By Matthew Hutchison / news@whmi.com

Genesee County Sheriff Chris Swanson – a self-described “dark horse” in the crowded gubernatorial race to replace term-limited Gov. Gretchen Whitmer – says his three decades in law enforcement, including 6.5 years as sheriff, gives him an edge. Citing his campaign slogan of “Protect, Serve & Unify,” Swanson said he knows how to build trust with citizens and points to his decades in law enforcement confronting the consequences of broken systems firsthand, lessons that will shape his policymaking in Lansing.

“I know the journey I’m on is different from other candidates, even in both parties, which makes my run different,” said Swanson, in an interview on WHMI’s “Meet the People” podcast available on WHMI.com.

Citing what he calls his “crossover appeal” among Democrats, Republicans and Independents, Swanson asserts he is the dark horse who can win the Aug. 4 Democratic primary and ultimately prevail in the Nov. 3 general election.

“I’m built for leadership,” Swanson said. “I’m built to love people, to serve people, to lead people and to inspire people.”

The wide-open field for Governor includes Democratic Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, independent candidate and former Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, and a slate of Republican candidates including U.S. Rep. John James, state Sen. Aric Nesbitt, former Attorney General Mike Cox, businessman Perry Johnson, former Congressional candidate Anthony Hudson and former House Speaker Tom Leonard.

In the 68-minute conversation, Swanson says his experience of “confronting the consequences of broken systems firsthand” will serve him well in Lansing.

He cited his IGNITE (“Inmate Growth Naturally and Intentionally Through Education”) program – which he said grew out of research conducted during his graduate studies in the late 1990s – his GHOST (“Genesee Human Oppression Strike Team”) operations to catch sex traffickers, and his highly public, spur-of-the-moment decision to march with protesters following the murder of George Floyd in May 2020 as key tenets in his run for governor.

“It wasn’t a political message,” Swanson said of his decision to join protesters. “It wasn’t a race message. (The message was) there was a huge distrust in law enforcement and it was a pattern of distrust going back to all the controversial shootings that have happened.

“Any big moment in our history where we’re ripped apart, usually involves law enforcement. And this was a tipping point. And to have been able to be in that moment, to give people a sense of hope, I didn’t care about who didn’t like it. I focused on what it did because that was the message.”
In the wide-ranging discussion, Swanson criticized the recent ICE operation in Minnesota, saying it undermines law enforcement credibility nationwide.

“Whether you support law enforcement or not, you can be critical of its (the agency’s) execution, which I am because we are better than how we are being portrayed on TV,” he said. “I work with the FBI, Secret Service, DEA, ATF, State Police and other county sheriffs. The sheriff’s office here and all the local police, we do the same thing: we arrest very bad people but we do it in a way that’s professional, we do it in a way that’s safe and the community supports us.”

He also stressed, “I don’t hold inmates on detainers because they’re not court orders – they’re administrative orders,” referring to the written requests from ICE asking local jails to hold noncitizens for up to 48 hours so ICE can assume custody for removal proceedings.

A Career In Law Enforcement

Swanson began working at the Genesee County Sheriff’s Office at 18 as a seasonal deputy. One of his earliest calls involved responding to a self-inflicted gunshot death, an experience he says permanently shaped how he understood the job.

“I remember standing there, looking at this whole scene unfold, and I’m thinking, this is crazy,” he said. “Not to be too descriptive but the smell of gunpowder, and the screams, and the chaos – I wasn’t prepared for that.”

He soon pursued emergency medical training, attending EMT school and later working several years in emergency medical services, including time with Livingston County EMS. The work, he said, taught him that leadership often comes down to calm decision-making when people are placing their lives in someone else’s hands.

“I became good at bedside manners,” he said. “When people have a medical or traumatic crisis, you’re looking at them, and they’re looking at you, and they’re putting their life into your hands. Nothing else matters.”

Swanson’s path through law enforcement continued alongside education. He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Michigan and later taught there. A graduate research project in 1998 examining crime trends led him to conclude that lasting reductions in crime depend as much on opportunity and education as enforcement.

The result was IGNITE, a jail education and workforce readiness program focused on GED completion, job training and reentry planning. Swanson describes jail as a “catch-basin of a lifetime of bad decisions” and believes that providing structure while people are incarcerated reduces repeat offenses and stabilizes families after release.

“When I saw the same generations come through the jail, in 2019, it just came to me like, ‘Hey why don’t we change the way we do jail,” he said. “Why don’t we go from an incarceration mindset to an education mindset and give people pathways while they’re incarcerated?”

A rigorous academic study led by Harvard researchers and in collaboration with Brown University and the University of Michigan found that IGNITE appears to reduce recidivism and misconduct among incarcerated people, bolster participants’ skillsets, save society money and “improve relationships between the community and law enforcement.”

The program has since been adopted by 40 sheriff’s offices, including in Livingston County, in 15 states, according to Swanson.

Around the same period, his office expanded another initiative, the Genesee Human Oppression Strike Team, known as GHOST, aimed at combating human trafficking and online child exploitation. Swanson said GHOST is a critical law enforcement strategy aimed at curbing how predators operate, moving recruitment from physical encounters to social media platforms.

“This is the creepy white van of today,” he said, holding up his cellphone. “They’re connecting through direct messages.”

Spring 2020 - The “Defining Moment” of His Career

Swanson’s leadership style gained national visibility in May 2020, five months after he became sheriff, following the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Facing a growing crowd of protesters in Flint, Swanson made a real-time call to remove his riot gear and walk alongside demonstrators, a moment captured on cell phone videos and widely shared globally.

“I said, ‘Hey, that guy (former police officer Derek Chauvin) in Minneapolis isn’t who we are,” Swanson said, recalling that afternoon. “That cop over there gives hugs. I said we’ve got women and we’ve got children over here. Let’s turn this into a parade, not a protest, try to de-escalate.

“Then I asked a question that was the most prolific question in my entire police career, and I said, ‘What do you need us to do?’ And I didn’t even get that sentence off my chest before they started chanting, ‘Walk with us’,” noting now that the events of that day were the “most defining” of his career.

That event – which he described as a “moment of humanity, without guardrails” and with no arrests and no significant property damage – elevated Swanson beyond Genesee County to the national stage. It also led to an invitation from the Biden White House to appear at the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, where he suggested to producers that he speak in uniform about policing and unity.

It was then, he said, that he also knew he wanted to run for governor. He acknowledged that no one in the party asked him to run, but he said “the people did.”

Eyeing the Governorship

The conversation also turned to one of the most traumatic events to strike Genesee County in recent years: the Sept. 28, 2025 mass shooting at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc Township.

Swanson said what remains with him most is not only the violence itself but how agencies at every level responded.
“In my 33 year career I have never seen anything work so seamlessly,” he said, describing coordination among federal, state, county and local responders.

He said the response reflected years of preparation, but the personal connection to the tragedy made it uniquely difficult.

“That moment, what was different, we had trained for it. I’ve been to a lot of death scenes, obviously. But having that many people shot at once, and the fact that it was an innocent church on a beautiful sunny morning, and the fact that the shooter was from the township next door, and I had known that family since he was a baby, I had known his dad since I was 8, and when this all starts to come to pass, you think, ‘No one is immune from this.’ ”

Five days after the shooting, Swanson said his office convened roughly 500 faith leaders from across the region for a security and communications briefing focused on emergency planning. The goal, he said, was to help congregations “prepare for the worst and protect your people.”

Public trust, he said, is also central to how he views the long aftermath of the Flint water crisis, which continues to shape residents’ views of government.

“You had people who were completely misled, who were drinking brackish water on Saginaw Street, knowing it’s coming from out of the faucet and it looks like dump water,” he said.

Swanson argued more officials should have been held accountable, saying the crisis “destroyed all the trust of people in government when you can’t provide the basic needs and you deny it’s happening.”

More than a decade later, he noted, settlement payments are still being processed for thousands of residents affected by contaminated water.

“It’s taken us years and they still don’t even have their water payments,” he said, referring to the more than $600 million settlement tied to the crisis.

Swanson said roughly 26,000 affected residents should have lifetime access to free water filters and testing, a program currently scheduled to end in March.

“As a governor, we’d make sure that Flint always had access to that because it’s going to take a long time to build trust, if ever,” he said, adding that Flint became a national focal point for concerns about drinking water safety.

Education policy is another major focus of his campaign, shaped by his law enforcement career and as a faculty member at the University of Michigan.

He criticized the use of Michigan’s School Aid Fund for purposes outside K-12 education, calling the practice a driver of public frustration with state government.

“My perspective on protecting the School Aid Fund from K and pre-K all the way through 12th grade and jail is lock that money in and only go for those services,” he said, arguing that community colleges and universities should be funded through separate budget lines.

Swanson said Michigan must invest more consistently in students across the state, regardless of geography.

While noting that per-pupil spending has reached historic highs, he argued teacher pay has not kept pace and pointed to Michigan’s national ranking in elementary reading scores as evidence the system requires structural change.

“Money at the system is not going to solve it but is part of the algorithm,” he said, proposing incremental annual funding increases tied to inflation while also calling for a statewide audit of administrative structures.

He also advocated expanding vocational and career education earlier in students’ academic careers.

Addressing disparities among districts, Swanson suggested loan-forgiveness incentives to encourage teachers to work in underserved communities, comparing the concept to military service commitments.

Turning to the economy, Swanson said he would begin with a review of state government operations.

“We’re going to do a government assessment. Are the people getting what they want,” he said, describing what he called an effectiveness and efficiency review across agencies.
He also proposed a regional development model that would match industries to communities based on infrastructure readiness and local support, arguing economic projects succeed only when residents feel included in decision-making.

“Don’t do that to locals,” he said, referencing disputes surrounding large development projects in some Michigan communities. “When people don’t feel like they’re part of the solution, they start to be cast out.”

Swanson said Michigan must also address what he described as a persistent “brain drain,” with graduates leaving the state despite its universities and technical talent base.

“Imagine if the state of Michigan became a partner from ideas to innovation,” he said, outlining a vision in which the state government helps launch new businesses that remain rooted locally.

His candidacy also reflects what some observers have described as a broader era of high-profile sheriffs entering politics. Swanson said the role naturally prepares candidates for executive leadership.

“I think sheriffs make good politicians because people trust us,” he said. “When you need something, the sheriff’s there.
“I think people trust the sheriff. They respect the role of the sheriff. And it’s one of the best positions to prepare you for governor.”

Swanson has also built a sizable online following, describing his social media presence as unscripted and unfiltered, adding that voters increasingly expect candidates to communicate directly and frequently online.
Asked whether that visibility could translate into a future media career, he laughed off the suggestion.

“Let’s just say I’m governor before we get to TV host,” he said.

The entire Meet the People interview with Swanson is linked below.