Sheriff Chris Swanson, who endorsed Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris on the last day of the Democratic National Convention Thursday, is the sheriff of Genesee County, Michigan.
Genesee County includes Flint and has the fifth largest sheriff’s office in the state.
What is Swanson known for?
Swanson entered the media spotlight in the summer of 2020 when he and members of his department joined in solidarity with a crowd peacefully protesting the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis Police that May.
“We want to be with y’all for real, so I took my helmet off and laid the batons down,” he told people gathered in the street, in a video of the encounter. “I want to make this a parade, not a protest.”
As the crowd chanted “Walk with us,” he responded, “Let’s walk!”
“We shook hands and hugged and you saw this whole tension just dissipated with the crowd,” he said in a news conference aired on CBS News.
At the Democratic Convention Thursday, he referenced that day in his speech, saying, “instead of hate, we chose hope. On January 6, the opposite occurred.”
“We need a leader who will embody what’s affixed to all three sides of my sheriff patrol cars: ‘Protect, serve and unify.’ Kamala Harris is that leader,” he said.
Swanson has been behind the Democratic party’s nominee since before President Joe Biden’s exit from the race in July.
In a campaign ad endorsing Biden, just ahead of the first presidential debate in June, Swanson criticized Trump for his alleged incitement of the January 6 insurrection.
“I have no desire to work with somebody who divides, that’s not what America is,” he said in the TV spot. “But I’ll work with anybody who unites, that’s why I’m with President Joe Biden.”
Swanson’s experience and ambitions
Swanson is “a career police officer with experience spanning nearly three decades,” according to a bio on his office’s site.
He’s worked at the Genesee County Sheriff’s office since 2011. He was appointed sheriff in 2019 and won the position again in the 2020 elections, taking office in January 2021.
He’s served in a wide variety of roles including patrol, narcotics, death investigation and human trafficking.
In 2019, Swanson was part of creating a new taskforce called the Genesee Human Oppression Strike Team (GHOST), which addresses crimes including human trafficking and sexual assault.
The next year, the Genesee County Jail started a program called Inmate Growth Naturally and Intentionally Through Education (IGNITE) which provides educational coursework for inmates.
His office also sponsors programs for reading outreach and fentanyl abuse awareness.
He’s running for re-election as sheriff in November.
Last year, he told Fox 2 Detroit that he wasn’t ruling out a run for Michigan governor when Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is term-limited in 2026.
"I think you're going to see a lot of people say, ‘I could lead the state post-Gretchen Whitmer – she has done a great job – and one of them could be Mike Duggan," he said.
When pressed, he said “it could” also be him.
“It’s an open seat in 2026, so we’ll see,” he told Michigan Advance earlier this year.
This article originally appeared on Fort Smith Times Record: Who is Genesee County Sheriff Chris Swanson?
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