Feb. 6, 2026 | This Week in Government: Snyder Encourages Legislature to Find Common Ground as Former Govs Talk Civility

Former Gov. Rick Snyder, who is mentoring candidates for office and supported House Republicans in the 2024 election that ended with the party retaking control of the chamber, said Wednesday lawmakers and the Executive Office should be pursuing more bipartisan bills.

Snyder, a Republican, former Gov. John Engler, also a Republican, and Democratic former Govs. Jim Blanchard and Jennifer Granholm were part of a panel on civility during a Wednesday event.

During the panel, Snyder noted when he was governor, 90% of the legislation passed with super majority votes in the House and Senate despite the large majorities Republicans had in both chambers.

Asked after the event for his reaction to the current Legislature passing a record few number of bills in 2025, Snyder said, “it’s concerning.”

“Again, I would just encourage people to find that common ground. To ask the question, what do we need to do to get it to be over 100 votes in the House for something? To be over 30 votes in the Senate? It’s all doable, and as I mentioned, we did hundreds of bills that were in that category. And it wasn’t about huge negotiations each time. But it showed we could listen,” he said. “And we could adapt things that made sense to us. To say it wasn’t about a party thing, but what was best for Michigan. So, I hope everyone steps back in the Legislature and the governor’s office and steps back and says, ‘what’s best for Michigan? Let’s just find some common ground wins and show success.’”

The former governors also addressed comments from President Donald Trump and his administration about election security and the federal government potentially stepping in to take over operations in certain states. The latest comments from Trump on the issue came Wednesday (see separate story).

Engler called nationalizing elections a “fake news story” because there is no process to do that.

“(Trump) said something and everybody jumped on it, but we said, ‘that’s crazy. It’s not gonna happen,’” he said. “There’s nothing to it. There’ll be no follow up on that.”

On elections, Snyder said there are Republicans and Democrats speaking up and they need to continue to do so.

“And if you ask a clerk in Michigan, they’re going to tell you, they ran a good election,” he said. “And I think, what means more, hearing from someone far away or hearing someone right in your hometown that elections are good. They’re solid, and they’re done right. I think that’s a great message to get out even more.”

Wednesday’s event launched the Michigan Civility Coalition and was organized by Michiganders for Civic Resilience, Oakland University Center for Civic Engagement, Democracy Defense Project, Mackinac Center for Public Policy, and the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation.

Granholm appeared remotely, but Blanchard, Snyder and Engler were in person in downtown Lansing to encourage more civility in the political arena.

“I’m super grateful because I’ve been guilty of internally raging at our president for what I see is his divisiveness,” Granholm said in thanking the organizers for putting on the event. “It’s not good for my constitution or our ‘big C’ Constitution. So, I am eager to soothe my own raging beast with a civil conversation with three governors who know the importance of respect and bipartisanship even as we may disagree about the president.”

Blanchard served with three presidents when he was in Congress and noted he worked with Engler and Snyder on policy as well.

“I never would have thought we would have to have a forum like this,” he said. “In fact, if it was 2015, we wouldn’t be hosting a forum on stability. … I hope all this has been an aberration. It is abnormal times.”

The former governors addressed social media, trustworthy news sources and federal actions, like the immigration crackdown in Minnesota.

Snyder said Minneapolis could be any place in Michigan.

“It is a wonderful city with wonderful people,” he said. “Think of Grand Rapids. Think of other places in Michigan. And ask yourself the same question: if you would have had that many people showing up from the federal government, what would have happened, particularly in the Midwest? It’s good that people have now realized the pendulum went too far and now it’s being pulled back. And the question is, let’s keep on bringing it back and bring the temperature down and still recognize we need to deal with illegal immigration, particularly of violent people.”

Looking forward, Granholm urged former governors to reach out to the younger generation to get involved.

“People are so exhausted, they’re so tired of division. Since we all love this country, we should be encouraging people to run for office who model patriotism through civility,” she said. “And civility, by the way, does not mean weakness. … Civility can be strong. We have to create a culture that says we will not tolerate hate. We will not disparage our fellow Michiganders. We will take care of each other.”

Snyder, speaking to his work mentoring candidates, said the first thing he asks of potential mentees is if they are going to have a positive agenda.

“How can you get excited and go vote for something negative, where someone is just tearing someone down,” Snyder said.

Engler asked the room of about 200, which included former journalists, current and former lawmakers, attorneys and other officials, how many subscribed to a newspaper and the answer was about half.

He said social media is a “real problem,” with its lack of checks on truthfulness and ability to remain anonymous.

“I think we are going to have to change our attitude toward how we cover politics,” he said, and called for television networks to start organizing debates for the governors race and U.S. Senate race now.

“Since there is going to be so much money spent, those networks have a responsibility to get together to schedule a debate before we start voting,” Engler said.

Blanchard agreed on the issue with news coming from cable and social media.

“If everyone read newspapers, regardless of the publisher, I wouldn’t worry so much,” he said.

House Speaker Matt Hall said that the total amount of unencumbered funds from 2024-25 fiscal year work projects is just more than $349 million.

In December, House Republicans disapproved $645 million in work project funding.

“We’re now finding out, according to the Whitmer administration filing, they’re saying it’s $349,461,595 that is unobligated,” Hall, R-Richland Township, said during a press conference on Wednesday.

During last month’s Court of Claims hearing for House v. Department of Technology, Management, and Budget et. al, the attorney for the state departments said that about 70% of the $645 million in work project funding disapproved by House Republicans was encumbered before Sept. 15, 2025, and the end of the fiscal year.

“That ends up being about 50%, I would say, which is the point I was making in the press conference before,” Hall said (See Gongwer Michigan Report, Jan. 21, 2026). “You listen to that hearing, and there’s one time they said 50%, one time they said over 70%. They didn’t have a clue what it was.”

The attorney for the state departments did say at one point during the hearing that “more than 50% of the funds were designated,” and acknowledged he did not have the exact numbers.

“As far as my understating is, approximately 70% of that $644 million was timely encumbered. I can’t commit that to writing, I don’t have the exact numbers off the top of my head, but it was more than half,” Adam de Bear, the assistant attorney general at the hearing said.

House Republicans were granted a preliminary injunction that prevents departments from spending any of the money left unencumbered after Sept. 15.

Hall said the next step was to get a list from the administration detailing what money hadn’t been spent.

“Let’s see what it is, because my guess is a lot of things that the media is saying we cut, we didn’t even cut,” he said. “We’d like to see what it is, and what the preliminary injunction is blocking from future spending.”

He said no progress on a supplemental could be made until the House knew what projects were cut.

“Then we can go forward with it, which was always my plan,” Hall said. “What is in the $349 million, and then, let’s start working to make a deal.”

Hall said in addition to any potential supplemental, the work project funds could be reappropriated to fill the anticipated budget shortfall.

Hall also restated his priorities for the year, which include reducing the cost of health care, improving literacy, cutting property taxes, and passing legislation to prevent lawmakers from becoming lobbyists immediately after leaving office.

Regarding health care, Hall said he wanted to look into large hospital systems.

“They’re getting rid of competition, and the costs are going up,” he said. “We need to look carefully at their books, and we need to understand, through a new commission, how are they spending their money?”

Hall also said he wanted to improve funding for rural hospitals.

On literacy, Hall said he supported Superintendent of Public Instruction Glenn Maleyko’s idea to move forward on phonics instruction (See Gongwer Michigan Report, Feb 3, 2026).

“We need to get the phonics immediately into the schools, and we need to make sure our teachers are ready to teach it,” he said.

Property tax reform could be done through legislation or a ballot proposal, Hall said.

“We’re going to be working through that for our caucus,” he said. “Then … we want to see if we can get some partnership from the Democrats, because in order to put it on the ballot, it requires a two-thirds vote.”

Whatever action the House takes, Hall said it would be “bold”.

“We’re going to lower people’s property taxes, and I’m confident we’ll get that done this year, through and signed by the governor,” he said.

Hall also renewed the call for legislation to prevent lawmakers from becoming lobbyists immediately after leaving office.

“We need to ban this revolving door,” he said.

Hall said he wanted legislation to prevent lawmakers from acting as lobbyists in other states while serving in office and to require a cooling off period, so politicians could not leave office and immediately become lobbyists.

He also weighed in on immigration policy in response to Attorney General Dana Nessel creating a form on the Department of the Attorney General’s website so residents could report activity by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

“This is a federal matter, and it really should be withing the purview of the U.S. Department of Justice and the Trump Administration,” Hall said. “Now you’re having these Democrat politicians that are encouraging some of these efforts to really endanger the lives of these ICE officers. … You do not see the type of controversy in Michigan that you saw in Minnesota, and I would credit the governor, Gov. Whitmer, a little for that.”

Hall went on to say he thought the state should ban sanctuary zones and support the efforts of ICE.

Thirteen months after the people of the 35th Senate District last had an elected senator, voters went to the polls in a special primary election on Tuesday and chose Democratic candidate Chedrick Greene and Republican candidate Jason Tunney to advance to the May general election to finally fill the vacant seat.

Greene and Tunney will now face off in what is expected to be a hotly contested and expensive May 5 special general election to determine control of the narrowly divided chamber.

The winner of May’s special general election will fill the vacant seat previously held by former Sen. Kristen McDonald Rivet, D-Bay City, who resigned in January 2025 after being elected to Congress.

Greene is a Saginaw Fire Department captain and a retired member of the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve. He also served as a district assistant for McDonald Rivet.

Tunney is a Saginaw attorney and part of his family business in Saginaw County.

“In this incredibly important time, for this incredibly important race, I deeply respect the trust voters have placed in me,” Greene said in a statement. “I am excited to be the Democratic nominee and determined to deliver the victory that will keep our party in majority control of the Michigan Senate.”

With all precincts reporting Tuesday night, Greene earned 60.4% of the vote while State Board of Education Chair Pamela Pugh was a distant second with 27.7%.

Tunney had a narrower, but still decisive, margin of victory in the Republican primary taking 51.2% of the vote compared to the 42.4% earned by his closest opponent, former Dow executive Christian Velasquez of Midland.

Four other Democratic candidates and two other Republicans split the few remaining votes in their respective primaries.

Republicans made no secret of their hope that Pugh, who taken progressive views, would emerge as the Democratic nominee. But most major Democratic groups rallied behind Greene, who had a substantial spending and advertising advantage that helped carry him to a rout.

Unofficial results showed ballots cast for Democratic candidates totaling 26,624 compared to 18,229 votes cast for Republican candidates. The lopsided turnout advantage cheered Democrats. Turnout overall, at better than 44,000, was heavy, far beyond the 35,000 votes cast in the last two special Senate primary elections in August 2021.

Tunney in a statement stressed the long period in which the seat was left vacant and the negative effect it has had on the people of the 35th district.

“For more than a year, families in this district were left without a voice in Lansing because Gov. 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. … We believe every district deserves representation, every community deserves a seat at the table, and elections shouldn’t be delayed for political convenience.”

Velasquez won his home county of Midland by a wide margin, but Tunney dominated in the Bay and Saginaw county portions of the district to take the win, overcoming heavy television advertising from Velasquez.

Since McDonald Rivet’s departure, Democrats have held a 19-18 majority in the chamber.

A Democratic win would restore the 20-18 majority they held from 2023-24 while a Republican win would create a 19-19 tie and leave the tie-breaking vote to Democratic Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist II.

The 35th Senate District is one of the most competitive Senate districts in the state and will be critical to both parties in the November general election in the battle for control of the chamber. It has a slight Democratic lean and consists of parts of Bay, Midland and Saginaw counties.

Both candidates in their statements also pivoted to the May election.

“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,” Tunney said. “This race is about restoring representation and holding leadership accountable. The people of the 35th district deserve nothing less.”

Greene pointed to what he called sharp differences between the two parties.

“As we set our sights toward the general election, voters have a clear choice – a leader grounded in working class experiences, who has put his life on the line for three decades defending our freedoms and protecting Michiganders; or an out-of-touch Republican rubber stamp who is too MAGA to denounce this administration’s violent violation of our constitutional rights,” Greene said.

Once either Greene or Tunney win in May and is sworn into office, it will have been nearly 500 days since McDonald Rivet’s resignation.

It took more than 250 days for Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to call the special election, which drew criticism for months from Republicans and some calls from Democrats to call the election. The gap between the vacancy occurring and just having elections being called was longer than any other legislative election in modern Michigan history.

Leaders within both parties were quick to congratulate their respective nominees in statements, accusing each other’s party of being out of touch with voters.

“Across the district, Democratic turnout exceeded that of Republicans as voters came out to make their voices heard,” Michigan Democratic Party Chair Curtis Hertel said. “With Chedrick Greene as our Democratic nominee, we’re laser-focused on winning the special election in May and defeating extreme Republican Jason Tunney, who would just be a rubber stamp for the harmful, cost-raising Republican agenda.”

Michigan Forward Network Chief Executive Officer Ronna McDaniel threw similar accusations at Democrats in a statement backing Tunney.

“The stakes in this election could not be higher. For two years, Lansing Democrats were able to pass their radical, far-left agenda with no backstop,” McDaniel said. “It was bad for families, workers, and job creators. Now, we have an opportunity to balance the Senate and work to create a Michigan that is a better place to live, work, and raise a family.”

Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks, D-Grand Rapids, said mid-Michigan voters want a senator who will lower costs and help create opportunities in the region.

“We look forward to electing Chedrick to the Michigan Senate in May,” Brinks said. “I am confident he will serve the residents of mid-Michigan as faithfully as he has served our country in the U.S. Marines and his community.”

Senate Minority Leader Aric Nesbitt, R-Porter Township, in a post to X, formerly Twitter, praised Tunney and the opportunity Republicans have in this year’s elections.

“On May 5th, we break the Democrat majority in the Senate. November 3rd, we take back the rest our State and start MAKING IT IN MICHIGAN AGAIN!” Nesbitt wrote.

New Superintendent of Public Instruction Glenn Maleyko made his debut presentation before a legislative panel on Tuesday, discussing the Department of Education’s policy priorities for 2026 and beyond with lawmakers who seemed largely receptive to them.

Maleyko, who took over the superintendency in December, spoke at the meeting of the House Appropriations School Aid and Department of Education Subcommittee on Tuesday. He gave a presentation similar to his first State Board of Education meeting, outlining plans for a statewide listening tour and eventual revamping of MDE’s Top 10 Strategic Education Plan Goals.

Covering several of MDE’s legislative priorities, Maleyko and Chief Deputy Superintendent Sue Carnell emphasized the importance of cooperation between the department, the Legislature, and local school districts to meet the needs of students and improve conditions for educators around the state.

Among the department’s goals that will require some degree of collaboration with lawmakers to complete are measures to improve early literacy, like making LETRS training mandatory; school funding further weighted to consider equity issues among student populations; closing statutory gaps which cause educational difficulties for children in the juvenile justice system or who are homeless; bolstering state support for expanded learning opportunities with an emphasis on summer programs; piloting a new balanced statewide assessment system; establishing an artificial intelligence policy at the state level and providing schools a support framework for AI use; putting more resources into career and technical education; improving aspects of the teacher credentialing system and codifying the free school meals program.

Rep. Tim Kelly, R-Saginaw Township, who chairs the committee, said he “didn’t disagree” with several of the policy priorities Maleyko and Carnell presented, but doubted the state had the resources to make all of them happen. What Kelly and other members of the subcommittee seemed particularly amenable to was the idea of making LETRS training mandatory for public educators, if with some disagreement on how that might be best executed.

“I think if we’re going to get serious about literacy, we have to do a little more than what we’ve done to this point,” Kelly said.

Democratic Reps. Carol Glanville of Walker and Samantha Steckloff of Farmington Hills said they appreciated hearing that an AI policy is a department priority. Steckloff said she “has a feeling this might be one of the biggest topics” lawmakers will have to tackle in the coming years in the education space and inquired whether MDE is planning to discuss how AI can be detrimental or disruptive to learning, especially in developing writing skills.

“Some of the letters I get (from student constituents) are clearly AI-written,” she said. “And we have another problem when it comes to English composition.”

Maleyko and Carnell agreed with Steckloff’s concerns about AI posing a threat to academic outcomes if not properly used – and limited – in the classroom.

“The goal is to use AI effectively,” Maleyko said. “We want to provide guidance that ensures students still can be critical thinkers.”

Kelly concluded the meeting by pressing Maleyko about recent student protests that took place around the state last Friday, Jan. 30, when many schools saw student walkouts in opposition to federal immigration enforcement actions in Minnesota and elsewhere over the past year.

Kelly asserted that several schools in southeast Michigan closed for protests on Friday over anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement demonstrations and that local superintendents “even encouraged their students to go out of class,” naming Rochester Community Schools and Detroit Public Schools Community District as examples.

“I wanted to see how you’d address this … I think these people ought to have that day’s pay docked; I don’t think they should be getting (state) school aid for the days they’re not there due to protestations,” Kelly said, addressing Maleyko.

Per local news reports, many schools did close Thursday and Friday across the southeast corner of the state, but it was for extreme weather and wind chill as cold as negative 20 degrees, rather than consideration for student protests.

There is also no evidence of superintendents or principals, as Kelly claimed, organizing protests or encouraging students to miss class for demonstrations at the districts he referenced: RCS Superintendent Nicholas Russo sent a letter to parents informing them of the “respectful and peaceful” walkout, noting that it was not a school sponsored event but that students had the right to demonstrate safely, and DPSCD administration issued a similar statement to Chalkbeat Detroit saying it authorized students to “exercise their First Amendment rights and strive(s) to provide a safe environment for them to do so.”

Maleyko said when he was a district-level superintendent, he dealt with student-organized protests by ensuring the district remained impartial while still maintaining a safe environment for students to exercise the rights guaranteed to them by the U.S. Constitution and judicial precedent. He said he was not aware of the situations Kelly was referring to.

“(Students) have their First Amendment rights and they’re doing what they do; we don’t promote it; we don’t get involved. We just make sure the students are safe, so we would kind of guide that,” he said. “We had different protests in Dearborn Public Schools, third largest district in the state, so we can look into those situations and make sure that districts are following proper protocol as far as their funding and other things when they’re calling snow days … but we would, I think, have to look into that situation for the specificity, because it could be (a situation) like I said in Dearborn, where, the students are initiating it.”

Military airspace in Northern Michigan has received federal approval as a designated area for unmanned aerial systems testing, members of Michigan’s congressional delegation announced on Tuesday.

Both of Michigan’s U.S. senators and U.S. Rep. Jack Bergman, R-Watersmeet, announced Tuesday that bipartisan efforts by the state’s congressional delegation to obtain national range designation by the U.S. Department of Defense for drone testing at the state’s National All-Domain Warfighting Center were a success.

The designation for the Michigan National All-Domain Warfighting Center makes it a designated national range for deep aerial systems training.

“As drones reshape our national security, Michigan’s selection as a national drone testing site further solidifies our state as the center of this transformation,” U.S. Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Holly, said in a statement. “Michigan is the proof that cutting-edge defense technology can be designed, tested, and built with American supply chains, right here at home.”

The Michigan National All-Domain Warfighting Center includes about 148,000 acres of training space at the Camp Grayling Maneuver Training Center and 17,000 square miles of special use military airspace at the Alpena Combat Readiness Training Center.

A bipartisan group of 11 members of Michigan’s congressional delegation sent a letter in July 2025 to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in its push for the federal designation.

U.S. Sen. Gary Peters, D-Bloomfield Township, in a statement said the federal designation will help strengthen Michigan’s role in being an important part of the country’s national defense strategy.

“Drones play an integral role in modern-day warfare, and the National All-Domain Warfighting Center in Northern Michigan is an ideal training ground to test these technologies and help ensure that we maintain our air superiority around the world,” Peters said.

The Michigan National All-Domain Warfighting Center is the country’s largest joint training range east of the Mississippi River. It also hosts a yearly Northern Strike Exercise.

Bergman in a statement agreed with Peters and Slotkin on the importance of drones in modern combat.

“The unique geography and unparalleled capabilities of the National All Domain Warfighting Center are truly world-class, and it is encouraging to see the Department of War fully recognize the potential of NADWC and the surrounding region,” Bergman said. “I look forward to continuing our partnership to ensure our warfighters have access to the best systems and training and anywhere in the world.”