The Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) has been paying Mike Duggan’s campaign advisor, Alexis Wiley, since at least February 2023 for multiple public relations projects—including crisis communications for the agency that Attorney General Dana Nessel’s office just raided.
The MEDC has been under fire for awarding a $20 million grant to Global Link International, a newly created nonprofit led by Whitmer donor Fay Beydoun. The grant is now the subject of a criminal investigation by Nessel, who recently executed search warrants at MEDC’s office and Beydoun’s residence.
In May 2024, weeks after The Detroit News first publicly reported Nessel’s investigation into MEDC’s $20 million grant to Global Link—including revelations that Beydoun used the funds to purchase a $4,500 coffee maker and was paying herself a $550,000 salary—the MEDC signed a new contract with Wiley’s firm, agreeing to pay $52,000 for “crisis communications and broad media relations.”
The contract’s scope of work included:
The contract was signed by MEDC’s Chief General Counsel Linda Asciutto, an attorney who “acted to conceal evidence,” according to state investigators.
According to contracts obtained by Michigan Enjoyer under the Freedom of Information Act, Wiley and her firm, Moment Strategies, were initially retained in 2023 for $109,000 to promote Michigan megasites. A series of amendments through 2024 show her expanding role and pay with the organization, including $15,000 per month with the Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity—the state department which the MEDC falls under—for training, marketing, and development, and a $55,000 payment to work on Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s Growing Michigan Together Council.
In a Detroit News story earlier this year, longtime Democrat-turned-”Independent” gubernatorial candidate Mike Duggan touted, “Alexis Wiley is the best message person in the state,” when bragging about his campaign team that included her and his son, Ed Duggan, who managed former Vice President Kamala Harris’s failed campaign against Donald Trump in 2024.
The Wiley hire is raising eyebrows across Lansing, fueling concerns that MEDC wasn’t just managing a PR crisis but also circling the wagons. By bringing in Mayor Mike Duggan’s former chief of staff and current campaign adviser to run damage control, it seems the state may have blurred the line between public service and political protection, using taxpayer dollars to shield Whitmer allies from deeper scrutiny.
Duggan is no stranger to controversy, nor is Wiley—both having weathered multiple investigations during Duggan’s time as Detroit mayor.
In 2020, an investigation by Detroit’s Office of Inspector General found that Wiley, then Duggan’s chief of staff, ordered the deletion of city emails related to the controversial “Make Your Date” prenatal program—a nonprofit run by Duggan’s former mistress, now wife, Dr. Sonia Hassan.
Ryan Friedrichs, who is married to Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, was then Director of the Office of Development and Grants for Duggan and carried out Wiley’s directive by instructing staff through his deputy to remove the emails, effectively helping to shield the administration from media scrutiny. Friedrichs later left Duggan’s office to join a company affiliated with billionaire Stephen Ross.
Nessel decided not to charge anyone in that scandal, due to “an absence of adequate evidence.”
We’ll soon know how much Duggan is paying Wiley, too, with campaign finance reports due by the end of the month as he runs for governor. That is, if Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson’s campaign finance portal is actually working, which has been hit-or-miss lately.
Hopefully she gets it fixed in time.
Anna Hoffman is a hockey mom of three living in Ann Arbor. Follow her on X @shoesonplease.
