general election this November.
Incumbent Mayor Kenson Siver, Sylvia Jordan and Ryan Foster were on the ballot for residents to select to move on to the Nov. 4 general election.
Siver and Jordan were chosen by voters to move on to the final contest. According to the Oakland County Elections Division’s official results, Siver received 6,858 votes and Jordan received 4,840, while Foster received 472 votes.
Siver, Southfield’s mayor since 2015, said that the results show “the majority of Southfield residents have confidence in me.”
He said he is grateful for the support that he’s received.
“I don’t take that lightly,” he said. “Being mayor has been the honor of my life.”
Jordan previously served on the Southfield City Council for 17 years, from 1997 to 2015.
Jordan said she was happy to get Southfield voters’ support after a decade away from serving in the government.
“I think people are not currently satisfied with how the city is moving, how the city looks, what we’ve provided to our residents for the high taxes that we pay,” she said. “I believe people are ready for change and we’ve heard that countless times throughout this community. They don’t like the way things are presently going.”
This was Foster’s sixth time running for office. A native of Southfield, Foster hopes for the best for the city in the November election.
“I bless the city of Southfield. I wish Sylvia Jordan and (Kenson) Siver luck,” he said. “I hope citizens show up Nov. 4 and pick the city clerk and City Council and, of course, the mayor. I was born and raised in Southfield, and I still pray for Southfield and I still want the best.”
Southfield City Clerk Janet Jackson said the election ran smoothly for the city, but turnout was relatively low because it was a one-issue primary. Southfield saw 12,226 people cast a ballot on Aug. 5. In total, there were 64,129 people registered to vote, meaning that turnout was 19%.
“Typically, those don’t generate as much interest because the campaigning is not as … active, because there’s only one race and there were no other primaries to decide who would go on, which is always unfortunate, but that was the case,” she said.
Aside from the mayoral race, other races in the Nov. 4 election in Southfield will include elections for clerk, treasurer and City Council.
The election for clerk will have Gabi Grossbard on the ballot, and Wynett Ann Guy and Coretta Houge running as write-ins for one four-year term.
Only one person, incumbent Irv M. Lowenberg, will be on the ballot for Southfield treasurer and its four-year term.
The race for City Council has seven people running for four seats. Incumbents Michael Ari Mandelbaum, Daniel Brightwell and Yolanda C. Haynes will seek to keep their seats against Ashanti Bland, Catrina Butler, Stacy Jackson and Gregory Keeler.
The top three candidates with the highest vote totals will win four-year terms, and the individual who receives the fourth-highest vote total will win a two-year term.