Chedrick Greene’s Grassroots Candidacy in the Last Special Election
MEIDAS TOUCH, Troy Matthews: It all comes down to Michigan next Tuesday, May 5th, after a year and a half of Democratic dominance in special elections since the 2024 Presidential election. Democrats have won or overperformed in 90% of special elections since Trump was elected—including in several deep red districts that Trump carried handily—in a stunning rebuke of MAGA policies.
Now, in the last special election before the November midterms, a firefighter and retired Marine, Chedrick Greene, is running a grassroots campaign to maintain Democratic control of the Michigan Senate through one of the most closely contested, toss-up districts in the country: the 35th Michigan Senate district around Saginaw, which Kamala Harris won by less than half a percent.
Greene served “30 years in the United States Marine Corps Reserve, retiring as a Marine Corps Sergeant Major, the highest in list of rank you can go, in 2024,” he says in an interview with MeidasTouch. Currently he works “as a firefighter with the City of Saginaw Fire Department here in Saginaw, Michigan.”
Greene worked in the office of his state senator as a district outreach representative until she was elected to the U.S. House. With no obvious choice for successor, colleagues turned to him, which was unexpected considering his only experience in elected office was briefly running for local school board.
“So the seat was vacant and we were all waiting for the governor to call the special election,” Greene recalls. “A couple people had mentioned to me in regards to me being the district assistant, like, why won’t you, you should run for that.”
“So here we are today. I won our special election primary with 60% of the Democratic votes, beating my next nearest competitor by two to one.”
Greene’s primary result showed a 30 point swing from his polling when he entered the race down double digits. Despite that, Greene says he doesn’t look at polls and instructs his staff not to share them. He’s not interested in the strategy game, he just wants people to get to know him and what he cares about. Greene just assumes if his numbers fall off a cliff someone will let him know.
“The numbers don’t matter to me. What matters is, is that I work hard. Now my team, I’m sure if they were too bad there would’ve been some sort of conversation about some things that we may need to pick up on. So we, we haven’t had that conversation.”
As a diverse agricultural community, the 35th district has been hammered by Trump’s policies. Everything from Medicaid cuts that have decimated rural healthcare, soaring costs of fuel from the Iran war, but most especially, Trump’s tariffs which have made life extremely difficult for Michigan farmers.
“They took a pretty good beating off the tariffs. How much farm equipment costs and then the fertilizer and the nitrogen, a lot of it is imported. So when we enact those tariffs, those affect us because we have to import a lot of the fertilizer and the nitrogen that’s used in our sugar beet farming. Not only just the farmers, but the truckers, the processing plants and the people that work there.”
“I just got a email today from a woman that works for a dementia advocacy group,” Greene continues. “How does the Medicaid cuts affect those types of care and, and things federally when we have to pick those costs up by the state, which starts to affect our budget. Even more so when we’re relying on the federal government for the subsidies to offset those costs for our most vulnerable people. So it’s always 99.9% of affordability, gas prices, groceries.”
The stakes in Greene’s race are massive for not only for the 35th, but for the future of Michigan in the Trump era. Two years ago Democrats held the trifecta; controlling both houses with a Democratic governor in Gretchen Whitmer, and used it to enact some of the most impactful progressive legislation in the country.
But Dems lost control of the Michigan House in 2024, and the lead in the senate shrank, now down to a single seat. If Greene wins, the senate stays in Democrat control. If his opponent wins the chamber sits at a tie, with Lt. Governor Garlin Gilchrist casting the tie-breaking vote.
With heavy early investment in Michigan House races for the fall, Dems need Greene to do what so many others have done in the last year, and deliver up Democratic victories in toss-up and red areas in order to keep their hopes of restoring the trifecta alive.
“Not only will Chedrick Greene’s special election decide the Michigan Senate majority, but it’s also the last major special election before the midterms and presents the last test of where the electorate stands in the battleground of battlegrounds,” Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee Heather Williams said.
For now, Greene just wants to focus on making life more affordable for the people of his community.
“We continue to work on having free breakfast and lunch for our public school students. That alone helps some parents to reduce the stress of getting food to their children while they’re in school, getting educated. I see it quite often. I used to teach fire safety in some of our public schools. If our kids aren’t focused, you know, it is hard for them to learn, especially at the adolescent age, the elementary school age.”
“So every resource that we can give them. To make sure they’re prepared to learn so we can continue to invest in how we are teaching our young people. But if they’re not nourished, their focus is way off the mind and the stomach just won’t allow them to do that.”
Greene is a newcomer to running for office, but no stranger to serving his community. On May 5th, voters in Michigan’s 35th district will have the opportunity to not only preserve Democratic control of a key legislature at a time when the Republican Party has become a home to extremism, but also to elect a genuine public servant to represent them and help make their lives more affordable.
“The DLCC and state Democrats have been sweeping elections across the country since Trump took office,” Williams says, “and this special will set the tone for November as we work to flip the Michigan House and restore Democratic control across the legislature. All eyes are on Michigan to set the tone for what will undoubtedly be a historic midterm election for building Democratic power.”
“We understand quite a few people are paying attention to this race,” Greene concludes. “So we continue to work hard because we do need a change nationally and, and locally, to make sure that we’re putting good people in these races to do good things for the everyday working class American.”