Michigan House votes to eliminate Cesar E. Chavez Day

LANSING, Mich. - The Michigan House on Tuesday voted almost unanimously to eliminate Cesar E. Chavez Day as a state holiday in the wake of allegations the former labor leader sexually assaulted women.

Last month, a New York Times investigation detailed years-long sexual abuse allegations against Chavez, the late cofounder and president of the United Farm Workers of America, who received a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1994.

The bill introduced by state Rep. Josh Schriver, R-Oxford, which passed 103-2, would eliminate the state holiday marking Chavez's birthday on March 31. A Democratic amendment that would have renamed the holiday Farm Workers Day was rejected Tuesday.

The bill proceeds next to the Democratic-led Senate.

Schriver argued Tuesday that the continued use of a state holiday in Chavez's honor would indicate that "some legacies are too important to scrutinize" and that "protecting an image outweighs protecting the innocent."

"That does not align with Michigan values," Schriver said. "We need to protect women and children. We do not whitewash predators."

Cesar E. Chavez Day was made a state holiday under a bill signed by Democratic former Gov. Jennifer Granholm in 2003.

Since the publication of the Times piece, governments and groups across the state have been mulling changes to roads, schools, services and remembrances bearing his name.

State Rep. Veronica Paiz, D-Harper Woods, proposed an amendment Tuesday to rename the holiday Farm Workers Day, but it did not advance on the House floor. Removing Chavez's name is a necessary first step, Paiz argued, but it is not enough.

"The sweat, sacrifice and tears of farm workers rights movement cannot be defined or dismissed by the actions and legacy of any single individual, not when this movement is still alive, not when it is still organizing and still fighting for the dignity and rights of farmworkers across Michigan and across this nation," Paiz said.

The two lawmakers who voted no on the bills were state Reps. Carrie Rheingans, D-Ann Arbor, Kara Hope, D-Holt.

Rheingans, in an explanation submitted to the House journal, said her "no" vote stemmed from the rejection of Paiz's amendment that would have honored the farm workers rights movement as a whole.

"I believe we must honor the movement of farmworkers and migrant workers who feed us in Michigan and feed our country," she said.

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This story was originally published April 28, 2026 at 4:52 PM.