Michigan is a national tragedy. The state’s household income has plummeted to 40th in the nation from 16th and now sits 13% below the national average. Six out of every 10 jobs fail to pay what is generally considered a middle-class wage. Unless the trend is reversed, Michigan is on track to rank 48th, ahead of only Alabama and Mississippi.
Yet according to polling cited by Detroit News columnist Nolan Finley, only 23% of likely voters understand how far Michigan has fallen. Nearly two-thirds believe the state’s economic standing has improved or remained unchanged.
Michiganders have suffered from poor and disconnected leadership for years and, in the case of two-term governor Gretchen Whitmer, a seeming disdain for their concerns. At a recent groundbreaking for a massive AI data center near Ann Arbor that residents didn’t want, Whitmer was caught on a hot microphone telling Oracle executive Clay Magouyrk, “We’re used to people saying no and doing it anyway.”
The Whitmer administration spearheaded a Ford electric battery plant in a rural area that residents didn’t want and that has since been scaled back despite the destruction of acres of fertile farmland and century-old trees. The plant was granted $1.7 billion in subsidies in 2023 and was later deemed the “Worst Economic Deal of the Year” by a watchdog group.
Future governor
Term limits prevent Whitmer from running again, and with former Detroit mayor Mike Duggan leaving the race as an independent, the Democratic nominee is expected to prevail in November. Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson has a commanding lead heading into the August primary and seems likely to inhabit the governor’s mansion in Lansing when Whitmer moves out.
Benson is wicked smart and possesses the telegenic looks and poise the corporate media prefers over a policy wonk with thoughtful ideas. A Harvard Law School graduate, Benson moved to Michigan to clerk for the legendary Judge Damon Keith before joining the faculty at Wayne State University Law School. At age 36, she became the youngest woman in American history to serve as dean of a top-100 accredited law school.
Benson’s life story would make a compelling mockumentary about modern progressive politics and those who cynically and successfully exploit them. She presents herself as a working mother balancing a household budget, a champion of organized labor, a scourge of powerful interests and a politician willing to stand up to the billionaire class.
The actual Jocelyn Benson bears little resemblance to the political product being marketed to Michigan voters.
Billionaire ties
Benson and her husband have benefited financially from their ties to Trump-supporting billionaire and Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross, whose fortune Bloomberg estimates at nearly $16 billion. If Stephen Ross occupied the same place in a Republican candidate’s orbit that he occupies in Benson’s, Democrats would certainly regard the relationship as disqualifying.
Benson has become embroiled in a legion of other controversies, some of which are still unfolding.
AI Data Centers
Building environmentally harmful and energy-sapping AI data centers in small communities that don’t want them?
Benson’s husband, Ryan Friedrichs, a wealthy executive who joined Ross’ Related Companies after serving in former mayor Mike Duggan’s administration, potentially stands to make as much as $70 million for helping spearhead a $56 billion complex in Saline Township near Ann Arbor. The project is so massive that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman attended the groundbreaking and declared, “This could very well turn into the site where cancer gets cured.”
Benson has enthusiastically embraced the project, declaring that “bringing the jobs of tomorrow to Michigan and protecting our environment can and must go hand in hand.”
The economics of data centers tell a different story.
A 2026 analysis of Virginia’s data center industry found that the facilities generate just one permanent job for every $13 million invested. Once construction crews leave, a typical 250,000-square-foot data center often operates with fewer than 50 full-time employees. Brookings Institution researchers have similarly noted that data centers create fewer jobs than industry advocates claim.
Friedrichs registered as a Michigan lobbyist less than two days before the Michigan Legislature voted to allocate $100 million for the Detroit Center for Innovation, Ross’ pet project that he initially said he would fund entirely. According to Crain’s Detroit Business, the earmark amounted to roughly $10 for every person in the state.
Benson ran for office vowing to reform Michigan’s lobbying laws. Friedrichs previously served as the City of Detroit’s chief development officer. He was one of three senior staffers disciplined by the city following a probe by Detroit’s Office of Inspector General that found Duggan “unilaterally” directed city resources toward assisting the nonprofit Make Your Date, which was led by a woman Duggan subsequently married.
SPLC ties
Then there are Benson’s ties to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), which was recently indicted on 11 counts of wire fraud, false statements to a federally insured bank and conspiracy to commit money laundering. According to a Department of Justice press release announcing the charges, prosecutors allege the SPLC secretly funneled more than $3 million in donor funds to individuals associated with violent extremist groups, including the Ku Klux Klan, Aryan Nations affiliates and the National Socialist Party of America.
Announcing the indictment, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said the SPLC was “manufacturing racism to justify its existence.”
The SPLC long served as a dial-a-quote service to further the corporate media’s agenda to smear conservative organizations and individuals as racists. Among its targets was Dr. Ben Carson, the famed Black pediatric neurosurgeon who grew up in Detroit and later served as Secretary of U.S. Housing and Urban Development during President Trump’s first term. In 2014, the SPLC placed Carson on its “Extremist Files” list because of his positions on gay marriage and other issues.
Benson moved to Montgomery, Alabama, after graduating from elite Wellesley College in the late 1990s, where she worked as an undercover researcher and investigator. According to a profile in The 19th, a publication focused on gender, politics, policy and power, Benson posed as a freelance journalist to uncover and expose the plans of white supremacist leaders and groups.
Professional journalism organizations, including the Society of Professional Journalists, explicitly state that a reporter’s primary duty is to be honest and transparent. Misrepresenting oneself or using deception to gather information is regarded as a major ethical violation.
The violation is even more severe when someone poses as a journalist while working for a political advocacy group like the SPLC. When non-journalists masquerade as reporters, it actively damages the credibility of legitimate, independent journalists who rely on their professional identity to safely gain access to sources and conflict zones.
Ceremonial SPLC directorship
From 2014 to 2018, Benson served as a director of the SPLC. Benson now says her SPLC directorship was “mostly ceremonial,” despite the role being included in numerous biographies. The SPLC at the time was among the most influential and best-funded political advocacy organizations in America.
State Rep. Rachelle Smit, a Republican who last month spearheaded passage of a House resolution demanding Benson voluntarily release any information in her possession related to the SPLC’s operations, said lawmakers have an obligation to seek answers.
“If the person charged with operating our elections fairly for all Michiganders stands accused of leading an organization funneling money to hate groups like the KKK, lawmakers must demand accountability,” Smit said.
Combating racism in sports
Before running for Secretary of State, Benson served as CEO of the Ross Initiative in Sports for Equality (RISE), a nonprofit founded by Ross that “educates and empowers the sports community to eliminate racial discrimination, champion social justice and improve race relations.”
Despite RISE’s mission, former Dolphins coach Brian Flores, who is Black, previously alleged that Ross attempted to incentivize him to “tank,” or purposely lose games, shortly after he was hired in 2019, with Ross allegedly offering Flores $100,000 for every loss that season. Flores says that as the team won games late in the season, Dolphins general manager Chris Grier told him Ross was “mad” that the on-field success was “compromising [the team’s] draft position.”
The NFL investigated Flores’ claim and determined that Ross was only “joking” when he made the offer. Nevertheless, Ross and the Dolphins faced NFL disciplinary action, including the loss of the 2023 first-round draft pick, for violations the league said compromised the integrity of the game.
Discrimination lawsuit
Benson and her Secretary of State staff are facing a civil rights lawsuit by three current employees and one former employee, all of whom are Black. The plaintiffs allege that the Michigan Department of State maintains a widespread, well-known pattern of unlawful racial discrimination and retaliation.
Backed by affidavits from former high-ranking department officials, the lawsuit charges that white managers subjectively weaponize unwritten and poorly articulated workplace guidelines to favor white staff while penalizing African American employees.
While the allegations have yet to be proven in court, it is hardly a good look for a former director of the SPLC, whose mandate is combating white supremacy, to be sued for alleged discrimination by Black employees.
Fiercely anti-union
Ross and his Related Companies have faced allegations of fierce anti-union activity, including dismantling union exclusivity at its crown jewel Hudson Yards development in New York.
When janitorial and maintenance workers at three of Related’s upscale Equinox gym locations in San Francisco voted to unionize under SEIU Local 87, management launched a fierce, multi-year campaign to stall the effort, tying up the union’s victory with exhaustive legal objections and flatly refusing to come to the negotiating table.
Equinox and SoulCycle, both owned by Related Companies, also faced calls for a boycott in 2019 after Ross hosted a lavish, high-dollar reelection fundraiser for Donald Trump at his Hamptons estate.
One might expect those activities to trouble UAW president Shawn Fain, whose public persona is built around fighting billionaires, corporate power and anti-union employers. Instead, the UAW just endorsed Benson’s gubernatorial campaign despite her family’s close financial ties to Ross and Related Companies.
Violating campaign finance rules
Benson’s activities have even been called out by Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, whom Trump years ago aptly derided as “Do Nothing Dana.”
Nessel’s office in 2025 determined that Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson violated the state’s campaign finance law on the day she announced her gubernatorial bid. According to a resolution letter from Joshua Booth, chief of the opinions division, Benson illegally used public resources by hosting her January 22 campaign press conference inside the lobby of the state-owned Richard H. Austin Building.
Nessel said she lacks the power to take any action.
Assurances for everything
Benson, of course, has an answer and assurances for everything. Her office denied the racial discrimination allegations, saying, “we will vigorously defend this case in court and continue to operate at the highest standards of transparency, ethics, and professionalism.”
The Michigan media hasn’t made an issue of Benson and her husband’s ties to Ross, a relationship that likely has made the couple millionaires.
Benson is so controversial that even her sartorial accessories seemingly undermine her populist image.
The handbag
A publication called The Midwesterner spotted Benson at the Mackinac Policy Conference carrying a handbag that one might reasonably mistake for a Hermès Epsom Mini Kelly Sellier 20, which can fetch more than $30,000 used, according to Fashionphile.com.
Alyssa Bradley, Benson’s spokeswoman, insisted Benson bought the bag for $60 “from a small business on Mackinac Island,” but notably did not identify the store selling such elegant accessories in a tourist town known for its hot fudge and Michigan-branded knickknacks. In denying the speculation, Bradley channeled her inner Donald Trump and delivered one of his trademark media putdowns.
“If y’all want to be considered real journalists, try reaching out for comment before publishing a story based on a random person’s guesswork,” Bradley said.
Whether Benson’s handbag cost $60 or $30,000 is ultimately beside the point.
The populist image Benson has cultivated with Michigan voters is as inauthentic as her supposed handbag.
Michiganders have spent decades mistaking political performance for leadership. The results are visible in the state’s collapsing economic standing, shrinking middle class and growing dependence on taxpayer subsidies to attract projects that too often fail to deliver on their promises.
If Benson becomes governor, there is little reason to expect that trajectory to change.