“Jocelyn Benson’s Approach to Good Government: Get Out of the Way Unless You’re Needed”
Benson: “We can transform seemingly entrenched, broken systems and make them actually work well for people.”
Ahead of the Michigan Democratic Party’s endorsement convention this weekend, the Michigan Advance highlighted gubernatorial candidate Jocelyn Benson’s legacy as Secretary of State, an office she reshaped into a national model for saving people time and money. In the past seven years, Benson slashed wait times, opened over 150 self-service stations across the state, and took Michigan from #31 in the country to #2 for election integrity and voter access. Jocelyn will take that same transformational approach as governor, using every tool at her disposal to make Michigan an easier, more affordable place to live and thrive.
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Michigan Advance: Jocelyn Benson’s approach to good government: Get out of the way unless you’re needed
[Katherine Dailey, 04/14/2026]
As she seeks to be Michigan’s next governor, Jocelyn Benson’s main takeaway from her time as secretary of state is that government needs to show up when it’s needed — and needs to get out of the way when it’s not.
“I say that at a time where it kind of feels like, especially at the federal level, government is showing up everywhere we don’t want it and nowhere we actually need it,” Benson said in an interview with the Michigan Advance.
Throughout her campaign, Benson has leaned heavily on her time running the Michigan Department of State to demonstrate her fitness to lead the state as governor — including efficiency reforms to motor vehicle offices throughout the state, and as her experience managing elections for the last seven years.
“As secretary of state I’ve actually shown that we can flip that when it comes to, even as I did, inheriting a broken bureaucracy,” she said. “We can transform seemingly entrenched, broken systems and make them actually work well for people.”
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One question for whoever sits in the governor’s office in 2027 will be how to manage the state’s relationship with the federal government and President Donald Trump. Benson said that she believes it’s “really important that governors be truth tellers to him” in understanding the economic impacts of federal policy on Michiganders.
“Working with the federal government is critical to be able to achieve those transformational reforms that we want to bring to our state,” she said. “But we also have to be clear and truthful that the vast majority of decisions the Trump administration has made over the last year or so, or a couple of years, have only caused costs to skyrocket in our communities, to be less safe.”
Benson has also repeatedly emphasized that her focus is on driving down costs for Michigan residents, whether that’s combatting federal policy or rising prices from corporations. That includes a package of energy affordability policies announced on Friday — including limits on utility rate hikes and protections against utility shutoffs for overdue bills.
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That all boils down to making people’s lives easier, Benson said, tuning out political cacophony and helping people see that, while the state government “may not be able to solve all of the world’s problems,” it can work to lower costs and create jobs.
“I’ve done that as Secretary of State even as we navigated noisy political processes under significant and great scrutiny, we’ve still been able to move forward, transform broken systems, and learn along the way how to do that even better, more effectively and efficiently the next round,” she said. “And that’s certainly, that’s the lesson I’ll take with me to the governor’s office.”