Summary
- Saginaw County attorney sues Governor Whitmer.
- Lawsuit demands special election for vacant 35th Senate seat.
- Seat vacant over seven months since January 2025.
- Delay undermines public trust, erodes law legitimacy.
- Whitmer has yet to set a special election date.
A judge is asked in the complaint to mandate that Whitmer call a fresh election within seven days. A request for comment on the complaint received no response from the governor's office.
After Democrat Kristen McDonald Rivet was elected to the US House and formally left the Michigan Senate on January 3, the seat in the 35th Senate District, which encompasses portions of Bay, Midland, and Saginaw counties, has been unoccupied for the past seven months.
“In a democratic republic, the absence of representation is not a mere inconvenience — it is a denial of one of the most fundamental political rights,”
attorney Philip Ellison, with Outside Legal Counsel, wrote in a suit filed Monday in the Michigan Court of Claims on behalf of seven local residents.
“Every legislative day that passes without a senator from District 35 silences an entire community in the lawmaking process.”
A judge is asked in the complaint to mandate that Whitmer call a fresh election within seven days. A request for comment on the complaint received no response from the governor's office.
After Democrat Kristen McDonald Rivet was elected to the US House and formally left the Michigan Senate on January 3, the seat in the 35th Senate District, which encompasses portions of Bay, Midland, and Saginaw counties, has been unoccupied for the past seven months.
With around 270,000 citizens without state Senate representation, the seat remains vacant more than 200 days later. Other than stating that an announcement would be made "in the near future," officials from the governor's office have not provided any information about when she might call a special election.
Whitmer has come under fire for allegedly engaging in political games: In the state Senate, Democrats presently have a 19–18 advantage. Republicans may be able to reject proposals if they are successful in flipping the seat.
According to the state Constitution, which states that a governor "shall issue writs of election to fill vacancies in the senate or house of representatives," Ellison told Bridge Michigan on Monday that he sees the lawsuit as a test of that provision.
“The Constitution itself provides an affirmative mandate that the governor has a responsibility to do something,”
he argued.
Those arguments may not hold up in court though, according to Steve Liedel, an attorney with Lansing’s Dykema law firm who served as chief legal counsel to former Gov. Jennifer Granholm.
How does the Michigan law address filling vacancies like in the 35th district?
Michigan law requires that when a vacancy occurs in a state Senate district, the governor is responsible for calling a special election to fill the vacancy.
This is grounded in the Michigan Constitution, which mandates that vacancies in the legislature be filled by elections to ensure representation for the constituents. The law aims to prevent disenfranchisement of residents by ensuring the seat does not remain vacant for an extended period.
Specifically for the 35th Senate District, which has been vacant since its previous senator was sworn into Congress earlier in 2025, a lawsuit has been filed arguing that Governor Gretchen Whitmer's refusal to call a special election is unconstitutional because it leaves about 270,000 residents without representation.