WASHINGTON — After 16 months without representation in the state Senate, voters in a competitive Central Michigan district will decide control of the chamber on Tuesday in a special election to fill the seat last held by Democrat Kristen McDonald Rivet, who's now a congresswoman.
Michigan Democrats won a state government trifecta in 2022 — control of the governorship and both chambers of the state Legislature — but they lost the state House in 2024 and now cling to a 19-18 state Senate majority. A Republican victory on Tuesday would deadlock the body at 19 senators each.
While the state constitution allows Democratic Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist II to break ties, Republicans could still block measures by withholding votes and preventing Democrats from reaching the 20-vote threshold required to pass legislation.
The nominees for the seat are Democrat Chedrick Greene, Republican Jason Tunney and Libertarian Ali Sledz.
Greene, a firefighter and former state Senate aide to McDonald Rivet, received 60% of the vote in the Feb. 3 Democratic special primary against five others. Tunney, an attorney and former executive at his family’s roofing company, won the GOP special primary with 51% of the vote against three opponents.
State Senate District 35 includes parts of Bay, Midland and Saginaw counties and borders Lake Huron. Although Republican Donald Trump carried all three counties in the 2024 presidential race, the portions of the counties that fall within District 35 are more competitive. McDonald Rivet won the seat in 2022 with 53% of the vote. Democrat Kamala Harris barely edged Trump in the district in 2024, 49.7% to 48.9%, on the strength of her 17-percentage-point lead in the Saginaw portion of the district. Trump posted smaller leads in the parts of the district in Bay and Midland counties. District voters also preferred Democrat Joe Biden over Trump in the 2020 presidential race by a slightly larger margin.
McDonald Rivet vacated the seat in January 2025 following her election to Congress. Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced in August 2025 that the special primary would be held Feb. 3 and the special election on Tuesday.
The winner will complete the remaining eight months of the term. Both Greene and Tunney have filed to run in the Aug. 4 primaries for nomination to a full term.
The Associated Press does not make projections and will declare a winner only when it’s determined there is no scenario that would allow a trailing candidate to close the gap. If a race has not been called, the AP will continue to cover any newsworthy developments, such as candidate concessions or declarations of victory. In doing so, the AP will make clear that it has not yet declared a winner and explain why.
Michigan’s mandatory recount law does not apply to state Senate races. Instead, candidates may request and pay for a recount, with the payment refunded if the recount changes the outcome. The AP may declare a winner in a race that is subject to a recount if it can determine the lead is too large for a recount or legal challenge to change the outcome.
Here are some of the key facts about the election and data points the AP Decision Team will monitor as the votes are tallied:
When do polls close?
Polls in Senate District 35 close at 8 p.m. ET.
What’s on the ballot?
The AP will provide vote results and declare a winner in the state Senate special election. Three candidates are on the ballot. Write-in votes are not permitted for this election, since no write-in candidates filed the necessary paperwork with election officials.
Who gets to vote?
Any voter registered in state Senate District 35 may participate in the special election. Voters may register on Election Day.
How many people actually vote?
Nearly 46,000 voters cast ballots in the Feb. 3 special primary in District 35. There were slightly more than 17,000 votes from Saginaw County, just shy of 17,000 from Bay County and about 11,000 from Midland County.
In the regularly scheduled 2022 general election, about 116,000 ballots were cast in the district, with the share of votes from each county about the same as in the special primary.
How much of the vote is cast early or by absentee ballot?
In the Feb. 3 special primaries, early and absentee votes made up about 43% of the total Democratic primary vote and about 29% of the Republican vote.
By comparison, about 60% of the vote in the 2024 presidential general election was cast before Election Day.
As of Friday, about 32,000 ballots had already been cast in the special election.
When are early and absentee votes released?
Bay, Midland and Saginaw counties tend to release a relatively small amount of the vote in their first vote update, both in terms of advance votes and in-person Election Day votes. Bay County tends to release results from pre-Election Day voting at the end of the vote tabulation process, while Midland and Saginaw counties release them throughout the night along with results from in-person Election Day voting.
How long does vote-counting usually take?
The last time this seat was up, in 2022, the AP first reported results in state Senate District 35 at 8:53 p.m. ET, or 53 minutes after polls closed. About 89% of the vote had been tallied by 2:23 a.m. ET, with the last vote update of the night at 5:33 a.m. ET, with about 99.9% of total votes counted.
Are we there yet?
As of Tuesday, there will be 91 days until the Aug. 4 state primary and 182 days until the 2026 midterm elections.
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Follow the AP's coverage of the 2026 election at https://apnews.com/projects/elections-2026/.
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