Op-Ed: Greg Manz: Why Trump allies in Michigan are eyeing State Senate special election to shatter Democrats’ spin
While the beltway brigade of pundits, pollsters, and political parasites obsess over the 2026 midterm map, they’re missing what might be this year's most electric election in the nation — whenever Governor Gretchen Whitmer (D., Mich.) finally calls it.
That’s right. One lonely legislative seat in the Wolverine State could reset the balance of power in Lansing, deadlocking the Michigan State Senate at 19-19 — and with it, derailing Gretchen Whitmer’s radical regime. The stakes? Sky-high. The panic? Palpable. And the radical left knows it.
Michigan’s 35th Senate District has been left without representation for over five months, marking the longest delay in calling a special election in state history. Whitmer’s stall tactics aren’t just unprecedented — they’re undemocratic. For more than five months, residents of the 35th District have paid taxes without a voice in the state legislature. That’s not representative government — it’s taxation without representation, plain and simple.
National Democrats are clinging to recent special election wins in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, pointing to those blue blips as so-called “proof” that the America First movement is losing steam in the Rust Belt. But here’s the real headline: Michigan is the firewall — and the fight for its Senate is a full-throttle referendum on President Trump’s 2024 historic comeback.
This isn’t about potholes in Portage or pensions in Pontiac — it’s about power, populism, and pushing back. And nobody knows that better than Gretchen Whitmer, who’s scrambling to stall a special election she legally can’t avoid. Despite bipartisan pressure — even public rebukes from her own lieutenant governor and Democratic Attorney General Dana Nessel — she’s running scared.
Why? Because if Republicans flip just one seat, the entire Democratic Party machine in Michigan grinds to a halt. That’s not conservative wish-casting — that’s a cold political calculation.
Notably, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, the state’s chief election official, has not yet rebuked Governor Whitmer as well in an effort to shift the narrative as she is staring down the barrel of subpoenas, impeachment, and a lawsuit by House Republicans — this is a missed opportunity by Benson.
Matt Hall, the no-nonsense Michigan House Speaker, already has Lansing liberals licking their wounds. But give him a tied Senate, and suddenly the radical wish list — from woke education mandates to bloated budget bombs — gets tossed in the trash.
Let’s get one thing crystal clear: If President Trump’s allies take back Michigan’s Senate, it’s not just a victory in Lansing — it’s a Midwestern megaphone blaring that the America First agenda is back and blazing. From Erie to Green Bay to Grand Rapids, Democrats would be forced to rewrite their 2026 playbook. The narrative would flip — from Democrat dominance to grassroots reckoning. And it starts in Michigan.
Whitmer’s delay tactics aren’t about “governing” — they’re about gambling. She knows her hand is weak. Her legacy? School lockdowns, crime spikes, runaway spending, and a flatlined economy. That’s not a record to run on — it’s a resume for retreat.
And make no mistake — this seat will go national. Once the special election is finally scheduled, it will become a national showdown. The Trump White House should treat it as such. Michigan’s movement conservatives are more motivated, more mobilized, and more media-savvy than ever before.
This isn’t just a State Senate seat — it’s a symbolic strike against socialism — a chance to gut the Green New Deal gobbledygook and stop Whitmer’s executive overreach.
Republicans can’t afford to sleep on this one. Winning back this one seat isn’t just a victory — it’s a verdict. A verdict against crime, chaos, and cradle-to-grave control. A verdict that sends a message: The Rust Belt is roaring back red and ushering in The Gold Age of America.
Governor Whitmer can drag her heels. She can dodge the date. But she can’t delay the decision forever. The Saginaw Bay Region people are coming — and they’re carrying the America First flag with them.
Greg Manz is a principal of Wytherson Media LLC, former Rapid Response Director of Steve Bannon’s War Room, and a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania’s Fels Institute of Government.
