Tie Vote Looms in Michigan Senate as 35th District Election Decides State Majority

The Stakes of Tuesday's 35th District Election

Voters in the Great Lakes Bay region have the power to decide whether Michigan Democrats maintain their majority in the state Senate.

The 35th Senate District seat in Midland, Bay and Saginaw counties has sat vacant for nearly 500 days. A Republican win would create a 19-19 tie in the state Senate.

This sets the table for the whole state of Michigan as we go into this important election year, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said Wednesday as she campaigned for Democrat Chedrick Greene.

A GOP win would mean more partisan gridlock in Lansing, Whitmer suggested, arguing voters are already exhausted by dysfunction in Washington DC.

The election has major implications for policymaking in Lansing this year, where the Republican-led state House and Democrat-led state Senate have already been passing new laws at a historically slow rate.

How Republicans Could Block Bills

If Republicans win, there is every reason to believe that things will get even slower on non-budgetary issues, said John Sellek, a Republican strategist and CEO of the Lansing-based Harbor Strategic Public Affairs.

Republicans could play games, Sellek said. They could threaten to not cast a 19th vote, and therefore the bills would fail, because there would be no tie for Garlin Gilchrist to break.

Under current rules, the lieutenant governor can only vote when the senators are equally divided in their vote. The Michigan Constitution states that no bill shall become a law unless approved by a majority of the members elected and serving in the House and Senate.

Republicans could also try to make the most of a tied Senate in other ways, Sellek added, like potentially keeping Gilchrist Democrats nominee for secretary of state off the campaign trail and in Lansing for voting.

What that would mean for policymaking in Lansing this year remains to be seen.

Lawmakers are already advancing state government budgets, and there has been some bipartisan interest in property tax relief and addressing medical debt. Whitmer has also urged the Legislature to work with her on steps to improve low student literacy scores and create a new affordable housing tax credit.

As of right now, the electoral reasons to get things passed are very few, said Corwin Smidt, interim director at Michigan State University Institute for Public Policy and Research. You are going to see a lot of legislation as campaigning through legislative proposals not legislation as policy, Smidt said.

The Race

Tunney and Greene were among nearly a dozen candidates to run for the open 35th Senate District. Greene emerged from the Feb. 3 Democratic primary with 60 percent of the vote, while Tunney secured 51 percent of the Republican vote in his special primary race.

Recent campaign finance reports indicate Greene has raised $404,302 since the start of the race and had roughly $55,809 still in the bank heading into the election. Tunney has raised a total of $398,616 and had $42,503 left in his war chest ahead of Tuesday.

Tunney is an attorney and partner at Tunney Law PLLC. He previously served as general counsel and executive vice president of his familys manufacturing business, Duro-Last Inc.

In a Tuesday interview with Bridge Michigan, he described himself as a Saginaw guy who decided to run for the seat after seeing how long it took Whitmer to call the special election.

I think taxation without representation is wrong, said Tunney, who added his first bill, if elected, would be to require a governor call special elections within 30 days of a vacancy. I think that manipulating the system for partisan politics is wrong, and we should not be denying our taxpayers and our citizens a voice, Tunney said.

Education issues, particularly Michigans poor grade-school reading scores and issues with chronic absenteeism, have been a core part of Tunneys focus on the campaign trail.

He is also pledged to make Michigan more business-friendly by rolling back state regulations, lowering Michigans 4.25 percent state income tax rate and supporting public safety initiatives.

Greene, meanwhile, is a longtime captain with the Saginaw Fire Department wearing his uniform in a campaign video prompted a successful complaint. He worked in the Legislature for McDonald Rivet, who joined Whitmer in endorsing him for the Senate race.

Greene also served for 30 years in the United States Marine Corps Reserve where he deployed to more than a dozen nations including Iraq in the early 2000s as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom before retiring in April 2024.

I always work to maintain a good presence in the community because if young people see people doing well, that leads them to do well, Greene told Bridge on Wednesday.

Similar to Tunney, Greene also identified public safety as a priority for his campaign and said he would like to make Michigan more attractive to small businesses by rolling back potentially burdensome state regulations.

The Timeline

The Board of State Canvassers will likely certify Tuesdays election results during a May 28 meeting, and Jones said the Senate would quickly swear in the winner after that.

Tunney v. Greene, a Bridge Michigan headline from May 1, 2026, confirmed the election date.