Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson speaks to reporters after launching her campaign for governor in Lansing, Mich., on Jan. 22, 2025. (Photo by Andrew Roth/Michigan Advance)
Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said that her focus if she’s elected governor in 2026 would be on “efficiency and transparency” in state government.
Benson spoke to reporters in Lansing while filing paperwork to officially declare herself as a candidate for the Democratic nomination after announcing her campaign earlier in the day.
She pointed to her work reducing wait times in Secretary of State offices, which she said had been the “poster child of inefficiency” until she took charge of the state’s second-largest agency in 2019 as an example of the type of streamlining she wants to bring to other state agencies.
“I know every single one of our state’s 10.5 million residents have experienced firsthand how I can get things done, listen to residents, transform institutions and make government work well for them,” Benson said.
Benson is the first Democrat to jump into the race to succeed Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who’s term-limited in 2026. Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, a lifelong Democrat, announced last year he’ll run as an independent, thus avoiding a primary fight with Benson. On the GOP side, Senate Minority Leader Aric Nesbitt (R-Porter Twp.) declared his candidacy last week.
My view as governor is that our job will be to stand up to anyone, anywhere, no matter how powerful, and make sure the residents of Michigan feel safe and protected in their homes, in their communities, in their schools, in their workplaces.
– Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson
While Benson said she would do a deep dive into each state agency, she said she especially has her eye on the state’s largest agency: the Department of Health and Human Services.
Benson said there’s currently a disconnect between the policies that Democrats pass and their implementation, causing the effects of the policies to not be fully felt.
She pointed to subsidies for childcare as an example, saying that while as many as 300,000 families should be able to access the subsidies, only 30,000 currently are, saying it’s “because we’re not actually connecting the dots from our policy to how things are administered.”
Benson said state agencies are “led by great people who are trying their best, but oftentimes need more help, support, collaboration and partnership in order to get the job done.”
“I’m an administrator. I know how to get things done, I know how to run institutions, and I come to this campaign, and ultimately to this job, with that background in mind,” Benson said. “That’s why I’ll be able to go to the citizens of Michigan and say, ‘We’ve got these policies, we can get these policies passed and funded, but then we’ve got to deliver and actually meet people where they are.”
Benson said that she would take executive action to voluntarily open the governor’s office to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests — a pledge Whitmer also campaigned on but has, so far, declined to follow through on.
State agencies that are already subject to FOIA requests should create online portals where the results of those requests are publicly accessible, Benson said, an initiative she implemented for the secretary of state’s office.
Benson campaigned for secretary of state in 2018 on a pledge of a “30-minute guarantee” for secretary of state offices.
In launching her campaign for governor, she set a goal for the state on education: She wants to bring Michigan from ranking in the bottom ten nationwide to ranking in the top ten nationwide.
Asked if she would have a punchy slogan like Whitmer’s calls to “Fix the damn roads,” Benson floated “Housing for everyone” as a possibility, saying that there is a “housing crisis” in the state.
“Every conversation is that people want access to higher-paying jobs and lower costs, particularly when it comes to housing,” Benson said.
Benson said she chose to launch her campaign today because it is the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, which she said serves as a “reminder of rights that we have lost over the last several years and rights we’ve got to continue fighting for to make real for every one of our residents.”
She said she also decided to launch her campaign now because Democrats are concerned about the start of the second administration of President Donald Trump.
“My view as governor is that our job will be to stand up to anyone, anywhere, no matter how powerful, and make sure the residents of Michigan feel safe and protected in their homes, in their communities, in their schools, in their workplaces,” Benson said.
The secretary of state said that if Trump asked her to have the Michigan State Police aid in rounding up illegal residents in the state, she would likely decline the request.
“The bottom line is if someone is trying to wrongly rob our citizens and our residents of their rights and freedoms, I’ll be there to stand in the way,” Benson said.
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