Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson visited another Democratic stronghold this week in her campaign to boost youth voter turnout ahead of the November election.

Benson held a roundtable in Lansing on Thursday to encourage eligible voters between the ages of 18 and 29 to register to vote, following a series of similar events in Detroit, Flint, Grand Rapids, Marquette, Traverse City, Highland Park, and Battle Creek – all areas that voted overwhelmingly for President Joe Biden in 2020.

“We try to bring in people who represent educational systems, K-12 as well as the collegiate level, and also community organizations that are serving folks who either may not be in school or may be in the workforce,” Benson said. “Leaders of apprenticeship programs as well, whether it’s corporations or unions helping us to bring their employees or members to bear on these discussions is important too.”

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Some of the organizations Benson has partnered with to promote the youth vote in Democratic areas include Black Voters Matter, the Michigan Department of State Collegiate Student Advisory Task Force, NAACP Detroit, League of Women Voters, APIA Vote, and other decidedly left-leaning groups.

“It’s really important to us to meet people where they are and hear from young people directly so that no matter who they choose to vote for, they have all the tools they need to participate,” Benson told WZMQ. “It’s been really inspiring to see how many organizations are out there genuinely committed to this work, and my hope is that we can collectively keep leading the nation and youthful turnout, but move the needle even more to see more young people participating.”

The effort, launched earlier this year following polling that showed former President Donald Trump with an advantage among young voters, is framed as a way to engage millions of teens who will become eligible to vote in 2024. A report from Tufts University in October estimated 8 million youth became eligible to vote since the 2022 midterms, for a total of 41 million Gen Z voters in 2024.

“Young people in particular in certain swing states have become a decisive electorate that can change the outcome of the election,” Purvi Patel, a director with the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics, told The Fulcrum.

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Benson told WWMT at a youth outreach event in Battle Creek in May her aim is to “connect with the next generation of voters in our state and help them see their power.”

While that work has involved some outreach to young voters in the Upper Peninsula, the vast majority has focused on courting voters in areas where the overwhelming majority cast ballots for Democrats.

It’s a tactic she’s leveraged in other ways, as well, generating lawsuits from Republicans who claim the Secretary of State is weaponizing tax dollars with the help of the Biden-Harris administration to boost Democrats in November.

The Republican National Committee, Michigan Republican Party, and former President Donald Trump’s campaign sued Benson, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, and state and federal officials in July over voter outreach at Veterans Affairs and Small Business Administration offices that’s concentrated in Democratic areas of Michigan.

That lawsuit followed a letter from Michigan’s Republican delegation that pointed to 39 of 52 scheduled small business voter registration outreach events in Michigan set for “counties with the highest populations of demographics targeted by the Democratic National Committee.

“Additionally, 100 percent of the visits to Michigan from the SBA Administrator and Deputy Administrator have taken place in counties with the highest populations of DNC target demographics,” the letter read.

The letter further cited an undercover video of U.S. Small Business Administration Administrator Isabel Casillas Guzman’s chief of staff in April explaining that a voter outreach event in Montana was purposefully designed to “indirectly campaign for Joe Biden.”

The chief of staff was caught on video saying “anytime we go, we try to visit with a member of Congress if they’re a Democrat … because then we can help them get re-elected as well … the White House was like, yes, go. … Don’t invite the other senator because he’s a Republican. And don’t invite the two members of Congress because they’re Republicans.”

The letter, penned before Vice President Kamala Harris took over Biden’s presidential campaign, contends Benson’s agreement with the SBA for voter outreach is an “apparent and blatant weaponization of taxpayer resources to aid and abet President Biden’s re-election campaign in the state of Michigan.”