Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson’s gubernatorial campaign launch has been tough to watch.
The Democrat officially announced her bid for the top job in Lansing last week after accidentally spilling the beans on social media and publishing her campaign fundraising arm the night before.
She also appears to have illegally used public resources while making the announcement by holding her press conference in the lobby of a state-owned building. The Michigan Campaign Finance Act prohibits government officials from using “equipment, supplies, personnel, funds, or other public resources,” including buildings, “to make a contribution or expenditure” to a political campaign.
When confronted about the alleged violation, Benson all but admitted she wasn’t aware of the rule and insisted she was just trying to protect reporters from “frostbite”—as if she couldn’t have found a different, privately owned building to gaggle in.
Benson’s next mistake was to solicit a Hollywood endorsement from, of all people, George Takei. Siccing the elderly “Star Trek” actor on Michiganders would have been bad enough, but Takei’s vote of confidence was made even worse by the fact that he clearly doesn’t know who Benson is or where she’s from.
“I am excited to endorse Jocelyn Benson for Governor of Minnesota,” he wrote in the post. “We share a passion for marathon running. Just as she has conquered the miles, I am confident she will tackle the challenges facing Minnesota with the same determination and spirit she exhibits as Minnesota’s Secretary of State.”

Oops!
Benson is as out-of-touch with Michigan as Takei is, as a brief review of her career proves. While running for Secretary of State in 2018, for example, Benson simultaneously collected a $300,000 salary to run billionaire Stephen Ross’s “anti-racist” nonprofit, the Ross Initiative for Sports Equality (RISE). Benson’s goal at RISE was to increase social justice activism in professional athletics and “improve race relations” by constantly griping about a race relations crisis that was almost entirely manufactured by… people like Benson.
Benson even launched a program that targeted high school and college athletes and trained them on how to spot “implicit bias” and “micro-aggressions.” She also led an initiative pressuring fans at sporting events to take a pledge to “stand up against racism.”
None of this should come as a surprise, given that Benson’s academic background includes an Oxford master’s degree based on her research “into the sociological implications of white supremacy and neo-Nazism.”
Benson’s views on gender are just as out there. After being tasked with leading the state’s Task Force on Women in Sports by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 2020, Benson made it clear that elevating transgender athletes was a top priority for the commission. “We’ve done site visits with a number of colleges, and having conversations with female athletes, or female athletes who are trans or identify with the LGBT community, the lack of support they receive is compounded,” Benson said. “They feel isolated not just by their gender, but also because of their sexual orientation.”
Though Benson has not explicitly said she supports allowing transgender athletes to compete in women’s sports, it’s hardly unfair to assume she does. For instance, as secretary of state, Benson reversed a rule requiring an individual’s sex designation on his driver’s license or identification card to match his birth certificate, passport, or some other government document. She also added a “non-binary” “X” gender-marker option to Michigan’s state identification system in 2021.
In short, Benson’s views on the cultural issues of the day are right in line with the Democratic Party’s far-left flank. She’s largely been able to downplay this fact by spending her tenure as secretary of state talking about obscure topics like “democracy” and “voting rights,” but the job she’s asking for now is going to require a bit more honesty—or, to use one of her favorite words, transparency.
After all, Michigan’s voters just thoroughly rejected Benson’s form of leftism at the ballot box. There’s simply no more appetite for the divisive racial and sexual agenda Benson has spent her entire career peddling.
Michiganders likely will have to remind her of that come 2026. But who knows? Given Benson’s first week on the campaign trail, it seems she’s doing a pretty good job of running her campaign into the ground on her own.
Kaylee McGhee White is editor-in-chief of Independent Women Features, a Steamboat Institute media fellow, and a columnist for Michigan Enjoyer. Follow her on X @KayleeDMcGhee.