Whitmer Breaking New Ground In Not Calling Special In SD-35
- Team MIRS
- 3 days ago
- 5 min read
(Source: MIRS.news, Published 05/23/2025) Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has crossed into unexplored territory with the length it’s taken her to call a special election in the politically competitive 35th Senate District.
No governor since the advent of the full-time legislature has taken longer, according to weeks of MIRS' research of 118 legislative and congressional vacancies.
It’s yet to be seen if the vacancy in the Tri-Cities seat left by now-U.S. Rep. Kristen McDonald Rivet (D-Bay City) will extend longer than any since the mid-1960s. However, it's clear no governor has taken longer to set a special election date to fill a vacancy since the new state constitution.
As of last Friday, Whitmer has waited 140 days to call a special election whose outcome could have significant repercussions on the Senate’s partisan power structure. Democrats are up 19-18 with the 35th being a swing district.
Based on several weeks of research by MIRS, the previous longest was set by Gov. John Engler when he took an estimated 90 days to set the special election when then-Rep. Teola Hunter left Jan. 17 for a job in Wayne County government. Later that spring, she ran for Wayne County clerk.
Detroit Mayor Coleman Young and House Minority Leader Lew Dodak publicly chided Engler in March 1992 for not having set a date, but by the time the filing deadline rolled around May 12, a candidate list published by The Detroit News had eventual winner Triette (Lipsey) Reeves running in the vacant District 5.
At the time, the ACLU and NAACP were challenging the new Detroit-based legislative districts and Engler told the press at the time he wanted to make sure there would still be a District 5 before putting Detroit in a position to spend money on running an election there.
As it turns out, the lawsuit wasn’t settled by the filing deadline, so Engler set a special election that ran concurrent with the regular 1992 primary and general elections. Hunter’s former District 5 ended up disappearing, so when Reeves ultimately won, she only served for seven weeks because the new District 5 was a completely different territory.
“I was Teola’s constituent relations staff person and I remember taking the calls of people who felt so vulnerable. I had an affinity for what was happening when the people called for help,” she said.
Reeves said she remembers filing for office around the filing deadline day for all legislative candidates. Engler set the special election date somewhere between late March and April, but she couldn’t say definitively.
MIRS nailed down the day the governor set special elections in more than 100 legislative and congressional races from 1966 and 2025 through newspaper accounts. Hunter’s 1992 vacancy is the only one the media didn't record.
Putting that specific race aside, it’s taken Whitmer, and Govs. Rick Snyder, Jennifer Granholm, Engler, Jim Blanchard, Bill Milliken and George Romney an average of 14 days to call special elections in the 113 legislative and congressional vacancies.
A few of those vacancies carried political consequences, as well:
- On Nov. 29, 2005, then-Rep. Herb Kehrl died in office with Democrats in a 58-52 minority. Kehrl represented a politically competitive Monroe County seat at the time and Michigan was sliding into a pretty deep recession.
Granholm waited 35 days before calling a special primary and general election that coincided with the regular 2006 election. Since at least the new state constitution, when lawmakers made it a habit to meet year-round, the 343 days that Kehrl’s seat was open is the longest in Michigan history.
- On June 6, 1974, then-Sen. Michael J. O’Brien (D-Detroit) died in office, giving the Republicans a 19-18 majority later in the month when Sen. John Welborn (R- Kalamazoo) was sworn in to replace then-Sen. Anthony Stamm who also died earlier in the year.
A Detroit Free Press article from the time assumed Milliken would leave O’Brien’s heavily Democratic seat open for the rest of the year. However, he did not.
Milliken had a similar situation going on in a House district and, acting upon the advice of Attorney General Frank Kelley, quietly set a special election in the heavily Democratic district that ran concurrently with the general election.
By mid-November, O’Brien’s son, also named Michael J. O'Brien, was sworn in, creating a new 19-19 partisan split.
- After the election of 1966, the House was split 55-55. But due to a single maverick Democratic member defecting during the leadership vote, the Republicans managed to get their candidate elected Speaker.
Democratic Leader Joseph Kowalski (D-Detroit) was understandably hot and pledged to use tricks of his own when the Republicans were out a member to wrestle away control. He never got a chance. He died suddenly on March 18, 1967.
Gov. George Romney waited nine days to call a May 23 election in the strongly Democratic Detroit district. The decision looked like it could bite Romney when freshman Rep. James Nunnely (R-Mt. Clemens) died suddenly.
While Nunnely’s district leaned Republican, the fear was Democrats would take back control of the chamber when it was temporarily 55-54. Romney took five days to call a June 6 special election, ordering essentially a 42-day turnaround.
The time between Kowalski’s death and the special election for his district was 66 days.
Regardless, the Democrats never got to taste success. The Democratic nominee, James Hoffa, lost by 158 votes to Republican Tony Licata in one of the most shocking upsets in Michigan political history.
After the win, Romney reportedly was moved to tears after receiving news of the Licata win. The Ann Arbor News reported that an aide to the governor said of Romney, “That's the most moved I’ve ever seen him.”
Days later, Republican David Serotkin beat former Democratic Rep. Victor Steech with 56% of the vote, giving the Republicans a clean 56-54 majority for remainder of the term.
Outside of the Teola Hunter vacancy, the greatest number of days between a legislative/congressional vacancy and the announcement of a special election are as follows:
- 74 days, Whitmer, death of Rep. Andrea Schoeder, Oct. 1, 2021, to Dec. 14, 2021
- 72 days, Engler, Rep. Kwame Kilpatrick elected Detroit mayor, Jan. 1, 2002, to Mar. 14, 2002
- 65 days, Blanchard, Rep. Virgil Smith, Jr., elected to state Senate, March 22, 1988, to May 26, 1988.
- 60 days, Engler, Sen. David Jaye, expelled from the chamber, May 24, 2001, to July 23, 2001
- 57 days, Blanchard, Rep. Rudy Nichols, elected state Senate, Feb. 6, 1984, to April 3, 1984.
The greatest number of days between a vacancy and the special election replacing the outgoing member:
1. 343 days, Granholm, death of Rep. Herb Kehrl, Nov. 29, 2005, to Nov. 7, 2006
2. 336 days, Snyder, U.S. Rep. John Conyers, resigned amid controversy, Dec. 5, 2017, to Nov. 6, 2018
3. 319 days, Granholm, death of Rep. Mike Simpson, Dec. 18, 2009, to Nov. 2, 20110
4. 310 days, Granholm, Rep. Clarence Phillips, elected Pontiac mayor, Jan. 1, 2006, Nov. 7, 2006
5. 309 days, Snyder, Rep. Andy Schor, elected Lansing mayor, Jan. 1, 2018 to Nov. 6, 2018.
Of the 118 vacancies flagged by MIRS, 33 were elected or appointed to a local office, 29 died, 17 were elected to the state Senate, 15 resigned amid controversy, 11 were elected to Congress, 5 took a job in the private sector, three were recalled and three were expelled. One resigned for health reasons and one said he wanted to retire early.