Greene, Tunney Win Special Primaries, Moving On To SD-35 May General Election

(Source: MIRS.news, Published 02/03/2026) Democrat Chedrick Greene, a Saginaw fire captain, and Republican Saginaw attorney Jason Tunney won their respective primaries Tuesday night in the 35th Senate District covering Michigan's competitive tri-cities and advance to the May 5 special General Election.

With some Saginaw and Midland precincts still outstanding, Greene won with 60% of the vote in a six-candidate field, which was a race between him and progressive state Board of Education President Pamela Pugh, the whole time. Pugh finished with 28% of the vote. The remaining four candidates combined for the remaining 12%.

Pugh won half of the city of Saginaw and two of three Buena Vista precincts, but Greene still beat Pugh in Saginaw County and then blew her out in Midland and Bay to nail down the victory.

“Tonight, the people of mid-Michigan chose leadership, service, and grit," said Sen. Darrin Camilleri (D-Trenton). “Chedrick Greene has spent his life answering the call to serve, first as a Marine, then as a Fire Captain, and always as a trusted community leader, and this victory reflects the deep trust his community has placed in him.”

On the Republican side, Tunney defeated former Dow Executive Christian Velasquez 51% to 43% with two other candidates combining for seven percent. Tunney won his home county of Saginaw by 2,195 votes and Velasquez beat Tunney by 1,448 votes in Midland. The difference was in Bay, where Tunney beat Velasquez by 751 votes.

Ronna McDaniel, CEO of the Michigan Forward Network, congratulated Tunney on Tuesday, noting that he had been endorsed by the Michigan Freedom Network.

“Now, it's time to come together and win,” Tunney said. “If elected, I'll go to Lansing focused on public safety, stronger schools, lower taxes and cutting back the regulations that make it harder to live and work in Michigan.”

Tuesday marked the primaries for the special Senate election to replace now-U.S. Rep. Kristen McDonald Rivet (D-Bay City), who left her state Senate seat at the end of 2024.

The Governor called special elections for McDonald Rivet's seat 238 days after she vacated it to join Congress. The timeline represents the longest time period a Michigan governor has taken to declare a special election for a vacant legislative seat since the advent of the state's full-time legislature during the '60s.

As of Jan. 18, Greene had $23,250 in his candidate account, and Tunney had $48,417 going into the district's May 5 general election, which could end either in Democrats restoring their 20-seat majority in the Senate chamber or turning it into a 19-19 split with Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist II casting tie-breaking votes for the rest of 2026.

Republicans are hoping to capitalize off of local frustrations towards Gov. Gretchen Whitmer waiting so long to call a special election in the district. The 35th Senate district is considered the home to Catholic, union-moderate Democrats, as well as new backers of President Donald Trump who surfaced over the last 10 years.

“For more than a year, families in this district were left without a voice in Lansing because Governor Whitmer refused to act,” Tunney said. “That wasn't an accident. It was a choice. Democrats were content to leave this seat empty while mid-Michigan paid the price.”

Meanwhile, Democrats won the seat in 2022 by 6.8 percentage points, and have been celebrating special election wins throughout the United States since Trump was reelected in 2024.

For example, according to the Downballot, Republicans did not flip any seats – legislative or congressional – from blue to red in any special elections across the U.S. in 2025. Meanwhile, Democrats flipped seven in 67 races.

Only days ago in Texas, Democrat Taylor Rehmet, a machinist union leader, defeated conservative Leigh Wambsganss 57.2 percent to 42.8 percent in a "solidly red" district that Trump won by 17 points in 2024.

As for the Democratic primary on Tuesday in the tri-cities region, Greene was heavily supported financially by top Senate Democratic leaders and unions.

His pre-primary campaign finance report showed Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks (D-Grand Rapids) contributing $36,500 out of three separate accounts. Camilleri, the caucus' campaign chair, donated $15,000. Going into the primary, Greene received $113,000 from 10 organized labor groups, including accounts affiliated with the Michigan Regional Council of Carpenters, the Michigan State AFL-CIO and Michigan Professional Firefighters Union.

Pugh was seen as the more progressive choice in the race, as well as someone not afraid to scrutinize the Governor and Democratic leaders over the years, especially in 2024 when she made unsuccessful efforts to run for the U.S. Senate and the 8th Congressional district.

Last month, Pugh was being promoted in mailers and digital ads as a "progressive champion" who would "make Medicare for all a reality" and "stand up to ICE." The Detroit News reported that the materials originated from ProgressiveMI, and based on one Google ad disclaimer, it was financed by the national Republican consulting firm, Majority Strategics LLC.

In a press release, Greene called both Velasquez and Tunney “ultra-wealthy, elite extremists who can ride out this cost crisis, but the people I talk to everyday in Bay, Midland, and Saginaw are suffering under Republicans' tariff chaos and health care cuts.”

Other Democratic candidates included Martin Blank (4%); Serenity Hope Salak, an assistance payments worker for the state's health department, (3%); Saginaw County Democratic Party Chair Brandell Adams (3%); and Bay County Medical Examiner William Morrone, a trauma surgeon who ran for the same seat as a Republican in 2022 (2%).

On the Republican side of things, Tunney served as a Saginaw County assistant prosecutor, and previously led his family's roofing business, which they sold in spring 2023, Duro-Last Roofing Systems.

When appearing on the MIRS Monday Podcast last month, Tunney said he never really envisioned himself in politics. In the Saginaw County prosecutor's office for four years, he said while his boss was an elected official, his job was to handle domestic violence, drunk driving and felony resisting-and-obstructing arrest cases.

"That's what I liked to do," Tunney said about his time at the prosecutor's office.

His wife, Pamela, was also in the prosecutor's office for nearly seven years.

Tunney decided to run in April of last year, when he had an "eureka moment" sitting at home one day, thinking about how his household was paying state taxes without having their own state senator.

He suggested prorating state taxes for 2025 for every day they didn't have a state senator.

"She says 'You're going to go to jail . . . you're going to jail, I'm not.' And I said 'fine, I'll run for it,'" Tunney said.

On the campaign trail, Tunney has been saying his day-one policy proposal will be giving state tax exemptions for residents going without a voice in the Senate or House for a certain number of days.

Other Republican primary candidates were Bay City "GOP-Independent" Chadwick Twillman, vice president of the Mountain Mover's Firm in Saginaw, (4%) and former two-term Saginaw City Councilmember Andrew Carlos Wendt (3%).

Of the votes already counted, Democrats had 26,095 votes cast for a listed primary candidate. Republicans had 17,443 votes cast for a listed primary candidate. In the 2022 primary, four Republicans had a combined 30,502 votes. Democrats ran Rivet unopposed. She had 22,585 votes.