Jason Tunney, the Republican candidate competing in a May 5 special election for Michigan's 35th Senate District, has filed paperwork to run again in the November 2026 general election.
The move signals Tunney's intent to continue his campaign for the seat representing Bay, Midland, and Saginaw counties regardless of the outcome of next month's special election.
"This district has gone without a State Senator for too long, and the people of the Great Lakes Bay Region deserve a fighter in Lansing — not just for the next few months, but for the long haul," Tunney said in a statement released Thursday.
The Saginaw native and former prosecutor worked more than 20 years at Duro-Last, a manufacturing company headquartered in the district. His campaign has made contact with voters through knocking on more than 20,000 doors and placing over 35,000 phone calls. Tunney personally knocked on more than half of those doors, according to the campaign.
Tunney has centered his campaign on lower taxes, public safety, and economic opportunity. He has also emphasized infrastructure resilience, citing the 2020 Edenville and Sanford dam failures as a preventable disaster. Those dam failures forced the evacuation of more than 10,000 residents and caused over $200 million in damage to 2,500 properties in the district.
"The Great Lakes Bay Region has real challenges — families paying too much in taxes, manufacturers dealing with overregulation and a lack of skilled trade education, and communities that still haven't fully recovered from infrastructure failures that never should have happened," Tunney said. "I've lived these issues. I've worked through them. And I'm ready to go to Lansing to solve them."
Tunney's candidacy has drawn support from several prominent Republicans, including Mike Rogers, the presumptive Republican U.S. Senate nominee, Congressman John James, Senate Republican Leader Aric Nesbitt, former Speaker Tom Leonard, former Attorney General Mike Cox, and Perry Johnson.
The November 2026 general election for Michigan's 35th Senate District is scheduled for Nov. 3, 2026.
Tunney wants to lower state income tax from 4.25% to 4%, with a long-term vision of competing with Indiana's 3% income tax. He also contrasted Michigan's 6% corporate income tax to Indiana's 4.9%.
"We are becoming a tax-heavy state," Tunney said. "We're becoming a burden on small businesses and people in this state. We're taking more money out of their pocket. I don't see what incentive there is for people to move here to Michigan when Indiana and Ohio are showing net migration gains compared to us."
Another priority for Tunney is making Michigan more business friendly. In addition to taxes that he feels are too high, Tunney says state agencies like the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy are over-regulating Michigan industries.
Tunney said his experience as an assistant prosecuting attorney in the Saginaw County prosecutor's office for four years, as well as 20 years spent working at Duro-Last, a roofing company started by his grandfather, sets him apart from other candidates.
"I'm not a career politician, but I think that I'm uniquely qualified for this role at this time," he said.
The race has the potential to end the Democrats' narrow 19-18 majority in the state Senate.
In the Feb. 3 primary elections, Republicans were able to mobilize just over 18,000 voters to the polls for an election that only had one item on the ballot, while the Democrats turned out around 26,000 voters, a difference of roughly 8,400 people.
For comparison, in 2022, the last time elections were held for this seat, the primary election brought over 53,000 people to the polls, while the general election garnered about 116,000. For most of the district, this election will be the only item on the ballot on May 5.
Tunney said he supports tax cuts and called for a more deregulated energy sector, citing cheaper costs in neighboring states. He criticized some of the members of the state's utility regulating board over rising energy costs, calling some of them unqualified.
He also called for a more transparent state process on data center development, arguing that local communities should have more of a say and that non-disclosure agreements should be omitted from the process.
"You better sell it to the county commissioners, you better sell it to the citizens," he told WCMU in an interview. "Go in there and convince the people why that data center is good for their community."
Dennis Quehl is a 70-year-old retiree from Midland who attended the event and said he's supporting Tunney and his effort to rein in state spending.
"I think there's a lot of wasteful spending going on," Quehl said. "I'd like to see more money going for more core things. I believe that people will see that they're better off financially with Jason in office."
Republicans in the Saginaw Bay area anticipate the race is going to be a squeaker. According to internal GOP data, Republicans are looking for a pathway to victory by less than 500 votes, if they meet all their turnout goals.
The data shows they expect turnout for the special election on May 5 to be just under 59,500 total voters across a combined 27 townships and cities in the 35th District. Tunney expressed optimism for his campaign.
"I will not be outworked. I've knocked on over 8,500 doors already since the start of this campaign," he said.
The November 2026 general election for the 35th Senate seat is scheduled for Nov. 3, 2026.