Will the real Jocelyn Benson please stand up?
When she first threw her hat in the ring during the 2010 election for Michigan Secretary of State, Benson pledged nonpartisanship if she won.
Nearly 15 years later and almost two years into her second term, Benson is seen as a Democratic stalwart both within Michigan and nationwide. Michigan Sen. Ruth Johnson, R-Holly, is also a former two-term Michigan SOS, who told The Midwesterner last week that her former campaign opponent is the “most partisan Secretary of State in recent memory.”
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This despite the Benson’s “Oath of Nonpartisanship” on her 2010 campaign website, the year she unsuccessfully opposed Johnson:
“Oath of nonpartisanship. I firmly believe that our Secretary of State must operate the office in a nonpartisan manner,” Benson’s statement reads. “That’s why upon taking office I will take an Oath of Nonpartisanship, pledging to the citizens of Michigan a neutral and nonpartisan administration. That means you won’t find me co-chairing any campaigns or endorsing any candidates in elections over which I will serve as the final certifier of election results. Michigan citizens deserve to have full confidence that their elections are clean and fair.”
No such oath was made by Benson when she successfully ran for the same office in 2018 and again for reelection in 2022. Although it’s unclear whether she actually intended to honor her 2010 pledge had she won, it’s abundantly clear, however, she abandoned any such pretense in her subsequent fulfillment of her SOS duties after she took office.
As noted previously in The Midwesterner, Benson’s tenure as SOS has been rife with turmoil over policies that benefit Democrats over Republicans.
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Last week, Sen. Johnson told The Midwesterner that Benson’s partisan leadership as SOS has “loaded the dice” in favor of Democrats in the state.
No sooner had the interview with Johnson ended than it was announced Benson had successfully blocked Independent presidential candidate Cornel West from Michigan’s 2024 ballot to boost the chances of Democratic candidate Kamala Harris.
As reported by The Midwesterner, “West’s removal is significant in that Donald Trump was leading Kamala Harris by two points — 45% to 43% — in a recent AARP poll that included West. A head-to-head match-up — without third-party candidates — Trump and Harris are tied, each with 48%.”
Additionally: “Michigan Democrats have tried to use the similar tactics in attempts to block former President Donald Trump and Natural Law Party candidate Robert F. Kennedy from appearing on the ballot this election.”
The debacle isn’t the first time Benson has ignored the law to change election rules for the benefit Democrats.
One week before that, on Aug. 8, Benson attempted to implement this November a Michigan SB 603 law banning election canvassers from conducting investigations of fraud and increases the costs of election recounts. The new law isn’t scheduled to go into effect before December of this year.
“By pushing to implement SB 603 via the rulemaking process before SB 603 becomes effective, the Bureau seeks to adopt rules that directly conflict with current Michigan law,” Luke Bunting, election integrity counsel for the Republican National Committee, wrote in a letter to Benson. “Simply put, the Bureau cannot do through the back door (rulemaking process) what the Legislature declined to accomplish through the front door (immediate effect).”
Sen. Jim Runestad, R-White Lake, agreed with Bunting in harsher tones.
In a statement, Runestad said: “If Secretary Benson wants to be a lawmaker, she should run for the House or Senate. Until then, she should wait until bills become law before acting on them. The secretary of state is supposed to follow the state constitution, not bypass it to change election laws at will.”
While never formally endorsing President Joe Biden’s subsequently aborted reelection run, Benson appeared at his infamous “Motown is Joe-town” campaign rally in Detroit on July 12.
“I’m here today with a message to you all: We are in the middle of a battle over the future of our democracy,” Benson said. “The 2024 election is one that will determine that democracy for generations. What I see is a room full of democracy defenders.”
This is how I go to work: very demure, very mindful. pic.twitter.com/j8Jrq1PUAb
— Jocelyn Benson (@JocelynBenson) August 15, 2024
Previously this month, it was revealed the America PAC billionaire Elon Musk created and helped fund is under investigation by Benson’s office for potential state law violations over how the PAC’s website helps folks register to vote.
CNBC alleges “the committee has been acquiring detailed voter information from those living in Michigan and other battleground states after people submit their personal data through a section on the PAC’s website that says ‘register to vote.’”
In a Detroit News oped published last week, Sen. Johnson noted that Benson had no issues when the Rock the Vote campaign did exactly the same thing, citing a press release from the SOS in which she stated: ““Civic groups and other organizations that conduct voter registration drives are doing important work to drive engagement in the democratic process … Giving them access to another tool that allows them to conduct that work efficiently and securely streamlines the process while reducing waste and saving money.”
One major difference between Rock the Vote and America PAC is that Musk’s group raises money for former President Donald Trump.
In May, The Midwesterner reported on Benson’s failure to purge Michigan’s voter rolls. A lawsuit filed that month cites 26,000 deceased residents Benson “has refused to remove from the state’s active voter list, despite an ongoing 2021 lawsuit from the Public Interest Legal Foundation outlining how her inaction violates the National Voter Registration Act of 1993,” resulting in 105% of Michigan’s voting age population being registered to vote.
Sen. Johnson also noted in her interview with The Midwesterner last week that Benson misrepresented Proposal 2 to voters in 2022, saying the then-proposed Constitutional amendment would tighten voter ID restrictions whereas the proposal explicitly states that voter IDs would no longer be required.
Proposal 2 last month sparked a lawsuit wherein: “Petitioners have reason to believe (Proposal 2) resulted in a number of unconstitutional revisions to the Michigan Constitution, and subsequent new election laws, making it impossible for the State of Michigan to guarantee all legally eligible Michigan voters a free, fair, lawful, secure, and transparent election process in the 2024 elections,” the lawsuit reads.
The SOS also had her hand slapped by the Michigan Court of Claims after she issued guidance to 2022 election workers to presume signatures on absentee ballots were correct. The Court’s ruling, however, came to late to apply to votes counted in that election.
The Michigan Supreme Court will soon issue a determination, but it doesn’t look good for Benson.
“Where does the secretary find the authority … to have clerks determine which challenges are permissible such that they don’t even have to be adjudicated, much less recorded for future review by anybody?” Supreme Court Justice David Viviano asked. “In other words, to act as judge, jury and executioner on whatever is designated as ‘impermissible challenges.’”
Benson’s resume prior to her tenure as SOS reflects a highly partisan background that leans heavily toward progressive politics.
Prior to entering Michigan politics, Benson established a reputation as a political activist by founding the Women in Political Activism conference while she was still a student at Wellesley College, serving as a summer associate for the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, and interning for National Public Radio’s Nina Totenberg. Upon graduation from Wellesley, she worked at the hard-left Southern Poverty Law Center prior to earning a law degree from Harvard University.
Between 2004 and 2008, Benson served as a Democratic National Committee and Michigan Democratic Party operative, focusing on elections.
In fact, Benson has been less than coy about her political aspirations after both she and Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer completes their second and final terms as SOS and governor in 2026. As early as September 2023, Benson said she was seriously considering a gubernatorial run.
“A lot of people have talked to me about it, I go to many events and people come up to me and ask me to run, encourage me to run,” she told Fox 2 News. “It is something that I will look closely at with my family.”