The Michigan Republican Party wants voters to know: “The Democrats are cheating.”

A new radio ad from the Great Lakes State’s GOP is exposing how Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson is buying influence with the Michigan Supreme Court, and how that investment is already paying off in 2024.

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The Midwesterner reported last week that Benson’s PAC donated $82,500 to the campaign to reelect Democrat Michigan Supreme Court Justice Kyra Bolden, who has ruled in favor of two major cases involving the Secretary of State.

The radio ad features former President Donald Trump weighing in on Democratic policies, and Michigan GOP Chairman Pete Hoekstra on what that means in Michigan.

“They have open borders, men playing in women’s sports,” Trump said. “With policy like this, nobody can get elected. The only way you can get elected is to cheat and they are really good at it.”

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The one-minute ad turns to the recent decision by the Michigan Supreme Court to uphold Benson’s decision to keep third-party candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. on the presidential ballot, a move widely viewed as beneficial to Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris.

Kennedy sued Benson to be removed from the ballot after dropping out of the presidential race to endorse Trump.

“Michigan’s top election official Jocelyn Benson donated more than $82,000 from her Detroit PAC to Democrat Supreme Court Justice Kyra Harris Bolden,” Hoekstra says in the ad. “Benson then sued to keep Robert Kennedy on the ballot after he had dropped out and endorsed Donald Trump.

“It was Bolden’s Supreme Court that stepped in at the last minute and put RFK on the ballot. The Democrats are cheating.”

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Campaign finance records show Benson’s Michigan Legacy PAC in April gave Bolden $82,500 for her campaign to retain her seat on the state’s highest court, which has the final word on cases involving the Secretary of State.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer appointed Bolden to the Michigan Supreme Court to replace former Chief Justice Bridget McCormack, who retired after nine years on the bench to become CEO of the American Arbitration Association. Bolden was celebrated at the time as the first black woman to serve on the Supreme Court.

Bolden, a former lawmaker, is running against Republican William O’Grady, a longtime circuit court judge in Branch County who has presided over nearly 14,000 criminal and civil cases, according to Bridge Michigan.

The winner will serve the remainder of McCormack’s term through 2028.

In addition to the RFK ruling, Bolden wrote the majority opinion in another case upholding Benson’s election polling guidance for this November’s election.

While the donation, and another of the same amount to Democratic Supreme Court candidate Kimberly Thomas, are not explicitly illegal, attorney David Kallman told The Midwesterner they certainly give an “appearance of impropriety.”

Brad Smith, law professor at Capital University Law School in Ohio, offered a similar take to The Detroit News.

“I think there would be an ethical question for the judge and there’d probably be an ethical question for the secretary of state side as well,” Smith said.

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“Whether it’s illegal is a different question,” he said. “But there are a lot of things that aren’t illegal or even exact violations of an ethical code that voters might want to take into account.”

The donations to Bolden and Thomas are among scores of others from Benson’s PAC that also include about $400,000 in donations to Democratic state House candidates and others running for judicial posts.

“It calls into question Benson’s claim to run her office in a bipartisan manner,” wrote Kaitlyn Buss, assistant editorial page editor for The News. “Worse, it fuels growing voter mistrust in the integrity and impartiality of the electoral process.”

Others have called out Benson’s apparent political bias in her use of federal Small Business Administration and Veterans Affairs sites to register voters in Democratic areas of the state, and a similar approach to youth voter turnout.

Years ago, in Benson’s first failed campaign for secretary of state, the former “hate crimes” investigator for the discredited Southern Poverty Law Center argued on her campaign website “our Secretary of State must operate the office in a nonpartisan manner.”

“That’s why upon taking office I will take an Oath of Nonpartisanship, pledging to the citizens of Michigan a neutral and nonpartisan administration,” the website read. “That means you won’t find me co-chairing any campaigns or endorsing any candidates in elections which I serve as the final certifier of election results.”

In November 2023, Benson endorsed Adam Hollier in his unsuccessful bid to challenge first-term Congressman Shri Thanedar, D-Detroit.

Benson’s PAC has not donated to a single Republican since it launched in July 2023 with the promise to support “pro-democracy” candidates and initiatives. Political observers believe Benson is preparing to run for the Democratic Party nomination to replace Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 2026.