Democrat Chedrick Greene won Michigan’s special election for the 35th state Senate district on Tuesday, defeating Republican Jason Tunney in a race that helped preserve his party’s one-seat advantage in the Michigan Senate. The election filled a seat left vacant since January 2025, and Greene’s term runs through the end of the year, when the seat will be up for reelection in the fall.
Greene, a firefighter and Marine veteran, won in a district that includes Saginaw and Bay City and stretches about 100 miles (160 kilometers) north of Detroit, according to the Associated Press account of results and context. The district is also described as including part of Saginaw County, the only Michigan county to back the winning presidential candidate in each of the last five elections.
At a watch party, Greene told supporters, “I just want you to know who’s had your back for 31 years and you can be sure I’ll still have your backs in Lansing,” referring to the state’s capital city, the AP reported. Tunney conceded the race, saying he “fell short” but that he plans to run again in November.
A libertarian candidate, Ali Sledz, lagged far behind in third place, the AP reported. The outcome leaves Democrats positioned to advance their agenda during the months before Whitmer’s term ends in January, while the Legislature prepares for a competitive Senate fight tied to the November political calendar.
The special election was closely watched because it could have shifted control of the chamber. With Democrats currently controlling the Michigan Senate 19-18, Tuesday’s result kept that majority intact; had Tunney won, the Senate would have been tied, making it harder for Democrats to move legislation.
Republicans argued that the timing of the special election was a disadvantage for the district, saying Whitmer waited too long to call it and leaving the district without representation in the state Senate for nearly 500 days, the AP said. Democrats and outside allies, including U.S. Rep. Kristen McDonald Rivet, framed the district as a useful check on broader political dynamics heading into November.
Rivet said the district’s mix of places makes it a “microcosm of the Midwest,” adding: “Given how much it resembles so many other places across the country, we have to look at it and say, this is an indicator of how things are going to go in November.” The AP described the area as centered on working-class communities shaped by the auto industry’s past and as including a large share of union-affiliated voters and a sizable Black population, surrounded by more conservative rural areas.
Some strategists cautioned against treating the special election as a clean forecast for the midterm environment, pointing to heavy Democratic spending and high-profile visits, including by former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin. The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee said in February that the special election would “set the tone for midterms” and announced a $250,000 investment aimed at helping Michigan Democrats retain their Senate majority in May and November.
In the campaign’s vote-day texture, one voter cited economic pressure. John Hall, a 69-year-old self-described independent, told AP that he voted for Greene because the economy was the pressing issue for him; he said he spent $58 at the gas station before driving to the public library in Bay City to vote, adding it would have cost between $35 and $40 to fill up his tank two months earlier.
In addition to the 35th District’s political signal, the AP described the seat as competitive in terms of presidential voting patterns within the district even as Trump carried all three counties in the 2024 presidential race. It reported that in the portions covered by District 35, Democrat Kamala Harris barely edged Trump in 2024, 49.7% to 48.9%, citing a 17-percentage-point lead in the Saginaw portion, and that McDonald Rivet won the seat in 2022 with 53% of the vote.