Incumbent Jocelyn Benson (D), Kristina Karamo (R), and three others are running for Michigan Secretary of State on November 8, 2022.
A dispute between Benson and former President Donald Trump (R) about the outcome of the 2020 election has brought national attention to this race. According to the Detroit Free Press, “In 2020, Trump blasted Benson’s decision to mail absentee ballot applications to every voter in Michigan during the COVID-19 pandemic, shining a spotlight on her office. She has vigorously defended how the election was administered that year and spoken out against lies and misinformation attacking its legitimacy.”
Benson has served as secretary of state since 2017. She worked with the Democratic National Committee and the Michigan Democratic Party to develop training programs for election law attorneys from 2004 to 2008, and she wrote a book that she says is about the role secretaries of state play in defending democracy. Benson says she is “[c]ommitted to the nonpartisan operation of the Secretary of State’s Office” and says she “transformed its operations to provide faster and more convenient service for every Michigander…while ensuring that elections are free, fair, secure and accurate, and fighting to protect voting rights for all Michigan voters whether Republicans, Democrats or Independents.”
