Attorney General Dana Nessel is the most dangerous Democrat in Michigan. But these days her fangs are mostly bared at her own team. If things keep up, there won’t be a sequel to Charlie’s Angels.
With Gov. Gretchen Whitmer a lame duck and Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson stumbling in her attempt to replace Whitmer, Nessel has managed to give bad headlines to both.
Last week, the AG’s office raided the Michigan Economic Development Corporation and a “private Farmington Hills residence.” News reports suggest the raid owes to Nessel’s investigation of the corporation for a $20 million grant to an organization controlled by Fay Beydoun, a Democrat donor.
Beydoun’s organization then bought a $45,000 coffee maker. That’s “economic development” for the retailer, perhaps. But it’s not the type of broad-based benefit you’d expect when all 10 million men, women, and children of Michigan are forced to give $2 to a single organization.
Where did the money go? How many jobs were created? Were any jobs created? Or is this a Kwame Kilpatrick-style friends-and-family plan?
With Nessel’s investigation, the Lansing corporate welfare consensus is facing its first true threat in two decades.
The consensus took root under Gov. Jennifer Granholm and continues to this day. Talk to the people who run Michigan and they’d tell you with a straight face that handing out bags of cash is the best way to lure businesses to come here or expand.
The Mackinac Center found that corporate welfare draws headlines that don’t match reality. From 2000 to 2020, only 9% of the jobs attached to corporate welfare handouts actually materialized.
Doing nothing at all would have saved billions of taxpayer dollars—but then, who would take credit for companies doing business in Michigan?
The arrangement works fine for Official Lansing as long as the consensus remains true, that what’s happening is economic development and not the friends-and-family plan, and not outright fraud.
The raid took place while Whitmer was traveling to the Land Down Under, supposedly to bring back jobs to Michigan. Those travels, and who pays for them, and what those benefactors get in return, should warrant further scrutiny. If this is the beginning of something, and not already the zenith, Nessel could complicate Whitmer’s future in politics.
But if Nessel is hurting Whitmer by raiding her agencies, she hurt Benson by going too soft.
Last year, I covered Donald Trump’s speech at the Livingston County Sheriff’s Office. Democrats screamed bloody murder that Trump would be allowed to use the storage building and filed campaign finance complaints against him for campaigning in a government building. (In May, Benson said Trump had committed no violation.)
Six months later, Benson did the same thing to launch her campaign—except she held her press conference in her own Department of State building.
Benson used the legitimacy of her current role, and the taxpayer-funded office that comes with it, to argue for a promotion. It’s as inappropriate as lawmakers campaigning at the Capitol.
The difference is, lawmakers know better, and do better. Benson decided that she makes the rules and can break them without consequence.
When Nessel declined to punish Benson and said the law left her no recourse, she wasn’t doing Benson any favors.
Had Benson been punished, it would have shown Michigan that Nessel does not play favorites, and that her friends and colleagues are as subject to the laws of the land as anyone else.
No-billing the Benson violation sent the message that Benson is getting preferential treatment.
But the ruling only raised more questions. Among them: What good is a warning, if the AG has no ability to punish violators? What good is a bark, if there can be no bite?
Back in August 2022, at the Michigan Democratic Convention, the girlboss trio struck the Charlie’s Angels pose. They were smiling. They were confident. They were together, and in November, they would win together.
Going into 2026, it’s every girlboss for herself. With Whitmer transitioning to an influencer and Benson angling for the governor’s office, Nessel has no next move.
Her time in power will end soon, but she is no lame duck.
With nothing to run for and nothing to lose, Dana Nessel is the most dangerous Democrat in Michigan.
James David Dickson is host of the Enjoyer Podcast. Join him in conversation on X @downi75.
