Jocelyn Benson (courtesy of Jocelyn Benson for Governor)

MARQUETTE — Jocelyn Benson, Michigan’s current secretary of state, is one of the many candidates who us running for governor in the 2026 election.

Benson has served as the secretary of state since 2019, a position preceded by her career surrounding social justice work and public service. She’s worked with investigations into domestic terrorist cells, studied international links between modern white supremacist and Neo-Nazi movements, and was the youngest woman to lead an accredited law school in American history when she was appointed dean of the Wayne State University Law School at age 35. She’s decided to run for governor in order to ensure that state departments and agencies can operate effectively while providing the best service to the public, building the state to be someplace where people and their children wish to stay and live their lives, and further grow economic prosperity in the Upper Peninsula.

“As I’ve looked around to other agencies in state government, particularly our Health and Human Services agency, but many others as well, it pains me to see them often operating inefficiently or with a lot of red tape or other types of challenges,” Benson shared. “What I’ve loved most about my job is also what has spurred me to be Michigan’s next governor, because I very much want every agency to work and serve the public as effectively as ours does.”

Benson says that her campaign is based on traveling around the state and helping to solve problems alongside the people she serves, taking the time to address the different needs of each community and tackling the high cost of living that’s affecting the state.

“What I’ve seen across the time I’ve been in office is how uniquely diverse different communities in our state are and often times, we have a one-size-fits-all governance approach that doesn’t really work when you consider the local flavor, the local needs of different communities, not just in the U.P. but on the upper east side of the state, and the sunrise side facing Lake Huron or the west side of the state with Lake Michigan and all the rural areas in between,” explained Benson. “I’ve got a unique understanding – having served this state and campaigned around the state for the better part of almost two decades – of the unique needs of different communities…secondly, what I’ve really seen, especially now as I’ve been traveling and listening…is that people are struggling. Struggling to be able to pay (for), to buy a home in the community they want to live in, struggling to be able to heat that home and wondering if the air they breathe is going to be clean or the water they drink is going to be safe and trying to afford childcare and the cost of healthcare continues to rise. The cost of living in our state is rising astronomically while wages stay stagnant, and that’s causing not just a lot of pain and challenges, but a number of people, when they see our government officials not doing anything about that, feel unheard and unseen. I think that’s particularly acute in parts of the U.P. that I visited.”

If elected as governor, Benson plans to tackle problems facing the rural U.P. and also focus on them across the state, such as access to healthcare and emergency services, connections to options and ensuring high quality services in the education system, and access to mental health support.

“Affordability of everything is going to be our North Star while the cost of living continues to rise, but in ensuring Michigan’s the best place to raise a family and call home, making sure (the) education system is top shelf second-to-none, as opposed to (being) at the bottom of too many metrics, and then nothing matters if you don’t have access to quality care at every age in your life, and so making sure healthcare is…accessible and patient-driven care is real for folks all around our state will be critical to me,” said Benson. “I’m the daughter of special education teachers as well, so making sure everyone who has needs has access to mental health support (and) other types of needs to be active members of our economy and our community will be something that’s top of mind for me, no matter where I visit in the state.”

Key messages that Benson wants people to take away from her campaign include that listening is a way to ensure people feel seen and heard, and governmental officials are supposed to solve problems and alleviate struggles alongside the people they serve. She wishes to preserve the state as somewhere where people can invest and call home without getting in the way of what makes Michigan beautiful in the first place.

“Marquette and the U.P., I have personal ties here, having gotten engaged on Isle Royale and spending many parts of the year, not just summers at my family’s cabin here. Whether it’s celebrating the holidays or coming up here in February for the (dog sled) races or I was even up here this past January meeting with folks, I, as governor, I’ll be an active presence in the Upper Peninsula just as I have as secretary of state and as a proud Michigander. It’s really important to me that the state and Yoopers have a governor who is present in prioritizing the needs of this unique area of our state, and I’ll certainly do that,” Benson concluded.

More information on Jocelyn’s gubernatorial campaign can be found on her website at jocelynbenson.com.

Abby LaForest can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 548. Her email address is alaforest@miningjournal.net.